6 p.m.- Freeze Forecasted For Sunday Morning

10 p.m.- Freeze Forecasted For Sunday Morning

The cold is coming back this weekend.

Many wildflowers and plants are in early bloom after temperatures in the mid and upper 70's in recent weeks.

News 3 called up the advice of some local landscape experts to see how the recent up and down temperatures will impact plants in our backyards.

"This is an ornamental camellia and if the temperature was anywhere lower than 28 you should probably cover this with a sheet," explained Cynthia Mueller of College Station.

Mueller has had a green thumb since she was three and showed us her backyard botanic garden in College Station.

She also volunteers for Texas A&M's Horticulture Department.

Lately mother nature has seemed confused with mild temperatures but a cold morning in the upper 20's is coming back for a few hours Sunday.

"But here you can have an 80 degree day and then all of a sudden you can have a freeze the next day so we have to live with a lot of irregular weather here," she said.

"This is all small seedlings protected inside," said Mueller as she displayed a plastic covering over some of her plants.

She's making preparations now to protect her patio plants before the freeze but says temperatures in the lower 20's to teens would cause more problems than what we'll see Sunday.

"Peach trees with buds that are about to open up into peach flowers are very liable not to have a crop if those small buds are frosted off at this time," said Mueller.

Further south in Navasota horticulturalist David Albrecht won't have too many preparations to make Saturday afternoon at Martha's Bloomer's.

"We've sold a lot of herbs today, a lot of vegetables. They're ready to go," he said.

They will be moving tomatoes and peppers inside out of the forecasted tumbling temperatures.

"You wouldn't want peppers in 40 degrees or anything under that but it, all this other stuff out here, all the soil vegetables it's fine. 28 is not gonna even touch it," said Albrecht.

"So we're gonna have to learn this year what can take it and what can't but I don't think that a freeze like this is gonna make or break many things in the garden," said Cynthia Mueller.

Another reminder old man winter isn't quite finished with us yet.

A good rule of thumb is to cover any plants or landscaping recently planted with a sheet, frost cloth or even towels.

And even big Christmas light bulbs can generate heat for your plants.