Mother’s Day snow – Perennial Favorites http://www.pfplants.com Growers of plants particularly suited to Colorado's challenging conditions. Wed, 01 Jun 2016 16:04:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.2 When is it safe to plant tomatoes? http://www.pfplants.com/?p=3434 Mon, 12 May 2014 12:47:05 +0000 http://www.pfplants.com/?p=3434 Continue reading →]]> After spending hours moving hundreds….maybe thousands….of plants yesterday, to protect them from the predicted lows of 24 F. tonight (May 12!) I feel like many of you might feel: NEVER!  And “safe” is a relative term.  I do have a chart that I compiled a number of years ago, showing average last frost dates in spring for some of the nearby locations. Average means that there are years when the last frost occurs much earlier, years when it occurs much later.  When I could find the information, I added the latest spring freeze ever recorded for that location.

Colorado Springs

Average Date of Last Freeze……………May 8

Latest Spring Freeze……………June 3, 1951

Pueblo 

Average Date of Last Freeze…………………..April 30

Latest Spring Freeze……………..June 2, 1919

Rye

Average Date of Last Freeze……………….May 23

Walsenburg

Average Date of Last Freeze: …….. May 9

Westcliffe

Average Date of Last Freeze……. June 16

Last recorded freeze date………  July 1

For those of us who live at higher elevations, any kind of protection for tomatoes, basil, peppers, and all the tender vegetables is really crucial.  Even if a tomato plant doesn’t freeze to death, 40 F. will slow it down and set it back.  I usually don’t plant my tomatoes in the garden until Memorial Day. Some years I never get them in the garden, and just grow them in pots in the greenhouse.  This year I decided to use a Wall O Water and plant one one April  21.  That’s about a month before our average last freeze.  Since I planted it, the temperatures have been in the 20’s many times, and the tomato plant is growing and happy!  I might get my earliest garden grown tomatoes ever! A cold frame, a greenhouse, all of these things make a big difference to tender vegetation!  Here’s what the Wall O Water looks like this morning.

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Tulips today.

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