Watch the highs and lows on the weather report and you can cover them with newspaper or mulch if it is going to freeze. I planted out some salad greens that lived through a 27.5 degree night with just a little mulch around the roots.

I too have spring fever and have been outside getting the yard ready to plant. I already have some pansies blooming. They came up from seed. Pansies and Violas can take the cold. They should be just fine. I'm not sure what miss pinkies are so I don't know about them.

Thanks for the newspaper tip. I hadn't thought of that. I will do that next week when it's supposed to get cold at night. Miss Pinkies are a variety of Carnation I think.
When do you plant pansy seeds for them to be coming up already?

Pansies can be planted in the fall, and they'll live under the snow and perk up in the spring. Some will self sow. You should be just fine having planted them recently, unless they were kept in too sheltered of an area at Lowes, where it was warm at night or where they didn't get enough sun during the day. Then they could get a little shocked. But I think they're probably fine.

Those Miss Pinky dianthus are hardy here, but it's possible they won't like being frozen in the yard, because they've probably come from a greenhouse somewhere and grown more than they normally would if they were just awakening in your yard this season.

My normal rule is to plant flowers around Mothers' Day to be sure we're past freezing around here. But there are some that like the cold and should be planted sooner, including California poppies, pansies, violas, wallflowers, and snapdragons. Many of these will suffer when it gets hot, so they need to be planted early to enjoy them in the early spring.

I've used Mother's day as the earliest planting day ever since my first year in my house, when I planted three gardens (the first two froze) and had to wait for the snow that fell on Mother's day to melt to plant the third one.

The only thing that gets planted early is pumpkins that volunteer from the previous Halloween jack-o-lanterns.

I generally just try to grow things with a fairly short growing season.

My wife and I were laughing at some neighbors one year because they were planting in late March. We diligently waited until May and saw out neighbors' gardens flourish because there were no late frosts.

I guess what I'm saying is that you may well luck out, but you may get to plant again. Since you've already planted, I'd watch the forecasts and cover with newspaper if it's going to be cold.

Welcome to gardening in Utah. Summers are too hot and dry and winters are too long. And much of the gardening advice that is based on zone is inappropriate because the zones are based on the coldest it gets, not how long it stays cold, but the advice tends to assume that zone 6 means that your last snow is in February and your last frost is in March.

Keep an eye on the weather and keep the newspaper handy!

What if it rains? Will that be a problem with the newspapers?
Thanks again for all the information. I bought shredded bark for mulch so hopefully it works.

It should be ok if it gets wet. I think I got this tip from P Allen Smith's show. And he recommended spraying them with a little water to help them stay in place.

So? Did they live?

So far, so good. I ended up not using the newspapers for lack of time and lack of newspapers. I bought a bunch of wood mulch and put some around each plant. I think a few of them may be a little "shocked" although I'm not exactly sure what that looks like.
I'm surprised that I have many many bulbs coming up and most of them are doing well but some of the hyacinths that already began to bloom have turned brown. I'm assuming that's from the freezing cold nights but again, not sure.