This Past Week: The Texas Chill Country

Like most of the rest of the country this past week, the temperatures in the Texas Hill Country have been brutal. As temperatures dropped to well below 20°F for a few nights last week, those in this area who claim to know say it’s been the coldest spell in about fifteen years. And, while 20°F in January may not seem too bad for someone living in Minot, North Dakota, it is around here.

Winter weather in the hill country brings on its own set of unique behaviors among the folks who live here. During a normal winter, when the weather cools, residents perform what is known as the “Hill Country Shuffle.” On those relatively few nights when the temperature comes close to or dips below freezing, folks will shuffle their potted tropical plants inside the house for the night. The next day, with the rising sun, the plants are then shuffled back outside. On the coldest nights during a typical winter, it is not uncommon to see bed sheets thrown over the more delicate plants in gardens and yards.

This past week, however, as an unusually strong arctic chill settled in, extreme measures were needed as people sought to protect their landscapes and the significant investments made in their plants. Along with the so-called “shuffle,” the covering of plants with sheets and freeze blankets, many homeowners and businesses were also wrapping the trunks of smaller palm trees with burlap or other material, and mulching the base of the trees.

Following this cold snap, most of the palms I’ve seen (at least around where I live) appear to have come through the week reasonably well, although, I have seen slight bronzing of the fronds on some of the trees. The exception to this observation is for those trees which never should have been planted around here in the first place.

In our area, we can successfully grow about nine different types of palms, which include, California Fan Palms, Canary Island Date Palms, Date Palms, Mediterranean Fan Palms, Mexican Fan Palms, Pindo Palms, Texas Sabal Palms, Windmill Palms, and Queen Palms. In terms of Cycads, Sago Palms are also abundant. In some rare cases, with the right protection, other palms can be grown. Personally, I’ve had success with Miniature Date Palm Trees, which technically should not grow very well in this area. However, since I grow them right next to the warm house, the micro-climate probably accounts for their survival.

Even in the warmest of winters, there are some types of palms (like Bottle Palms and King Palms) which never make it through. The obvious reason is that they are far too delicate for even for our usually mild winters. And despite this fact, I see people planting them year after year with the same result, very dead trees. Part of the problem lies in the fact that local retailers continue to sell trees which are clearly inappropriate for our climate. Bottle Palms and King Palms will never survive a hill country winter, and the dead trees look awful.

The weather is supposed to warm up this week. This means that the plants inside the house will be shuffled back to the porches, decks, and balconies outside. In the yards and gardens, the sheets, freeze blankets, and trunk wrappings will all be removed from the plants and trees and shuffled back into the house. And, at least for the time being, another “Hill Country Shuffle” has concluded and the Texas Chill Country can once again return to being the Texas Hill Country.

What Hath God Wrought: A Trace Of Snow And The Hill Country Shuffle

It all started yesterday, when I took my shirts to the cleaners. The laundry clerk informed me that my shirts would probably not be ready on Monday, as they normally would be, because of, what he quietly described as, the impending “snow storm.” Now, I’m originally from the north, and an avid weather checker, so I knew that the forecast called for only a trace of snow. I’m not a meteorologist, but I assume that a trace of snow means it's hardly worth mentioning. At any rate, a trace of snow does not constitute a snow storm anymore than a single hair on an upper lip, or a couple of hairs, constitutes any type of mustache.

Snow is rare in the hill country of Texas, as the winters are quite mild. Nevertheless, there was a little wintry precipitation falling from the sky this morning, and, as had been forecasted, it amounted to a trace. Nothing stuck, of course, because there wasn’t enough of anything falling to stick to anything. But, even if there had been, the ground and streets were far too warm for anything to accumulate. In the north, what happened today would not even rise to a “non-event,” in terms of snow. But down here, it was the talk of the town. It was something to behold though, I guess, especially given the fact that my oldest brother, living in Ohio, says it still has not yet snowed this winter where he lives.

The snow aside, there is something out here in the hill country called “The Hill Country Shuffle.” Sometimes it’s called the “Austin Shuffle,” but whatever the name, it means the same thing. On those relatively few winter nights when the temperatures approach or dip below the freezing mark, people grab the sensitive tropical potted plants off their patios and decks and shuffle them into the house. Then, they grab sheets and freeze blankets to cover sensitive plants in the yard. The next morning, when things warm up, the sheets and freeze blankets are pulled off the plants outside. The potted plants inside the house are then shuffled back out to the patios and decks.

As temperatures are supposed to fall below freezing tonight, I did the first part of the Hill Country Shuffle today. I brought the potted split leaf philodendron, hibiscus, and bougainvillea which sit out on my back deck inside the house. I then covered my small citrus trees, along with the hibiscus and bougainvillea plants outside in my garden, with freeze blankets. I was not alone. My neighbors, too, were doing the same thing with their plants. And since the weather forecast for tomorrow, and for at least the foreseeable future, does not indicate any more freezing temperatures, tomorrow my neighbors and I will perform the second part of the shuffle, as we take the plants from our houses back outside, and remove the freeze blankets from our yard plants.

When all is said and done, I do hope my shirts are ready on Monday. The laundry clerk will have a hard time convincing me that our “snow storm” today disrupted the usual and customary pattern of cleaning and adding heavy starch to my shirts.