Tips to protect your plants from the cold

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT)—Some people woke up with frost on their windshields and yards Wednesday, and others even saw some graupel Tuesday.

With more frosty temperatures in the forecast this week, something you may want to do is protect your plants!

"A lot of times, the plants are just unhappy in the cold," said Joe Ellis, cofounder of Sunshine Grow Shop.

Ellis says you'll be able to tell because a plant will wilt and look sad, quite literally.

"It's rare that the frost will actually just kill the plant unless it's a very significant frost, maybe dropping around 30-32 degrees," Ellis said.

Ellis says that as the day warms up, post-frost and the sun has its effect, you'll see, however, if the plant will be permanently damaged or not.

A good rule of thumb to check to see if your plants were impacted is to look at the outer petals of the flower. If they have a little bit of brown to them, that could indicate they were impacted. If that's the case, just pick them off.

Ellis says this is because the thinnest tissue on the plant is the bloom.

When a frost is expected but you can't bring your plants inside or under a porch, cover them with a blanket or towel overnight.

"Throw it across the canopy and then wait till about 10 a.m. or so and take it off. You don't want to come out at 6 or 7 in the morning, take it off and that frost settles a little bit late and you get burned," said Ellis.

Ellis says he does have some recommendations on the types of plants that can thrive this time of year versus those that can't.

"Pansies love the cold weather. If it's a mum and it's got kind of a tight bloom on it, a tightly budded plant, it's probably not going to hurt it at all. But if it was an annual like a begonia or something that's kind of soft, it's probably not going to be very happy today," said Ellis.

Lastly, Ellis reminds people that if they live by a river or creek, their plants could be significantly more impacted by frost.