Question
I live in Central West Coast of Florida (Venice, Florida) I have three allamanda bushes, which I planted in the summer of 2009.  We had a 2 week period of near freezing temperatures this year, rare for our part of Florida. The allamanda bushes dried up. I have cut down the dried up stems and leaves. I am wondering if I can hope for them to come back now that the weather has warmed up again or are they gone for good?

Answer
Hello Pamela

Allamanda is frost tender, but can survive short periods of just on freezing conditions.  It sounds as though yours really did suffer!

You say that you have cut out the damaged stems already - I would have recommended that you leave them until warmer weather to see if any new growth appeared - but that's OK.  The best advise I can give you now that the weather has warmed up is to watch your Allamanda closely to see if they start to put out any new growth.

If you see new growth, cut back the stems to a healthy, outward facing bud, give the plants a good feed of a general liquid fertilizer and hope for the best!  If these plants are going to survive you should see some signs by about May at the latest.

I really hope you do!  Good luck!

Gill