Local greenhouse explains how to keep plants safe from frost

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – North Mississippi is getting an early taste of winter over the next couple of days.

Overnight lows are expected to be at or below freezing, and that can be bad news for your outdoor plants.

We talked to the pros to find out how you can help your plants weather the freeze.

The cold weather coming in could be fatal to your festive florals.

Mary Tuggle, manager of Walton’s Greenhouse, tells how you can keep plants safe in the winter.

“During the winter time, basically no trimming any more shrubbery or trees right now. You can plant any of that up until the ground freezes so that you build a root system and not fight root, leaf, and bloom,” said Tuggle. “But for your tender bedding plants like the mums, the frost will kill them unless you cover them with a sheet. When it starts freezing, they’re going to die anyway; they’ll go dormant in the soil. You plant them in your yard, the next year they’ll come back up if you prepare the soil.”

Some flowers, like mums, are only in season for a short time.

“This is a garden mum and it’s in season strictly for fall use. A lot of people put them in their pots by the front door for color through Halloween and up to Thanksgiving if they last, but to prepare them for tonight and for the cold weather coming up, you either take them in if they’re still in their small pots or you put a cloth piece of material over it to stop the frost from hitting the bloom because it will burn your bloom off,” said Tuggle.

These flowers are ready just in time for fall festivities like football season.

“It is perfect for those state fans and we have the white to offset that. Put a cloth over them this next night or two and then when the flowers stop blooming, you trim off the flowers, the dead flowers, and then you put them in the ground and they come back next spring,” said Tuggle.

It is important to take proper measures to keep your plants healthy through the winter months.

If you cannot take them indoors, cover them up. Cloth is preferable to plastic.

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