This morning sure threw a scare into me when I went outside to get the newspaper and discovered it was 19 degrees. And since I didn't turn the heater on in the greenhouse last night, it was probably just about as cold inside the greenhouse.

Weather forecasts were calling for overnight temps in the low 30s, but then cloud cover disappeared and it got downright cold. It's usually 5 to 10 degrees warmer in the greenhouse so I thought if 30 was the bottom, it wouldn't freeze under a roof.

Well, I learned a valuable lesson this morning. It certainly froze inside the greenhouse. In fact, pots where I have bell peppers were frozen solid. But, you know what is interesting? The peppers survived. None of them were lost. But when I went to stick my finger in the soil, it was frozen solid. Kind of strange because I thought peppers were real sensitive. Maybe they are hardy when they are emerging.

Likewise with tomatoes. There are five varieties of tomatoes in the greenhouse, roughly about 400 plants and when I walked into the greenhouse, the thermometer read 24 degrees Fahrenheit. My heart sunk into my stomach. But, you know what is interesting? The tomatoes survived. I noticed a leaf here and there that was wilted, but none of the plants went down.

Garlic, peanuts, onions, corn and blueberries also made it through the night. The blueberries have blossoms and they weren't damaged. But there were several potato plants that got hit fairly hard. Potatoes will come back. I've seen them get hit by frost in the past so that doesn't worry me. 

I just find it interesting that the sensitive plants survived. And that includes cotton. I have two cotton plants that were planted on Feb. 28 that are still growing. They aren't moving by leaps and bounds, but they too, survived the 24-degree bottom in temperature.

Not that I'm going to make a habit of subjecting my plants to temperatures in the 20s, but it tells me that emerging plants are able to withstand more than was previously thought, even some of the tomatoes that are approaching the four-leaf stage. I can hardly wait to get the Siberian variety out, the one that will set fruit at 38 degrees Fahrenheit.