Our tropical nursery hit 28ºF for HOURS.

Did we lose everything?

This hasn't happened since 1989.

37 years ago, a freak arctic blast reached the southern tip of Florida, causing a freeze no one was prepared for. Crops were lost, nurseries devastated, farms and landscapes destroyed. Established trees were frozen to the ground.

This year, a record freeze was forecasted again — and we had no idea what to expect.

Once we heard a freeze was coming, we had just 2 days to pack thousands of plants away, in hopes of sheltering them just enough to keep above freezing.

Every degree of warmth was critical.

We huddled most of our tropical trees into our barn, shade house, trailers, and tool shed. Some even spent the weekend in our office. Blocking the freezing wind and providing a heat source was crucial. I spent hundreds on propane tanks and heaters, hoping my efforts wouldn’t be in vain.

Our veggie plants and bigger trees were SOL — there just wasn’t enough time to save everything.

After tearing the nursery apart and enduring the longest weekend of our lives, it was time to face the damage. It can take up to a week for the damage to be fully visible. I was just hoping we didn’t lose everything. $100k+ in inventory is hard to replace.

It would take years to recover if we were hit hard. All we could do was pray.

Three weeks later, the farm is finally back in order, and the results of Freezemageddon 2026 are in:

Thankfully, we were mostly spared. It seemed our efforts made a difference.

At least by a few degrees — that’s all that mattered.

That being said: The farm doesn’t look the same as it did 3 weeks ago.

Banana, papaya, and tomato plants in our food forest are deep fried. Mango blooms and foliage got cooked. Some trees are almost completely defoliated, while others don’t have a scratch. This freeze clearly separated the weak from the strong.

The nursery did take some losses — but we at least got to choose them.

Longevity spinach and holy basil got flash frozen. Our jaboticaba trees had icicles on them. Thankfully, most of the crops left exposed were either easily replaced, or tough enough to bounce back. Our loquats laughed at the cold!

Many neighbors got it way worse. Some were completely devastated, losing years worth of time and effort in a weekend. Even supposedly “cold hardy” plants suffered dramatically. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

One neighbor recorded 24.4F!

After weeks of cleaning up damage, taking notes, and regrouping, we’re left asking:

How do we move forward?

Will other growers be affected? For how long?

Will we even have a mango season this year?

The answers are mixed. Central Floridians are mostly out of luck. Facebook has been filled with lamenting posts of brown, petrified trees. Morale seems low, but the urge to replant is starting to bubble up. As I write this, we’re getting another weekend cold snap— this time in the usual range (low 40s/high 30s). Experienced growers are shouting “Don’t prune yet!” in an effort to avoid further damage.

Thanks to a tremendous effort from our team, we were able to keep most of our inventory just above the freezing point.  Others weren't so lucky.

Now we sit at a crossroads:

Do we have a big sale to support those who’ve had losses and want to start over?

Do we raise prices, anticipating a shaken supply chain?

Should we keep everything the same, or switch up our growing strategy?

Invest in protective infrastructure, should this happen again?

Get rid of sensitive inventory items and double up on others?

One way or another, we have to move forward.

I feel blessed to have avoided a major loss… but in farming, one thing is certain:

Nature always gets its way.

It’s been 37 years since the last major freeze, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen again next year. And of course, there’s the ever-looming possibility of a hurricane.

A few of our mangos are re-blooming.  What a relief!

Here’s the conclusion.

Challenges are many.

But if we never took risks, we’d never achieve anything worthwhile.

Planting is an act of faith — you believe that tree is going to grow, even though there’s no guarantee. So keep on planting.

That’s our plan, and we’re here to help you do the same.  Let's keep growing, together.

Watch our YouTube video on which trees survived, and which got damaged by the freeze.

Let us know in the comments how Freezemageddon affected you — the good, the bad & the ugly.