Most of your plants should be fine. Emerging perennials can take a few hours of cold here and there without much if any damage.

If you are really concerned:

1) Make sure they are mulched.

2) LIGHTLY scatter a few handfuls of leaves, grass clippings or straw over them. Not enough to pack down and bend the stems, just enough to hold a little warm air around them.

3) Cannas might suffer the most. If you want, toss an old blanket, burlap bag or sheet over them the evening before the cold temps hit. Remove that covering in the morning before sunup if you can so your plants don't roast.

I'll write more later tonight or tomorrow. Must go cook dinner now, but don't worry, I think everything will be OK. The occasional cold night is not too bad at this stage of the season.

Dawn

The weather channel on my computer is showing warmer temps at night than the OKC stations at least this direction (Seminole). I agree with Dawn tenders just mulch or take old bed sheets etc and wrap around if you dont have wall of water or something similar. If you use plastic wrapping, place newspapers around the plants first. Really though, most plants can take a little bit of a dip in night temps. Besides, as my grandmother always told me dont put tenders in the ground until after Easter. Easter is always cold or chilly. I dont forsee to many problems though they are not talking a hard freeze or even frost this far south. Good luck, after this week I will let you know if I had problems and then you can tell us what happened in your garden.

Happy gardening! Stephanie

Everything I see shows good cloud cover, mostly cloudy, through the period of cool nights.

The ground will a hold decent amount of day heat through the night. Because the soil temps are running in the mid to high 60's, anything around a foot above the ground will be quite a bit warmer than the official 5' off the ground measurement everyone uses to record air temps.

randy

......I just don't think I'm gonna worry about it........LOL!

Susan

I'm not going to worry about it for another day or two, because sometimes those long-range forecasts change dramatically.

Tonight our local TV weatherman said "Patchy frost Easter Weekend". He went on to say that this might be an item of concern to local gardeners. Do you think so???

We all know that there tends to be a pretty strong cold front right around Easter every year, and we must always consider this if we are planting warm-season plants 'early'.

I will be more worried if our Partly Cloudy skies turn clear on the evening of the coldest weather. For those of us here in southern Oklahoma I think that will be Saturday night. I will be even more worried if there is no wind. But, I won't panic. A light frost or a brief touch of a freeze isn't going to do significant damage.

Still, I'll be keeping at least one eye on that weather forecast.

Dawn

I have been thinking about the expected cold temps and wondering what damage, if any, we can expect.

WHEN TO EXPECT A FROST:

As Randy mentioned above, partly cloudy to cloudy skies are helpful in this situation as they help hold in the heat and may prevent frost from forming.

On the other hand, clearing skies may pave the way for a frost.

Signs that indicate a frost could occur include these: no visible clouds at sunset and clear starry skies after sunset, little or no wind, a nearly full moon, no ring around the moon, and no frogs singing at night IF they have already been up and singing on previous nights. If the air has felt relatively nice in the evenings and it suddenly feels 'nippy' that is also a good clue, especially if it feels 'nippy' by 9 or 10 p.m.

SOME PLANTS WON'T BE DAMAGED:

Most native plants can handle a late frost just fine. Many flowering perennials that sprout in the fall and overwinter as small rosettes are also extremely cold tolerant, as are plants that emerge in late winter or early spring from seed sown in the fall or early winter. This includes poppies, larkspur, violas, bachelor buttons, love-in-a-mist, pansies and some cosmos. Herbs that sprout in late winter or early spring, like chamomile, chives, tansy, catnip, etc. can usually handle cold spells just fine.

SOME PLANTS MIGHT BE DAMAGED:

Some perennials that have already sprouted are more cold-sensitive and would benefit from having a sheet or some other covering tossed over them. This includes hybrid lilies, hostas, delphiniums, mallows, hibiscuses, garden phlox and balloon flowers. Cannas may be susceptible damage but mine have withstood some pretty good temps.

COLD RESPONSE VARIES:

Every plant is different in its response to cold weather, frost damage or freeze damage.

Many plants, including fruit trees, can withstand cold down to about 28 degrees before you will see much damage. The pink and purple flowers on early-blooming magnolias may turn brown and shatter as a result of damage from a late freeze.

DIFFERENT FACTORS GIVE DIFFERENT RESULTS:

How much cold a plant will withstand varies, depending on the conditions in which it is grown as well as on its own plant genetics.

Another factor is how quickly the temperature falls. If the temps plunge dramatically, as they often do with the first 'blue norther' in the fall, you will see more damage because the plants could not acclimate to the sudden dramatic drop in temps. In the springtime, though, the late freezes usually are less dramatic and the plants are better prepared for them.

HOW/WHY FREEZE OR FROST DAMAGE OCCURS:

When freeze or frost damage occurs it is caused by the formation of small ice crystals within plant cells and the open spaces between plant cells. As the ice crystals grow, they rupture cell walls and this damage results in the plants losing their ability to hold their shape. When that happens here, some people will say their plants 'just melted'.

WHICH PLANTS ARE MORE EASILY HURT?

Plants that have a higher moisture content in their cells, like impatiens, begonias or portulacas, will usually show the worst damage. Some plants, like roses, are pretty tough and can withstand quite a bit of cold.

WHICH PLANTS CAN SHRUG IT OFF?
Cool-season crops like lettuce, onions, spinach and cabbage shouldn't have any damage at the temps we're expecting this weekend. Many plants that suffer less damage have higher salt levels in their cells, as well as lower levels of water.

SIGNS OF DAMAGE:

If your plants are damaged by the cold weather, you will know it. On warm-season plants the formerly green plant material that is damaged will turn brown or black. Sometimes it will be mushy. You can prune this damaged tissue away and the plant may survive depending on how extensive the damage is. If you're expecting more than one night of cold weather, don't prune away the damage after the first night as it may protect plant material beneath it that is still undamaged.

If you have a vegetable garden or row crops in a field, you can see damage from chilling even if your temperatures remain above freezing. The degree of chilling damage varies from plant to plant and is highly dependant on many factors, including soil moisture (which is high here following recent rains) and the relative humidity. When a plant has chilling damage, you will have an increase in ethylene production in the plant. Cell members may leak as they do with freeze/frost damage.

CHILLING DAMAGE:

Chilling damage can show itself in many ways. Sometimes you see it as leaf scorch or plant yellowing. It may manifest itself as turgor (drooping/wilting of foliage).

On some members of the cucurbit family the damage shows up as white areas on foliage where dessication occurs. This can happen on warm-season plants like cucumbers when temps are only in the 40s and low 50s. The plants usually outgrow this type of damage as long as the cold spell is a relatively short one. Sometimes plants that have received chilling damage don't show a lot of physical injury, but will sit there for days or weeks with little growth. They may have a significant yellowing of most of the plant similar to what you see when a heavy rain leaves them waterlogged. Eventually they seem to get over it and begin growing again.

FREEZING BACK TO THE GROUND:

In the event of a late hard freeze (and we are NOT expecting one in southern Oklahoma this weekend, but I don't know about the rest of you), some warm-season plants that are already in the ground and growing well can freeze back to the ground. Some years I have had tomato and pepper plants freeze back to the ground and still come back from their roots. Sweet corn plants that have sprouted and are growing seem able to take quite a bit of cold. On the other hand, bean plants that have frozen back to the ground generally don't recover.

If your plants experience only a short period of chilling they may not show any aftereffect whatsoever.

I hope this info helps. Now its just a game of 'wait and see'.

Even though we almost always have a late cold spell near Easter, I only see significant damage maybe 1 or 2 years out of 10.

Dawn

Good job, Dawn! One other thing I would like to add. If your plants are growing in a "micro-climate" area, they are less likely to suffer damage, plus those on the south side of your house that are protected by some kind of wind break, like trees, buildings, etc.

My north side plants do well, too, because they are situated between two huge pine trees, those big old fat Japanese black pines. Also if they are close to the sidewalk (holds warmth), and those close to the house as well.

I supposed those with veggies might worry more than we who have mainly ornamental plants. This has happened to me before and my ornamentals have made it just fine, without any damage. The soil is warm now, too, which will help the smaller plants too.

Susan

Thanks, Susan, I forgot to say anything about microclimates.

I do think veggies suffer more, but only because over-eager farmer-gardeners like me often plant them too early. :)

And, I think plant volunteers that sprout on their own are tougher and can take more frost. For example, if I start sunflowers inside and set them out in the ground, they seem to be damaged more by low temps than the volunteer sunflowers that sprouted in the ground naturally. I have found winter-sown plants to be more cold hardy than plants of the same exact variety sown indoors, too.

And, sometimes plants just surprise you. I always thought that potted tropical plants which overwinter indoors couldn't handle the cold. One year I had way too many tropical plants, so left some outside on the concrete pad by the garage. Even though we had a lot of cold weather, they did not show freeze damage unil January or February, long after we'd had plenty of cold, cold weather.

Dawn

Has anyone had any experience with grape vines with the weather we are expecting this weekend? We're 30 miles west of OKC and the grapes are going crazy with several baby clusters already forming. This is the start of their second year in the ground.

We've read about putting Christmas lights on the vines and have also thought about creating a "green-house" around them with plastic sheeting.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Alex

Hi Alex

If you "build" a tent over them with plastic, that should do. But plastic is not a good idea if it's touching the plant. Most people I know that live in a subtropical zone cover plants with blankets when they get those rare freezes. No real work, they just toss the blankets over them.

Christmas light work also. Light bulb under a blanket or plastic works even better. It can't be close to touching them though.

I'm curious how my plums and pears make out. I have fruits the size of my thumb nail all over them.

randy

Randy,

I also am curious about how my peaches and plums make out. The fruit on our trees is about the same size as the fruit on your trees.

In past years, the fruit have survived overnight lows into the upper 20s. If the wind is blowing gently they seem to handle it a little better.

Our local weatherguy said a really bad thing on the six o'clock news....he said we have a slight possibility of snow falling in the Saturday-Sunday time frame. I'm starting to think I may be buying peaches and plums at the Farmer's Market this year.

And, Alex, I second what Randy said about the plastic. If you use plastic, everywhere that the plastic touches the plant, that foliage will freeze.

Dawn

It's a little late to help since the weather's already turned cold, but setting jugs of water among your plants before nightfall will help... the heat content is gradually released from the water into the surrounding air. The Incas protected their high altitude crops by planting them between canals filled with water for just this purpose. Their canals could be described as fanciful art forms visible from space as snakes and other effigies.