Thanks for your continued interest across my different inquiries. I WILL be putting in a cover crop to be turned in the spring. Thing is, I read an interesting article about the use of deeply rooted brassicas, daikon radish and other cover crops both to reach deeply into hardpan soils and to provide food/vegetative mass if left in the soil. That was an excellent slide show. With rather solid, deeply red, Georgia clay I have both to add nutrients and humus while also breaking up the top layers. The soil is rich in minerals, low in airflow, acidic, and slow to drain. I don't know if I could really ever add enough humus to the top six inches.

You're warmer than I've been, then, as it has already gotten below 40F here in the Berkeley flats on a few nights. I don't worry about most of my plants which are all good down to 32F or a bit lower. I only have a few things these day which need babying if it drops below freezing, but more succulents that I have to shelter from the rains...

Dracaena fragrans massangeana has a VERY aromatic flower. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't flowered sometime in the 10 years you've had it. Yes the tip that produces the flower will die off after the process. Just that single tip not the whole plant. That's why you're seeing the decline. Most of the canes have multiple tips/heads. Hope this helps.

They might come back. Some of the ones in my lawn come back every year. I mow around until they have run their course, then just mulch up the dead stems. But some of them get stepped on or otherwise damaged (too close with the mower, usually - hit with a wheel or something) and still come back. I expect that several years of such abuse would discourage them though. I moved some this spring to a new area - just used a trowel, got deep enough to get the rhizome and some roots - put them under a maple tree in the front yard where it is all chips. They withstood moving just fine; I expect several "colonies" next year. I just put some woods dirt in the hole in the lawn and threw some seed on it. It will probably grom more woodland plants though!