Boerne sits in zone 8b, which sounds gentle until a front comes through and drops us twenty degrees in six hours. Every year people lose plants not because the winter was harsh, but because the first freeze arrived before they were ready for it.
Here is the timeline we work to in the greenhouse, and what it means for plants on your porch.
When the first freeze usually arrives
Around Boerne and the northern Hill Country, the average first freeze lands in the second half of November. San Antonio proper, sitting lower and holding more urban heat, typically runs a week or two later.
Averages are not much use on their own, though. What actually matters here is that we get sharp, early outliers. A front can put us below freezing in early November with two days of warning, and the Hill Country reliably runs several degrees colder overnight than the city does. If you are watching a San Antonio forecast while living in Boerne, you are watching the wrong number.
The timeline
Late September to early October: inspect and plan
Nothing needs to move yet, but this is when you check porch plants for pests. Spider mites, mealybugs and scale ride indoors every autumn and then spread across a whole collection over winter in dry heated air.
Check leaf undersides, leaf joints and the soil surface. Treat anything suspicious now, while you still have warm days and open windows.
Mid to late October: start moving tropicals
Do not wait for frost. Tropical houseplants that summered outside start suffering well before freezing, generally once nights drop into the low fifties. Cold damage below freezing is visible immediately; chill damage above it is slow and easy to miss until the plant is in decline.
Bring them in over a week or two rather than all at once. Going from a bright porch to a dim indoor corner overnight causes a wave of leaf drop.
Early November: everything tender is inside
By now anything you are not prepared to lose should be indoors for the season. Keep new arrivals separate from your existing plants for two weeks, whatever the season, to let any hitchhiking pests show themselves.
Whenever a hard freeze is forecast
- Do not water right before it. Wet roots plus cold is considerably worse than dry roots plus cold.
- Move plants off cold window glass. A leaf touching the pane will be damaged even in a warm room.
- Bring plants fully inside, not into a garage that will also drop below freezing.
- Cover anything that must stay out with frost cloth, not plastic. Plastic touching foliage transfers cold straight to the leaf.
February 2021 is the reason we say all this
That storm took this region into single digits for days and killed plants that had lived happily outdoors for years, including mature landscape specimens. It is not the normal winter here, but it is the reason nobody local treats a freeze warning casually any more.
If something does get frozen
Wait before you cut. Damage takes a week or two to show fully, and pruning early usually removes wood that would have recovered. Move the plant somewhere stable, leave it alone, and assess once growth restarts in spring.
Buying through the cold months
This is where local pickup earns its keep. A tropical plant in a delivery truck during a Texas cold snap is a real risk, and a heat pack only does so much. Collecting in Boerne means the plant goes from our greenhouse into your warm car and into your house, with no depot in between.
For anyone further out we pack with heat packs from now until spring and time shipments so nothing sits over a weekend. See what is ready, or arrange a pickup in Boerne.