5 minute freewrite 3010 prompt bound to fail

This is my post for #freewriters 3010 prompt bound to fail hosted by @mariannewest

I have lived in central Florida on the east coast for almost all of my life. Between the ages of 15 and 21, I lived in other states, it was not my choice to move, and I came back as soon as I could.

We have had cold winters, colder than this one. Our low at my house this month was 24F, but we had wind gusts to 50. The coldest temperature on record for Indian River County is 21F. It was recorded in Vero Beach on January 22, 1985, and there was snow, no snow for us this time, but the west coast had it.

my green striped bamboo
What happened this time? I had never seen such devastation. Plants that I had never seen freeze are brown, even 30 foot high sea grape trees that are 40 years old are all brown.

I was in Home Depot today. I went in through the garden center, and the line at the register was long. Every person in line had a grocery type cart or one of those low flat carts filled with plants. I shook my head as I walked by. I think if they are planted now, they are bound to fail because winter is not over. I came back out of the garden center, and there was another line of people with plants. I hope I am wrong about the cold weather not being over, and as much as we want to see any color except brown, it is the wrong time of year to plant flowering plants.

blackberry bushes I did not know they would freeze.

Cheeries jubilee, avocado, and night blooming jasmine. They were all covered. It did not help.

Bougainvillea was also covered, I feel like crying when I walk my yard.

These bananas were also covered.

I have three Barbados cherry trees, and I put them inside my husband's shed, but it did not help, I guess there was not enough heat in there for them. Luckily, a few months ago, I took cuttings and made two more plants from them, and I had them in my shed with heat, and they look good.

I wish I had taken cuttings from the turban cap hibiscus, maybe it will come back.

I was smart enough to take cuttings from the self polinating dragon fruit and the regular ones. I am sure these are a total lose.

The center stem can be pulled out of some of the arecas. When you can pull the center out of any type of palm, it will die. We put a lot in each pot and are hoping they are not all dead, but they will not be as full as people want to buy. The green in the back is Queen palms, they did alright with the cold.

On the corner is my purple alamanda, my fingers are crossed that it will come back. Like with all the plants, only time will tell.

I did not cover these bananas, I lost two stalks of them.

I do not understand how this guava tree made it without any damage. It is near the house, but so are many other plants that are burnt.

I live on low land, but it does not seem to matter. Everywhere I drive, I see burnt plants. It looks like we had a huge fire that went through and killed everything, but it was not fire, it was the cold.
unfortunately photos are mine