🏆 Top Ten Flowering Tree Winners of Florida 2026 Record Freeze

These flowering trees had no damage after 3 nights of hard freeze (25F) with NO PROTECTION:

• ✔️ Bauhinia Orchid Trees - several species
• ✔️ Beaucarnea recurvata - Pony Tail
• ✔️ Caesalpinia mexicana, Mexican Bird of Paradise
• ✔️ Callistemon - Bottlebrush
• ✔️ Erythrina - several species
• ✔️ Jacaranda tree
• ✔️ Magnolia figo
• ✔️ Magnolia Little Gem
• ✔️ Tabebuia chrysotricha
• ✔️ Tabebuia impetiginosa

🛒 Explore cold tolerant tropical plants

• 🎥 What tropical plants survived Florida's historic freeze without protection
• 🎥 These Avocados survived 3 nights of 25F hard freeze, Florida Record Freeze

📚 Learn more:

• · Top Ten Fruit Tree Winners of Florida 2026 Record Freeze
• · To trim or not to trim? When and how to trim damaged plants after winter
• · Cold-hardy avocado varieties - what freezing they really survive
• · Cold-hardy avocado survival groups - what the numbers really mean

#Discover #How_to #Trees

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🏆 Top Ten Fruit Tree Winners of Florida 2026 Record Freeze

These fruit trees had no damage after 3 nights of hard freeze (25F) with NO PROTECTION:

• ✔️ Avocado - cold hardy varieties
• ✔️ Eugenias (Grumichama, Rio Grande, Surinam and more)
• ✔️ Feijoa - Pineapple Guava
• ✔️ Jaboticaba
• ✔️ Loquat
• ✔️ Macadamia Nut
• ✔️ Prunus sp - Peaches, Plums, Nectarines
• ✔️ Persimmons
• ✔️ Pomegranate
• ✔️ Psidium littorale - Cattley Guavas

🛒 Explore cold tolerant tropical plants and cold hardy Avocados

• 🎥 What tropical plants survived Florida's historic freeze without protection
• 🎥 These Avocados survived 3 nights of 25F hard freeze, Florida Record Freeze

📚 Learn more:

• · To trim or not to trim? When and how to trim damaged plants after winter
• · Cold-hardy avocado varieties - what freezing they really survive
• · Cold-hardy avocado survival groups - what the numbers really mean

#Discover #How_to #Food_Forest

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What tropical plants survived Florida's historic freeze without protection

In the first week of February 2026, arctic air pushed deep into Florida. For many areas, this was the coldest event in over a century.
We received one question over and over: How did your gardens do?
Top Tropicals Farm in Sebring, Florida is up and running - and this freeze became a real-world hardiness test for tropical and subtropical plants. Below is our initial field report after inspecting established plantings.

📊 Weather data - February 1-6, 2026

Sebring, Florida - 132 years of recorded observations
This was not a light frost. It was prolonged, windy, penetrating hard freeze.

🌡 Minimum temperature: 25F
❄️ Wind chill: 14F
⏳ Duration: 3 nights of 8-10 hour hard freeze
☀️ Daytime temperatures: around 50F for 7 days
🌀 Wind: sustained 20 mph, gusts 40-50 mph

Cold protection



In-ground trees: selected plants covered with frost cloth, especially mango and young avocado trees.
Tender container plants: moved into greenhouses with propane heat above 34F.
Hardy container plants: frost cloth and wind protection only - no plastic
Nutrition support: plants fertilized regularly during the growing season with Green Magic and Sunshine Boosters to maintain vigor and hardiness.

However, the plants listed below had no protection at all.
All were established trees 2-3 years in the ground.

The plants below had NO PROTECTION, established trees 2-3 years old

✅ Survived with no damage:

🍑 Tropical Fruit Trees and Edibles:


Citrus
Loquats
Mulberries
Macadamia Nut
Jaboticabas
Pomegranates
Avocado - cold hardy varieties
Feijoa - Pineapple Guava
Psidium littorale - Cattley Guavas
Eugenias (Grumichama, Rio Grande, Surinam and more)
Olive trees
Bay Leaf (Laurus nobilis)
Fig trees (Ficus carica)
Prunus sp - Peaches, Plums, Nectarines
Persimmons
Rubus (Blackberries) including Tropical Mysore Raspberry
Elderberry (Sambucus)
Yerba Mate - Ilex paraguariensis
Opuntia - Nopal Cactus, Prickly Pear

🌸 Flowering Trees and Shrubs:

Beaucarnea recurvata - Pony Tail
Callistemon - Bottlebrush
Yucca
Tabebuias
Magnolia figo and Little Gem
Calliandra tweedii - Red Powderpuff
Sophora tomentosa
Galphimia gracillis - Thriallis
Acacia trees
Osmanthus fragrans
Abutilon trees
Erythrina - several species
Monkey Ear tree - Enterolobium cyclocarpum
Bauhinia Orchid Trees - several species
Pseudobombax ellipticum - Shaving Brush Tree
Bulnesia arborea- Vera Wood
Caesalpinia mexicana, Mexican Bird of Paradise
Sansevieria - Snake Plant
Foxtail fern - Asparagus densiflorus
Lonicera - several varieties
Jacaranda tree
Eucalyptus
Plumbago Imperial Blue
Philodendron bipinnatum
Gardenias
Gingers (dormant rhizomes)

✳️ Minimal leaf damage only:
(These plants showed light cosmetic damage but no structural injury)

🍑 Tropical Fruit Trees and Edibles:

Glycosmis pentaphylla - Gin Berry
Black sapote tree
Tamarind tree
Syzygiums: Rose Apple and Java Plum

🌸 Flowering Trees and Shrubs:

Pandora vine
Jasminum - several species
Stenocarpus sinuatus - Firewheel Tree
Xanthostemon
Quisqualis indica
Schotia tree
Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage
Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower

🏡 What this means for Florida gardeners

This freeze was a stress test few gardens are prepared for. Yet many species handled 25F, wind, and multi-night freeze conditions without protection.
Choosing proven survivors, planting in smart microclimates, and maintaining strong plant health during the growing season makes a measurable difference.
More updates will follow as full recovery continues - but these early results already help define a stronger plant palette for future winters.

🛒 Explore cold tolerant tropical plants and cold hardy Avocados

📚 Learn more:

• · To trim or not to trim? When and how to trim damaged plants after winter
• · Cold-hardy avocado varieties - what freezing they really survive
• · Cold-hardy avocado survival groups - what the numbers really mean

🎥 These Avocados survived 3 nights of 25F hard freeze, Florida Record Freeze

#Discover #How_to

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

👅 What's inside the Devils Tongue that smells like trouble?

• 👹 Amorphophallus plants - the Voodoo Lilies - are also known as Devil's tongue, Snake Palm, or Elephant Foot Yam, Corpse flower. This plant has a reputation as wicked as its name!
• 👹 Amorphophallus is the largest flower in the world and one of the most exotic bizarre flowers. Amorphophallus titanum is known for its massive size, its flower can reach heights of over 10 feet and blooms only once every few years.
• 👹 Why Corpse flower? Because of the smell that the flower omits, but for only a few hours - just long enough to summon its pollinators, the flies 🐱
After that, the air clears, leaving only the memory of the spectacle.
• 👹 The titan of the group, Amorphophallus titanum, can soar over 10 feet tall. But its cousin in this video, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, is just as fascinating. It rises from a giant underground corm (which is actually edible in Asia), then sends up either one surreal flower or one umbrella-like leaf as big as a small tree.
• 👹 Season after season, it alternates between leaf and bloom, keeping its mysterious cycle alive. Hardy enough to rest through winter dormancy, it can even be grown in a pot at home.

🎥 Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (campanulatus) - Voodoo lily

🛒 Discover more of Amorphophallus - rare and enigmatic plants

📚 Learn more:

Different species of Amorphophallus

Amorphophallus bulbifer

Amorphophallus konjak

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

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