Question
Hey guys,

I live in the Philadelphia area where we have been having a tough winter this year. About three weeks ago it finally warmed up enough to bring my temperate CPs (sarracenia, dionaea, and drosera) out of the fridge where they have been all winter, repot them, and put them outside in trays. A couple days ago they finally started showing signs of coming out of dormancy (putting up flower stalks, growing a few new leaves). But last night we had a hard freeze where temperatures went as low as 28 degrees for 7-8 hours overnight. I thought that the plants should be fine and expected to only find some minor icing when I went to check on them this morning, but instead I found that all my containers and water trays had frozen completely solid. Because the plants were just starting to come out of dormancy (and the temps here were almost in the 80s just a few days ago), I'm worried they might not tolerate this freeze very well. Do you think they will make it?

Answer
In most instances, the plants will be fine.  Only time will tell.  The new spring growth might die off, but the plants themselves should survive the freeze if they didn't experience any freeze drying.  For now, bring your plants back inside or cover them with tarp or black plastic to minimize freeze drying.  When the weather goes above freezing, you can bring your plants back out again.  As the weather warms up, look for new growth.  Cut off the growth that was nipped by frost.

As a rule, always pay attention to the weather. If there is a late season frost in the forecast, that's your cue to properly protect your plants.  Watch our monthly video podcast for more reminders about seasonal changes.  You can also subscribe to our monthly newsletter for the text version.


Good growing!
Jacob Farin