Hardiness of Plants

For those of you new to this blog, WELCOME! I will be honest that sometimes I feel that the original goal of this blog shifted slightly as we have been quarantined due to COVID19. But in reality, it hasn’t. The primary goal of Kitchen Weekend was to show the supposed crazy and unique things the Kitchen family is up to regularly (we find it all quite normal). A segment of Kitchen Weekend named “Locryn’s Biology Lessons” was definitely a new development, but probably one of the most important ones to us.

Locryn is our almost three year old son. We are always trying to teach him about the world around him. Do bananas grow on a tree or in the ground? What do birds eat? Is that a moth or a butterfly? Why do the clouds turn black before the rain comes? “Locryn’s Biology Lessons” are some of those discussions.

Today we discussed hardiness, plant hardiness. Hardiness of plants refers to their ability to survive adverse growing conditions. A plant’s ability to tolerate wind, cold, heat, drought, flooding, etc. You usually hear two major groupings: tender and hardy. Tender plants usually cannot handle freezing temperatures; while, hardy plants can.

Tonight in the mid-state of South Carolina, the temperatures are going to drop to 39F. This is obviously not freezing, but I have some very tender plants that prefer not to go below 50F. Locryn’s biology (and manual labor) lesson today was to help identify which of Mom’s potted and hanging plants do not like to be cold. Once identified, some were carried to the side of the house; while, others were carried into our Sunroom for a night indoors. Some of the plants included orchids, staghorn ferns, and air plants.

ENJOY!