Here in SC the farms sray the peach trees with water. The ice that deveops creates insulation for the peach blossoms. Don't know if this would apply to you, but maybe. The wind would be a factor and might keep the ice from forming -- somebody else might know better. Covering them somehow is the best insurance.
Pining a few friends that might be able to help!
The wind itself will help stave off freezing some. Depends on the temp and the plant.
water the ground
Shop for new plants in the spring.
Unless you’re talking a hard freeze, the concern would be frost, I’d think. And, the wind should prevent frost.
If you’re still worried, those lawn and leaf bags with pull ties should stay on most landscape plants.
PING for some gardening advice!
Many thanks to Red_Devil 232 for resurrecting an older version of the garden ping list —— My apologies to all I have missed.
Here in Scottsdale/ N Phoenix where I work, we have Fichus trees as well as many other species of plant/trees. We lost some trees a few years back (Couldn’t wait for them to come back, although they probably would have) They had been wetted down with a mister.
I think we’ll just take our chances this time, and a previous poster is correct, the soil is saturated from recent rains. I guess we’ll see.
I’m in Vegas (which gave me 4 inches of snow last week) so I know of which I speak. We have very similar climates normally and very similar species of flora and fawna.
Don’t water. Anything which is wet will freeze. Anything which freezes will die. Moisture is your enemy. Do not water until the freezing it over.
You want to cover any landscaping or irrigation pipes which are above ground. That is your most likely victim of freezing. The water in the pipes will freeze, shrink and pull the gaskets out which causes non-stop overflowing (which could then freeze if it stays cold long enough). Trust me, I’ve seen people with four inches of ice covering their ENTIRE YARD in Las Vegas because their irrigation pipes broke and flooded their yard which then froze into an icerink. You DO NOT want water on the ground or on any plant.
If you have delicate plants, those you can cover. Growers down south in Marana used burlap in the past but now have been synthetic fabrics which are cheaper. Freezing kills fruit. Anything which you need to bear fruit and is in the process of doing so will drop its fruit.
Palm trees, no problem. Mesquite, no problem. Palo Verde, no problem. Most trees, no problem. Leaves will die and fall off but one single freeze won’t do any long term damage.
You need to protect your water lines more than your plants. I spent lots and lots of time just south of your current position and I weathered lots of below freezing winters in the mountains. Nothing overly special was ever needed. Plants take the cold better than people do.
Just make sure you don’t have animals outside who aren’t covered, sheltered well.
Interesting answers, from one end of the spectrum to the other!
Don’t know about jacaranda, but if it gets down to 20, your ficus is probably toast. :( Live on the easternmost coast of NC, and we lost some in this area a few weeks ago, course, we know this is a temp variable place, and we allow for it. They’re mostly houseplants here. If your ficus is moveable, do it. They lose their leaves if a cloud passes over the sun, so I can’t imagine it would survive 20 and wind, altho the wind may help the frost from settling. Covering them/ misting are both good ideas if you can do it. If you use the plastic bags, make sure you uncover them before too late in the day—as soon as you can when it warms up—or you’ll cook them. Sometimes, if the plants get frosted, spraying the frost off before the sun hits them will help keep the leaves from burning.
Good luck.