Can't count on last freeze in DFW until sometime after mid-March (avg is 3/13), though the speed and magnitude of this most recent temp change is pretty crazy. It was already down to 33ð at 6:00am when I moved our seedlings and potted tropicals back into heated space, but no covers this time for stuff in the ground. The daffodils look like they're trying to save themselves with an ostrich-like faceplant in the dusting of coarse snow.

We and neighbors use large plastic buckets to protect small shrubs or plant groupings against short/overnight freezes. Should work in this case with the ground as warm as it was, though not for the 3-day freeze with mid-teen lows we had early in the season. Pretty sure that one already took out at least a portion of our zone-marginal plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Freeze Summary for Dallas/Fort Worth (NOAA)

Sorry you were unprepared for today's weather change. None of my tender things go out of the garage unless we're not expecting a freeze.

I have nothing in the ground that can't survive on its own or with a mulch covering that's laid down just before our first big freeze in the fall. I don't rake the leaves until I'm SURE we're out of the woods.

Go to the Gallery page and look for the post:

What we did Sunday Afternoon

Its what we built a few weeks ago.

Right now its 21* outside and 31* inside the hoop house.

I watered well yesterday and closed it all up at the end of the day. I'm hoping all my little seedlings come through this mess ok. I expect they will. All of them are cool season crops and none of this ice and snow has touched them. :)

Next fall I plan to do the same thing to the large raised bed we built last Sunday to carry my crops through the winter.

We COULD get another freeze in April this year as Easter is late. We can always count on a cool snap around Easter, though not necessarily a freeze.

Texas weáther is a challange no mater what. 80 one day 20 the next. You plant when your suppose to then it freezes again so you replant then along comes hail and you replant again and then come the storms.why oh why do we even try? WHY! Because we love the taste and feel of fresh veggies and the beauty and heavenly scents of our flowers.

The trick to protecting plants from cold is not just to cover them, but cover them *including* something that holds a lot of heat. For example, cover them, and the ground under them. The ground holds a lot of heat, and will slowly release that heat during the time when the air is coldest, into the air trapped inside. If you have a tall potted plant, include the pot in the wrap. Same thing. Seal the edges. Don't invite the cold air to get in. If the edges of the tarp are on the ground, throw some 2x4s on the edges to hold them down.

What is funny (and sad) is where I see people wrapping a *plant*. Just the plant. Like a tree in a pot with a tarp just around the tree. That's a sure way to kill the plant. What you've wrapped up has no source of stored heat, and the temperature inside will pretty quickly drop to the air temperature outside. A blanket around a person is warm because a person makes heat. A plant does not.

Obviously, in doing this, insulation helps. For a really hard freeze, layer multiple tarps. I throw a sleeping bag over plastic tarps. For the worst freezes, and a few square yards of bed, put a 100W light bulb inside on the ground under the tarp, on an extension cord.

I've kept some peppers alive this winter, and we've seen multiple hard freezes, with temps going down to the low 20s. Well, it looks like my three year old bananas bit the dust, but my TAMU Jalapenos will survive.

I hope the tulips stand back up and maybe the daffs too. It look bleak in my garden now. c

I am so sorry, Cynthia, it was so very beautiful........maybe it will bounce back with the warmer temps.

I planted lots of flowers in pots in the yard and they look awful. I hope they bounce back.

I had my tomato plants in the water tepees and only lost 3-4 out of 24(so far) It was at least 19 here with wind chill down to 3 degrees so they proved their worth.

I had the same problem. I watched weather.com for the temperature report and their estimate was that at night, it would reach freezing, but during the day, it still would be in 40s or so. Imagine my surprise that the freezing temperature came in that morning.

Since that time, I have learned that newspaper to cover the plants can help out in a pinch. Even a plastic bag with some thing to keep the plant warm can help at night, but in day time, remove it since it is not a breathable material.

But the more common items are using an old blanket, and otherwise, getting one of those commercial plant blankets, including the planket or burlap sheets.

The day lilies look like they are surviving but the amaryllis flower stalks are out for the count. Unfortunately some of them died while still coming up half-way from the bulb, so I fear that the plant keeps feeding a dead stalk (or the other fear is how to get that dead bulb out -- otherwise it might eventually rot there and affect the bulb)

That's exactly right about newspaper. But you lay it flat over the ground and over (small) plants. Don't wrap big plants with it. That won't help at all. The idea is to hold the warmth of the ground in the layer of air over the ground around the plant.

In fact, in many respects, newspaper is better than a blanket because it isn't permeable. Wind will go right through a thin blanket. You're trying to hold the warm air in, and keep the cold air out. But newspaper doesn't come in blanket sized pieces. So why don't we put newspaper over us in our bed at night? Well, if it were big enough, it might keep us warmer than a blanket! But it wouldn't be very comfortable.

Now, one advantage of a blanket for covering large plants is that it's heavy enough that it's less likely to blow away, and it isn't as hard to anchor. Of course, for small plants, a blanket might just crush them. Newspaper won't.

I cover my plants in the porch with a old sheet. Out local meteorologist is also a farmer and he recommended this several years ago and so far it had worked for me. I move the lighter pots in the garage but the very heavy ones get covered with a sheet.

Yep, the nice thing about sheets is that they're BIG, and they're reasonably lightweight, so your seedlings are less likely to be crushed. I'll bet they old warm air in, and keep cold air out, better than a fuzzy blanket does.