Hardy Tropicals UK

Had our first frost last night, it was a shock to see white roof tops and cars covered this morning especially as we were out past midnight and it didnt seem cold then.
Not sure what temperature we had but I still had ice on the decking at 11.00am, noticed damage to the new growth on one of my lemons but luckily the smaller Citrus plants were put into a cold greenhouse yesterday in readiness for winter.
Just looked at the up coming temps and cold tonight but then back up in double figures so I wont panic just yet.

Last night also caught me out!, my musa basjoo's leaves, which are all planted out have burnt & drooped, slight damage to a large trex, & all the new emerging fronds on dicksonia have burnt & gone brown , our rear garden is so much colder than the front its unbelievable, nothing on the front has been touched. karl.

Same here Karl, at this time of year half of my back garden gets virtually no sun, nothing to burn away a frost.
The front garden always has morning sun thats why Im trying one of my lemons in the ground out front this year, it'll probably defoliate but I want to see how it fights back next year.
I have an Oleander planted out next to it and that was fine last winter whereas the others in the back garden had the usual knocks.

Third frost in october for me. Bananas have been up and potted stuff have all been in the greenhouse for the last fortnight

Forecast even colder for tonight. I'll be putting a blanket over the car windscreen later this evening. Don't fancy scraping at 5am.

escaped a frost last night wasn't cold for long enough havent had a frost yet! iv got all my nanas away safe tho

Must admit to some people, on another similar website, gave me a slap on the legs for mentioning fleece about 3 weeks ago. I was out with the fleece last night though (Bananas are tucked away in the Greenhouse already).
The sky is looking pretty clear tonight and the weather coming from the north may spell for another frost.
To make room in the greenhouse I have taken a Pineapple Guava, Date Palm, 2 Agave and a Nerium Oleander to a new home at Portand Bill, Dorset. I get frosts, where I live, down to about -13c whereas Portland hardly ever gets a frost. The woman who I saw in Portland today said she's never had frost on her back Patio since she's been living there for the last 3 years. I live 40 miles north and the difference is huge.
I once had an Indian Date Palm which is on a campsite just on the south side of Portland.

Here I'm stuck with Yuccas and Mountain Agave's.

Cheers Jerry

I love portland, spent many weeks studying fossils there. Not many tropical plants though.

Lucky enough to escape a frost but the trampoline especially the green plastic sheathing around the edge did have white stuff on it. All Ensete, Musa, Dahlias show no frost damage but time is running out and I dread having to lift Ensete Montbeliardi.

cannondale28 wrote:The woman who I saw in Portland today said she's never had frost on her back Patio since she's been living there for the last 3 years. I live 40 miles north and the difference is huge.
I once had an Indian Date Palm which is on a campsite just on the south side of Portland.

Jerry, Portland can drop below zero but actual frosts on the grass there are rare because the wind is always blowing even during cold spells.

I used to think that it was frost free until the Winter of 2010/11 when I drove over the whole 'island' during one of the coldest days and it was below zero everywhere. Admittedly it was even colder off the island but any thoughts that I had that it was a completely frost free place disappeared on that day.

During that Winter my father in law's washingtonia robusta was severely damaged and only one of it's three trunks survived. (Although it was completely unprotected).

Is your date palm still there? I'll have a look for it next time I'm there

Im all wrapped up here in Nottingham. Currently 6oc but skys are really clear. Glad i started prep early to be honest. It seems colder than normal to me.

The Indian Date Palm is at Cove Holiday Park, south of Easton.
The others are in this lady's garden who does voluntary work for the Town Council plantiny up borders. I won't have much idea where they'll end up. A few doors down they have got an Agave Americana, the size only seen on sunny holidays abroad or in Cornwall. Not too bad and a lot better than north dorset for sure.

Cheers Jerry.

I love Portland, whenever we go to the Weymouth area we always drive there & we went there yesterday before going to Abbotsbury

Portland usually does escape frosts, but in the right set ups it can get almost as cold there as Weymouth. The record low on Portland is a bone chilling -10.4C recorded on January 13th 1987 (in this instance Weymouth was actually slightly warmer with a low of -9.8C) & in 1991 it dropped to -8.3C (with Weymouth dropping to -9.0C). During the last cold winter, 2010/2011, Portland only dropped to -3.2C & Weymouth -4.9C...

It is however much cooler there during the summer, with it rarely getting above 20C. I was there in July & it was 14C & shrouded in sea fog, when Weymouth was sunny & 23C!

I spent all June, july and August 2003 outside on Portland and it was wall to wall sunshine everyday. Perfect.

I was down Portland last week they got some great stones if i could get some on my van Did see some Phoenix canariensis_CIDP and a Butia palm i did notice some Washys had gone

I have seen frost on Portland and I have lived on Portland but the worst thing is the salt wind.
We had a frost here at Wareham saturday night but I was in North Devon, only seen the damage today.