Peonies are a foot tall and snow is on the way.

[Hoosier Gardener]

My peonies are all more than a foot tall now and my chrysanthemums are about six inches tall. Tomorrow night it's supposed to get down to around 25º and snow. I'm a newbie to perennials. Can I protect these plants or are they gonners? Suggestions anyone?

[Dee]

Not sure, HG. I'm just gonna close my eyes and hope for the best. Peonies are so tough...surely a cold snap won't zap the buds. *gulp* Good luck! I was so sure spring had arrived. Glad I didn't plant out my annuals - they're in my shed still.

[Hoosier Gardener]

Guess I'll do the same thing Dee. We just moved here in February and I was both pleased and excited to see the peonies and mums come up so soon this spring. Now I'm wishing they'd have waited a while.

I had planned to plant annuals this past week but didn't get around to it. Now I'm really glad I didn't. They've now been moved from the storage shed to the laundry room. Don't want to take a chance on them freezing too.

[thy]

If you have old buckets you can place them upside down over your plants, a light weight plaid can help too

Good luck Hope they will be fine

Pia

[Hoosier Gardener]

Thanks for that tip I have a few large buckets that I'll put over part of the peonies. I couldn't figure out what a plaid was until I read that you're from Denmark. I have some towels I can use to cover the mums.

[kHT]

They should do just fine, a little snow is moisture. It's the bitter cold that will do them in and this time of year that won't last here. Ours are up and we are seeing buds already, way to early!

[notmartha]

im not covering a darn thing-I think they will all be fine and I have tomato seedlings in the unheated GH-we shall see!

darn old snowstorm anywway!

[Hoosier Gardener]

Hubby just came in the door. Told me he had covered my clematis vine with the insulated bags we carry in the back of the car for keeping our take out food hot. I hadn't thought of it before but hope it works. I think the father nature has been nipping at the bottle. Why else would we be having this crappy weather?

[Liselotte]

We have had snow 3 times on peonies 8 - 12 inches tall. They can take a lot of cold and snow and always manage to stand up again.
here the first to open today!

[IBOY]

We had 25 degrees a week ago, with everything in the garden almost three weeks ahead of schedule due to a very warm March, so my peonies were two to three feet tall, and other than a little damage to flowers already opening, the peonies were fine. The things that got the worst damage: hostas, ferns (especially asiatic ferns), rodgersias, jack in the pulpits, rhododendrons, Japanese maples, magnolias and some unusual stuff that most sane people in our zones wouldn't (and probably shouldn't) have. Surprisingly many of the mums had their tops damaged, but they need to be pinched anyway, so no big deal. In my entire life I have never seen such damage from a late freeze: some WEEDS even were badly damaged. Good luck!
Don

[Hoosier Gardener]

My peonies weren't damaged during that cold spell. In fact they're now ready to bloom and some of them are three feet tall. This is our first year in this home so we don't know what to expect as far as flower colors.