FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Howdy folks! Happy Boxing Day!

I hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is enjoying their transition into dormancy. This is my first dormancy in 5 years and I am always scared of Old Man Winter. Part of me thinks I have a healthy fear but my plants have shown that they are extremely resilient.

What I am trying to say is I completely froze my plants











This actually occurred about a month and a half ago during Polar Vortex 2: More Polarer, and my plants seem mostly unfazed from the ordeal. Some got a bit of red coloration but have not blackened at all.

Nick wrote:What I am trying to say is I completely froze my plants. This actually occurred about a month and a half ago during Polar Vortex 2: More Polarer, and my plants seem mostly unfazed from the ordeal. Some got a bit of red coloration but have not blackened at all.

Last year we had an unusually cold and long weather spell here in southern Oregon. I didn't check the heaters in the greenhouses for a few days because the doors were frozen shut. When I walked by them, I couldn't hear the heaters running and I should have been able to. So finally decided to pop out a panel and there was no heat in two of the greenhouses! Night time temperatures were near 0°F and daytime highs were only in the teens. Everything was frozen solid! Much to my surprise, once I got the heaters going, everything thawed out and the Dionaea and Sarracenia didn't seem to mind being frozen at all. The D. capensis didn't like it much though, as they all died back to just the roots, but did grow back in the spring.

Really cool pictures! But I would definitely have a bit of a freak-out session if I found all my plants frozen.

Not me.... I live two hours from wild VFTs, so I really don't worry.

But nice pictures!

MrsMuscipula wrote:Really cool pictures! But I would definitely have a bit of a freak-out session if I found all my plants frozen.

I definitely freaked out for a little while. Figured I would take some pictures while they looked cool since I thought they would either completely perish or die back significantly.

It's interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to get a really cold-hardy cultivar for people who live where it's colder.

Maybe cross two vfts that were really tough?

katya_dog1 wrote:It's interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to get a really cold-hardy cultivar for people who live where it's colder.

Maybe cross two vfts that were really tough?

The funny thing is that all the VFTs that I managed not to kill over the summer made it through this freeze with minimal issues. I feel it would be a smaller list of cultivars that couldn't take it.

However, I will provide the disclaimer that my experience may have been a total fluke. I have often read that you should avoid sub-freezing temperatures for your plants if you can.

Yeah, definitely. There's only so much those plant cells can handle.

I live in the Midwest, zone 6a, and early this past Autumn we were hit by a week of 20°F. The Dioneae that sit in the garden all summer froze solid before I realized just how cold it had become. The cold didn't faze them a bit! I wouldn't recommend a long period of freeze, periodic freezing won't harm VFT's..............z

Those VFT frosty photos are beautiful. Never really seen them like this before.