This is not a Sky is Falling event, this happens every year in some region or another. Every year throughout the country there will be regions with warm days followed by harsh nights. In my experience, seeds of hardy plants do just fine. A few tenderest annuals may succumb, but truly just a few. As flats have staggered germination, any seeds unsprouted will still sprout.

I have 3 open jugs ready to be transplanted, I've left them open for the past 3 days. They are doing fine.

It depends on what they are. I'd bet ladyrose's are hardy perennials or hardy annuals.

If they had been zinnias or marigolds or impatiens or coleus or any number of tender plants, my money says they would have bitten the dust. Been there, done that, even with the seedlings still in a covered jug.

If I spend good $ on seeds for a plant I know I can't live without, and it's a tender perennial or tender annual, I still give it protection.

Karen

Thank you very much for your reports and suggestions.

I took a chance and put out 4 flats the second night, but still kept the covers on. Perennial foxglove, false sunflower (Helianthus helanthoides), Rose of Sharon, and Convolvulus (figured I'd throw in an annual for good measure). All had sprouted over two weeks prior, and the flats were quite full and lush. Temps in my area were in the high 20's by 5AM. All four flats lost between 50% and 75% of the seedlings, which started out green and shriveled the next morning and are now quite brown and dead.

Lessons learned:

Know your own microclimate. I am less than a mile from the beach, which may have played a part in how cold it was in my own back yard.

Know your container type. The soil in my flats is not as deep as that in a milk jug, and so may not have been sufficient protection for tender roots that most likely froze solid for a while.

I'm glad I did multiple flats of each!

Oh my, Beatrice, I'm sorry you lost so many seedlings! I'm on Cape Cod(but about 3 mi. from the beach) and I didn't lose much---just some cosmos, and celosia but there's planty of time to start up again. That's very good advice about the container type. I lost nothing in milk jugs, but the smaller, shorter containers took a hit.

Teresa

I'm sorry for your losses Beatrice and Teresa. But you have learned a valuable factoid for the future.

Since I lost some important-to-me seedlings once years ago, I'm far more conscientious about protecting from frost. And I never regret it.

Karen

I agree with Karen. And not all seeds have staggered germination. One year all my salvia germinated in February during a warm spell. They all died when we had frost.

Lesson learned!

I don't sow my tender annuals til April.

I do tenders in March or April, depending on weather that year. With weather so warm this year, I did them a couple of weeks ago, around mid-March. But then I don't mind covering them for a light frost or even putting a few special ones in the garage overnight for a deep freeze.

I have been of a different mindset on this than Trudi and others for a long time. It's just one of those times when friends just have to agree to disagree. And I do consider Trudi and bakemom and all the other "tough love" advocates long time friends to whom I will be forever grateful for teaching me to wintersow many years ago. I don't have a friend in the world with whom I agree on everything. ;-)

Karen

Because of the warm temps all of my tender plants have sprouted, even my tomatoes, which came up in mid-March when they usually don't appear until April.

We, too, had night temps in the mid- to low-20s this past week. I threw a heavy drop cloth over the whole lot and all seem to have survived, even the toms and zinnias. My sole aim was keeping the frost off the leaves -- never thought about the roots. I would think it takes more than a few cold nights to freeze the soil, but I'm no expert.

Caryl