The spathiphyllum was the first plant to show signs of cold damage. Some of the leaves began wilt, then, turn brown. The Chinese Evergreen just to be different, exhibited brown patches on the mature leaves. The newer leaves simply turned yellow. The African violets were the hardest hit. Their leaves were browning and curling, the flower buds went black.

Cold Damage on African violet leaves

To help these poor plants recover required some TLC. First, I cut off and flower buds to help the plants concentrate their energy on recovering instead of blooming. The next thing was to remove all of the damaged leaves at their base.

I then began fertilizing them for two weeks with a 20-20-20 water soluble fertilizer applied at half strength every time I watered them. I opted for a balanced fertilizer so that each part of the plant would receive enough food to help them regenerate themselves. The third week after the power outage, I switched to a starter fertilizer 10-52-10, again applied at half strength. This will be applied for another two weeks. By using a starter fertilizer, new and, stronger existing root development will occur. This will boost the plants feeding system, giving them the strength they need to fully recover. Once the plants are showing signs of producing new growth and roots, they will be put back on their normal diets, either 20-20-20, 15-30-15 or 15-8-15 depending on the plant.

On an added note, when the power was restored, I gathered the plants all up from their various locations in the house and placed them under grow lights to further aid the recovery process.  Most of them have been returned to their normal spots, but a couple of the violets are taking their time to recover, so they are still under lights.