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plant killing temperatures
Hello . Just wondered if anyone knew how low is too low. It got to -8 here last night and the low in my conservatory was 1.3. I have pelargonium cuttings in here, sweetpea seedlings and sprouted ranunculus. The ranuncs look a bit miserable. I could bring them into the living room at night but that would be a huge jump in temperature. Any advice?
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Hello oooft
I recently transplanted quite a lot of Pelargoniums into larger pots for an old customer (more of a favour really) ; they're in a cold greenhouse for the winter in rural Lincolnshire ; they appeared fine this morning having only dropped to around 0 C !
Sweetpeas and Ranunculus seedlings not really sure about , but plants are very tolerant . A dramatic temperature fluctuation caused by moving them could induce more of a 'shock to the system' rather than letting them adapt and 'ride the storm' with the recent low temperatures .
If mine I would simply cover them with fleece for the nights and hope for the best .
I take a gamble with my greenhouse every year ; it contains large specimen Aloes , Agaves and several large immovable cacti (rooted in the ground) . Over the years I'm sure they've adapted to low temperatures as they are 'hard-grown' ; (ie full sunshine , fresh air and plenty of water during the summer) ! They are bone dry during the winter months growing in nothing more than granite chippings !
One year we'll get the 1 in 10 winter which will probably finish the lot ; they're too large to move so I have no choice .
Fingers crossed
If your plants are on the windowsill try to move them into the middle of the conservatory. There are bar heaters which are very economical to run that can be used during a really cold snap. Sweet peas are pretty tough but pelargoniums may suffer, especially in damp cold.
Good luck with your fancy plants plants, Paul, i hope you have invested in some fleece for them
Posy, the window ledge advice is great. I wish i had read your reply before going to bed last night. The thermometer showed a low of 0.3 this morning, must've been -10ish outside. I will move the pelargoniums off the sills tonight. I've lost two in my kitchen which was confounding me as there is a radiator in there so it's not too cold. There is lots of steam though so that probably accounts for those deaths. I shall have to move those onto the kitchen counter at night.
I have Pelargoniums in the unheated greenhouse, in the house on a window sill and in a garden bed. It has been very cold some plants in the greebhouse got frosted but not those..
Interestingly the ones in the ground so far, have fared the best and some still are in flower!! But although we have snow currently we are expecting temps of minus 12 by the weekend.. Fleece did not help the plants in the greenhouse oddly.
BLT. My pelargoniums were flowering away fine outdoors in pots and beds and doing fine at -2. Three full days of a high of -4 has done for them though. The pansies, lilies, geums, foxgloves and other assorted lovelies had all flopped over by this morning. Very sad. On the plus side the feeders are absolutely teaming with little hungry birds all eager to feed up on seeds and fats, so there is still some life in the garden. Won't be long until snowdrop time
I heard we arenow going to have minus 10 either tonight or tomorrownight OMG I doubt they will stand that.. It hink I better rig up one of thos mini poly tunnels things in the morning and hope I am not too late fingers crossedpeeps..
MInus 6C in Cheshire when I came home at about .21:30 hrs. these photos were taken about 08:00hrs this morning .
I am pleased with those sedum they look good. The antirrhnums wont look so good when they thaw.
Last edited: 11 December 2017 23:33:21
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