Mary Lu, it was down to 28F. here last night. I didn't cover anything because it's been dry this week. My tomatoes, which are planted out, are a little darker green because of the cold but there was no frost so they didn't melt down like a frost will do to them. Roses, peonies, daylilys all came through fine and most of them are just sitting here in plastic grocery bags. If we get frost warnings I cover as much as I can and scootch things still in pots or whatever as close to the foundation as I can to help protect things. Cover what you can and pray for the best. Usually perennials that come up early do fine with a few light frosts. Pretty much like in the early fall. Best Wishes! MeMo

I had a touch of frost on my back windshield this morning. ==>>> i am not feeling it brandy... i woke up to 3 inches of snow.. lol .. do understand.. i am not always talking to the poster.. but the the legions of newbies.. who never join the conversation ... you acted.. accordingly ... i know you knew the difference.. i wanted to point it out to warmer zone peeps.. who might not be understanding about the difference in the two words ... prairie... most shrubs.. as bulletproof as they are.. can lose all their leaves.. and bounce right back .. or like last year for me.. all the lilacs lost their flower buds... and they all came back fine... so.. i missed some flowers.. and many of the fruit growers around... lost a crop ... but not much direct death ... so its a concern.. but not a worry.. if you get my drift ... one year.. i actually lost some hosta.. that got froze.. after leafing a bit.. recovered.. froze again ... and perhaps a third time... they only have so much stored energy to releaf on ... but they were probably sickly plants in the first place... and all of them took a year or two to recover.. but nothing like that with some frost damage ... ken

I was holding off planting my peppers out too here in WI as it's been cold. I had a my peppers outside next to the house where it's warmer and something found the leaves very tasty, a rabbit or mouse perhaps. I lost about half my plants overnight, uhg! I'm hoping a couple of plants that still have a bit of green on top might sprout new growth, but I have my doubts. I put the remaining peppers out in the garden now since I feel they have a better chance of being overlooked there near my bean plants. I'm not sure if it was a rabbit or mouse that found the pepper tops so tasty, they didn't touch the tomato plants and I luckily had a few plants intermingled with the tomatos that they didn't touch. Hopefully I'll have better luck next year.

Hi Transplant, If they're hardy perennials, they should be fine without being covered. If they're evergreen, the cold shouldn't hurt them, and if they're deciduous, they'll be loosing their leaves real soon anyway. Either way, they're going to be out there all winter, so they're gonna have to learn to fend for themselves! :-) Even if they're deciduous and loose their leaves soon, the roots will continue to grow until the soil freezes--and sometimes it never does here in Denver. Be sure the soil doesn't dry out completely over winter. If we get a really dry winter, you may need to water a couple times. Next time you need to cover something, use fabric rather than plastic, plastic transmits the cold directly to whatever it's touching---as you found out. Fabric won't do that. If it gets too cold, of course, even fabric won't protect plants, but for tonight and tomorrow night, it should be adequate. Old sheets work well--or lightweight blankets, etc. If you have big enough boxes or very large pots, they can be used too---just depends on the size of the plant. Tonight I have my tomatoes and mums all bedded down with lightweight wool packing blankets---which I really, really hope works since I'm not nearly ready to give up my homegrown tomatoes yet! Or my flowers! Also, on the optimistic side, they just said on the weather that clouds have moved in--which should keep it from getting quite so cold--so, hopefully, we'll all wake up to nice green plants that last a few more weeks. Good luck, Skybird