I have wintersown for a few years now- and have had great results just leaving the sprouts to their own devises. I keep the covers on till they MUST come off- it protects them from rain and snow and wind and critters and my inattentive watering. It provides the seeds with a moist protected environment they THRIVE in! None of my containers receive full all day sun- so I do not worry about them frying till the weather gets real hot during the day. I will be putting more out today in this COLD weather- my first of the annuals too, as I am guessing this will be the last of the sustained freezing cold- and as things warm up from here- the seeds will figure out when they want to sprout. I will worry more about the late frosts when there is more top growth exposed on these not hardy annuals- and have a set of shelves on the exterior of the garage with a handy roll down clear plastic sheet that will help a bit to protect them- thermal mass from the garage wall- and wind blocking- but these will feel the bite of the later cold snaps- usually all will come out ok- except for the tender tropicals. Those are the only ones I really futz with. I like to start them indoors early- and then do the indoor outdoor dance a couple of times a day till I get tired of it or the night temps stay above 50. Following the suggestions of Winter Sowing seeds that are hardy to your zone- or re-seeders and waiting a bit to spring sow annuals in containers is really an easy and very safe and worry free way to start so very many healthy plants- Although you do have to research which ones are safe bets for Winter Sowing- and what you should wait on to Spring Sow- or start early indoors. With a little planning- proper seeds- Proper placement, not on south facing full sun black top- not frozen solid into a puddle- just the right amount of drainage and transpiration/condensation holes- old Ma Nature will do a fantastic job at taking care of the rest! Honest! Best of luck to you- and your seedlings! Julie

Paul, I can't seem to get a pot big enough anywhere. I bought one at home depot yesterday and it is just a little to small. I got the palm in the garage with the root ball wrapped in plastic and i put some water on the roots to keep it moist. The temp in the garage is at 60 with high humidity. Tomorrow i am going to try this nursery over here called sids and see if they got somthing that will work. As far as that goes the palm looks great! I sprayed the leaves with wiltproof to protect it from moisture loss and to help with the transplant shock...once i get it into a pot LOL. I will keep everyone updated.

When houseplants are the topic and we remove blooms/fruit from the scope of discussion, leaves are the first organs that experience cold damage as temperatures fall - especially if they fall rapidly (physical cold damage/injury can occur at temps as high as 50* if the drop from higher temps was rapid); or, if we consider the inability to carry on photosynthesis at low temps damage; and a good case can be made that it IS damage because it forces the plant to switch to energy reserves, rather than using current photosynthate in order to grow and keep its systems orderly. That means the leaves are the first place to look for cold damage. Roots of pots resting on the ground are benefited by geo-thermal heat rising from the ground AND from warmth created by the composting process occuring in the organic fraction of soils. From this, we can easily envision that root/soil temperatures of pots on the ground will be significantly warmer than air temperatures under conditions of falling temps, and at least slightly warmer than air temps when pots are isolated from an extraneous heat source, like geothermal heat or heat making its way through the walls of a heated building. You are correct, however, in thinking that the hardiest part of a temperate deciduous plant that is in a predictive dormancy is the dormant 'top' (trunk and branches), which would be devoid of leaves. But, before we would arrive at temps where we would be thinking about root hardiness, the leaves of temperate deciduous plants would almost certainly have decided to abscise, based primarily on shorter day length (actually, it's the longer dark period that determines that response) and decreasing temps. Al

Doesn't look like any damage right now, but I learned from the last freeze that damage doesn't show for a few days sometimes. Still, last freeze I saw damage immediately. I think the cloud cover helped and the wind. This is a learning experience for me, because in SW FL, when you had 27 degrees, that was cold enough to do damage to tropicals, no matter how long it lasted. Up here, the plants are a lot tougher. I'm hoping to walk away largely unscathed and praying this is the last scare this spring. Well, not even spring until the 21st, right? So hopefully, BUH-BYE WINTER!