Protecting your sensitive plants as freezing temperatures arrive

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The weather across the Cape Fear can change drastically from one day to the next, with temperatures going from the 70s to the 30s in a matter of hours.

With winter now just weeks away, nights with freezing lows are just around the corner, meaning it’s important to know how to protect your favorite plants.

“Bringing them in is your best bet,” ‘The Plant Place’ manager Dee Ivey said. “If you’re not able to do that, by all means cover them.”

Ivey says there’s a certain way to cover your plants to ensure you don’t damage them in the process.

“Put a little bamboo stake down in your plant,” Ivey said. “It king of makes a teepee so they don’t get smashed. Just cover them with the little teepee burlap, whatever material you have. Definitely by doing this, it’ll keep them nice and snuggly and warm at night.”

Ivey says you should place your plants back outside as soon a temperatures allow, so they can have access to natural sunlight.

But Ivey says to keep an eye on the forecast to make sure you don’t forget to bring them in on a particularly cold night.

“Put them back and it could be 2 or 3 days with that warm, nice temperature,” Ivey said. “But definitely under 40, 35 protect those babies. Because they are not gonna want to be out in the cold.”