I am trying to recall which one of our rose persons said his/her roses that were covered (last Easter when we had the big chill in the Southeast) suffered more damage than the uncovered ones. I did have damage but not as much as many people here; however, we were coming off a couple days of rain so the roses were quite wet and then we sprayed Wiltpruf. We lost the "spring show" but overall, the roses suffered very little long-lasting damage. In fact, I went on to have a rose show in April. Although there were "burnt" blooms, there was quite a bit of bloom.

New growth on roses can usually handle 27 degrees. I had 26/27 in April with no damage. And covering can cause damage to tender growth, bending at the least, and worse if there is rain or ice. So it depends on the predicted low, and whether still air and clear skies will increase the risk of freezing via radiation cooling.

I used every blanket, flannel sheet and mattress pad in the house to cover all my tender hydrangeas today. It's not paranoid to want them to be ok when the little guys have been putting on blooms for a couple weeks now. It was down to about 35 last night here in west Texas and it snowed today. SO I ran out and covered them all. It's supposed to be down to nearly 20 tonight, hard to imagine, when the Farmers Almanac said 23 March was our last frost date. Shoot! I hope that I covered them enough. I watered a little yesterday and that should help some. Cheryl

I did have the straw off but had to cover again last night - lesser of 2 evils I guess since you can't let the flowers get frostbitten. Things looked good this morning. A little condensation on the underside of the EZ walls (on the west end of the bed where sun hit first). Maybe leave the tarps off but the straw/hay on tonight? OT but wondering if it's OK to seed lettuce and chard today (haven't checked soil temp but still pretty cool) or wait until tomorrow? Soil won't be warm enough for beans/edamame for a couple of weeks yet - that's provided it stays in the 70s/50s for high/low from now on. Market starts in a month and I'm afraid I won't have anything (except hopefully some berries) since I haven't been able to get anything planted!