Make sure you turn off your irrigation system if the forecast
is for a hard freeze and your sprinklers are scheduled to go on.
We forgot during the recent 34 and 28 degree nights and the
resulting ice from the irrigation system damaged our shrubs, trees and
flowers far beyond of our neighbors'. I expect to do lots of pruning to
remove the damaged portions and hope that our garden will come
back in a blaze of glory as in the past. Fingers and toes crossed, please!

According to Tom MacCubbin, Orlando Sentinel garden columnist
(from his column 1/6/08):
Water can be used for cold protection. However, the
water has to be applied uniformly and in sufficient quantities with
continuous coverage during the entire freeze period to be
effective. When a sprinkler system comes on during the freeze and
turns off before the freeze is over, the damage often is severe.
The wet plants are super-cooled and temperatures drop well
below the air temperatures ~ causing stems and leaves to freeze that
normally would not have been affected. Some of the plants that
would have survived had the irrigation system been turned off before
the freeze might even be lost.

It works! Used a couple of handfuls of the acid azalea fertilizer
around the base of each yellowing split-leaf philodendron and
plants greened up and took off growing. Kept a few without fertilizer
as a control and there was a huge difference in the plants. (See news
entry 6/1/07... split-leaf philodendron )