Loading ...in the past few years, several varieties of avocados have been developed that will take quite a bit of cold weather. most of the work has been done in texas, using mexican stock. the mexican mountains are high enough elevation to have frost and freezing temperatures. over the ages, avocados have evolved to cope with this.
there is some confusion in variety names with various nurseries and dealers selling the same variety under different names.
lila, joey, brazos belle, fantastic, mexicola, and poncho will all withstand brief exposure to temperatures in the mid-teens (farenheit) without serious damage. brogdon, wurtz dwarf, winter mexican, and several others will survive cold snaps down to the mid to low twenties. these tolerances are for established trees, not tiny new plants from the nursery. until your tree has a trunk the size of a baseball bat, it needs some protection on cold nights. plant on the south or southeast side of a building in a location sheltered from the wind. cover your small plants with a blanket on cold nights. a small electric light bulb (incandescent) under the cover helps. plant your new tree deep. if the graft is below the soil line, it will likely resprout with the grafted variety rather than the rootstock.
…or you could go all the way and grow them in a greenhouse.
-still life with avocado trees and tank-
second pic taken six months after the first one. left margin, foreground, just visible in bottom corner is “joey.” left of tank is “mexicola.” right of tank is “wurtz dwarf.” right margin foreground is “brazos belle.” pic of flower bud posted earlier is “brazos belle.”