A Hard Freeze is Coming, How do You Protect Your Plants?

UPDATED 2024

The time to plan for plant frost protection is well before the first frost! Getting surprised by an out-of-the-blue dip in temperatures is never fun for gardeners.

In Texas, weather can be very warm through fall, then suddenly we'll get hit with temperatures in the teens. One of the reasons so-called "frost hardy" plants can be damaged or killed in these situations is that they haven't had the time to respond to gradually cooling temperatures and acclimate/prepare for winter temperatures. They may still be growing new tender foliage or flowers that will be damaged by sudden drops in temperature.

Most hardy plants can handle the gradual progression to a hard frost. But if it's warm, then suddenly very cold, even hardy plants can suffer damage. If you're looking at temperatures that drop in to the low 20s or teens, that's them you'll want to get out the frost cloth. Make sure to buy some in early fall, or as soon as it's available at your local garden center, so you have it at the ready when temperatures suddenly drop.

Checklist for Protecting Your Plants from Freezing Temperatures

1. Water thoroughly the day before a hard freeze. Plants can resist freezing temperatures much better when they are fully turgid. Water stressed plants will take a hard hit. Consider watering herbaceous plants and vegetables with a root stimulator.

2. Cover all newly planted annuals, perennials or small shrubs using frost cloth. Cover any tender perennials or cool season vegetable crops, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce to keep from losing your harvest. While hardy plants and cool season vegetables will typically survive a 15 degree frost, the flower buds and fruit will most often be hardest hit. Cauliflower heads are especially sensitive to freezing temperatures.

3. A sheet of frost cloth will provide about up to 8 degrees of temperature protection. You can layer two sheets to give you extra protection. Purchase landscape staples to help secure the frost cloth in place.

4. Do not use plastic to cover plants. Areas of the plant that come in contact with plastic during a freeze often suffer damage. It's also better to leave some airspace above the plant as insulation, rather than pinning the frost cloth tightly down on top of the plants.

5. Fallen leaves or hay can also be used as a cover to insulate more hardy herbaceous plants.

6.You may leave frost cloth on plants for two or three days if freezing temperatures persist, but it's best to at least pull it back to allow enough sunlight to reach plants if warmer temperatures allow for it.

Don't forget to drip and cover all those outdoor faucets too!! While we typically don't drain irrigation systems for winter here, you may want to cut off the main valve to your property's system and insulate it just like you would your spigots.

So sorry I've been delinquent in my postings! Hard to come back from two weeks in the jungle and get hit with American Christmas! I have a ton of photos to sort through, but I promise I'll get at it this weekend. Here are just a few more I have handy...

My friend Kevin took this shot...nice how I color coordinate eh?

So many stunning majestic trees...

You didn't think I'd leave ya hangin' on chickens did you?? LOL..I actually took quite a few chicken pictures...more to come. So many breeds I've never seen before!

Check out this awesome Rhino beetle!!! Quite the friendly little bugger...

Look at this amazing flower! So much to ID...so little time...sigh

I'm still adjusting back to "regular" life after my time in the Amazon. Such a wonderful life changing experience...

Wow, what an amazing journey. Not only did I see some amazing natural sights in the Peruvian Amazon, but also made some great new friends. I have so many photos to go through that it's going to take me a bit, especially amidst the holidays. I'll try and post a few as I go.

Me on a sweaty jungle trek!

My ultimate score!!! Poison Dart Frog, Dendrobates reticulatus. Very hard to find and photograph! I believe this species is only native to the small area around the part of NE Peru where I was staying. So exciting.

Just one of the many beautiful and huge trees. Home to so many epiphytes such as bromeliads, philodendrons, orchids and ferns. Lovely!

Striking Helliconia. They were everywhere.

I'm officially obsessed with the fungi of the Peruvian rain forest. There is so much diversity. Every time I looked I found a new one! So beautiful.

Me and my new boyfriend Jose...LOL

Ok, folks! Here it is! I've been preoccupied this week and it's been icky, so I haven't wanted to even attempt to go look at my tiny 8 foot space. But, it's been pretty the last few days so I thought I'd take a gander at the garden.

What did find? Possibly too much lettuce. You are probably thinking "how can a person have too much lettuce?" Well, you can't, except I think I planted too many seeds in a 2x4 foot space. I essentially just took a few packets of some greens mixes (the red leaves being my favorite) and threw them out! No muss, no fuss! They are growing beautifully except I haven't really been eating lettuce lately so now they form a thick blanket of greens. I've probably stunted their growth. So I may not get the beautiful heads of butter lettuce i got last year. Unless I start harvesting soon, I also may not get the large stalks of romaine I enjoyed last year. My goal of the week is to eat at least 3 or 4 salads and harvest some for my neighbors. Maybe then the spinach won't be so scared to come up. I have a feeling the lettuce and spinach are fighting and it's not the spinach that's winning.

I've also included a picture of my whole raised bed. This is the raised bed we sell here at North Haven Gardens. I put it together all by myself except for one nail I needed help with from my husband. It then took about 30 bags of various soils and composts. Leslie has the soil recipe I used posted on here somewhere.

Anywho, I planted 6 broccoli, 2 brussels sprouts, 6 onions (red, white, yellow), 12 heads garlic, a TON of lettuce (ha!), spinach, 2 fava bean bushes (I should pull one), 1 cilantro and 1 parsley. I also had a few pansies left over from some pots so I stuck those in as well. I like to test the maximums on these things.

Man, I bet you are wishing for Leslie right about now!

I'm off to Peru early tomorrow morning and will be out of contact for a couple of weeks. My journey to the Amazon jungle will consist of flying to LA to meet up with my best friend Kimberly. From there we fly together to Lima, Peru. Then from Lima to Iquitos...the last city before...the jungle. We'll spend a night in Iquitos and then head out to our camp the next morning. I'm sure we're going to have an amazing experience. That area of the Amazon is one of the most bio diverse on the planet. We're both looking for a few things out of this trip...a break from modern life, a chance to reconnect with nature in a unique way, a spiritual lightening of the load so to speak...and for me, some poison dart frogs and snakes!! LOL. I'm so excited I can barely stand it.

As I will not have access to phone, computers, or electricity for that matter, there won't be any posts from me while I'm away. But Nikki, one of my guest authors, has promised to post some of the goings on in her garden while I'm away. I'm sure she'll also have some entertaining musings about what I'm up to as well.

So for now, Adios...see ya on the flip side...

My Favorite Tulips

I spent a lot of time designing and planning massive tulip displays at the Dallas Arboretum for Spring Booms, as well as testing bulbs varieties in the Plant Trials Program. Not to mention, lots of tulip growing in my own Texas gardens.

While December weather can be less than inspiring when it comes to getting out and digging in the garden, there is a lot to do this next month if you want a colorful spring garden. December is the time to plant your tulips in Texas. I’ve grown many a tulip in my day, but there are a few standouts that continue to make their way into my own garden. I thought I’d share a few of my favorites.

‘Temple of Beauty’ is a true stunner in the spring garden. If you really want to go bold, this tulip is the way to go. A single, late hybrid, ‘Temple of Beauty’ has a larger bloom that most other single-lates and is a vibrant orange with salmon tones along the petals. You can mix this brightly colored cultivar with tulips in shades of pink or yellow for a cheery combination. Blooms on sturdy stems will easily reach 30 to 36 inches tall. This variety is a hybrid cross of the lily-flowering tulip ‘Mariette’ and a variety of Tulipa gregii. The result, ‘Temple of Beauty’, is a triploid bulb with excellent vigor and gigantic blooms. In fact, it’s probably one of the largest flowering cultivars of tulip in the world. Many sports of ‘Temple of Beauty’ have since been developed, and the group is often referred to as Giant Lefeber Hybrids, after Dirk W. Lefeber, who bred the original ‘Temple of Beauty’ cross.

‘Blushing Beauty’ and ‘Blushing Lady’are two such sports and are also among my tulip favorites. If you want the size and vigor of ‘Temple of Beauty’, but would prefer something a bit subtler in color, these are your gals. ‘Blushing Beauty’ sports large blooms with a yellow-apricot blend and rose-colored base. ‘Blushing Lady’ has a similar color pattern, but edges of petals blend to a brighter lemon yellow. Lily-flowering hybrid flowers will open upon sunny days, revealing color variations inside the flower. These hybrids can be mixed together or mixed with other single, late tulips for a stunning show.

It doesn’t get any better than ‘Maureen’for a white tulip. This classic single-late will never disappoint. Purewhite blooms are tightly formed and stand on sturdy, erect stems that grow up to 30 inches tall. ‘Maureen’ is lovely planted by itself or mixed with darker-blooming tulips for a contrasting display.

If you’re looking for something that blooms earlier, but still want a sturdy, reliable performer, you must try ‘Ollioules’.This giant-flowered Darwin Hybrid tulip is technically classified as amid-season bloomer. In our climate, however, it is usually one of the earliest tulips to bloom. ‘Ollioules’ produces violet-rose-colored petals edged in silvery-pink. Because of its two-toned color pattern, there is no need to mix this beauty with another tulip, as it stands out all on its own.

When and How to Plant Your Tulips

Be sure your tulips have been pre-chilled. In order for tulips to receive a proper vernalization, and thus develop a flower bud, soil temperatures must remain at a constant between about 45 F and 50 F degrees. In our climate, that doesn’t usually happen. Because our winters are not consistently cool enough, and our summers are too hot and dry, hybrid tulips typically will not perennialize in Texas. They must be pre-chilled and re-planted each year. There are a few species tulips that will make return appearances, but they are much smaller in size than the classic “Dutch hybrids.”

The best time to plant your tulips is when soil temperatures have reached 50 F or below. That is typically after Thanksgiving. I’ve found that the second and third weeks of December are usually prime time for planting tulips. I recommend getting your tulips into the ground before the end of December, and I urge you to plant them deeply! By planting your tulips6 to 8 inches deep (from the soil surface to the top of the bulb) you will ensure that your bulbs bloom at the right time and not too early.

The Pox must be tapering off at this point because the gals have started laying again. I think I can also now officially say that all 5 are laying. I do believe that Phyllis, the Polish, has just started laying her first eggs...she is obviously a very late bloomer. I've tried to identify which chicken is laying which eggs, well, because I think that's fun! Each bird will lay a specific color egg, and always lay eggs close to that color. The different breeds obviously also have differences between size and color. Here is my best guess at this point:

From left to right, Honkers, Eunice, Pecker, Phyllis and Einstein. Now, I do think the pox is still effecting some of their egg sizes. Einstein's eggs were bigger pre-pox and molting, so I expect they will go back up in size a bit. Same thing with Eunice (the sage green egg). I expect hers to go back up in size a bit too. You can see the difference between Phyllis's (Polish) eggs, which are more elongated and a lovely pinkish color and Einstein's (Houdan) which are pure white and more round.

I must say, Honkers is laying some honkin' big eggs right now! On the left is a large organic free-range egg from Whole Foods. On the right, is one of my eggs. My yolks are much more orange than the WF eggs as well. I must say that I think I'm kinda kicking WF's behind!

It was a beautiful Sunday and the bees were out makin' hay while the sun was shining. I have a lavender passion vine that is still blooming like crazy right now and the bees are much appreciative. I try to have plants blooming in my garden as close to year-round as I can so the bees have something to feed on. It comes in handy when you need them around to pollinate your veggies or fruit trees. Just thought you guys might enjoy this photo.