Rant: My prized orchid collection got hit by a surprise frost in Phoenix

I was so proud of my setup on the back patio, but a freak cold snap last month caught me off guard and turned half my blooms to mush overnight. I tried moving the survivors inside and trimming the dead parts, but I'm still losing a few more each week. Has anyone in a usually warm area dealt with this and saved their plants?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_joseph1d ago

Honestly, that exact thing happened to my jasmine here in Tucson. Tbh I stopped trimming anything for a solid two weeks even if it looked dead, because the cold damage kept spreading. What finally helped was putting a weak fertilizer in my watering can and just sticking to a strict schedule, no extra love. Ngl it felt wrong to ignore the brown parts, but letting the plant figure itself out saved more than I expected.

alex_wilson791d ago

Ignoring the brown parts is the hardest step.

clairen851d ago

That Phoenix cold snap was brutal for tropicals. I lost a mature bougainvillea that had survived for years. Try a diluted seaweed extract spray on the remaining roots, it can help with shock.