The Cover Up

Happy New Years! To ring in 2008, the weather has decided to dip. We are forecasted to have a low of 17 tonight! 13 for tomorrow! And here I thought I lived in warm, tropical Florida. I can't remember the last time we've had a hard freeze like this. It is a complete guess about which plants will make it through the frost and which won't. One of my prized plants is the bird of paradise.

Here is what it looked like this morning:

I knew I'd have to cover it this evening, but it is getting too big for my sheets. So, even though it killed me a little bit, I hacked about 10-12 leaves off the top. The leaves won't survive the frost anyway, and my main goal is to keep the plant alive. So right now it looks like this:

There is a silver lining. I now have lovely table centerpieces: