ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Farmers, growers and gardeners are preparing for the first frost of the season to hit early Saturday morning.
"This is the first widespread frost of the season," Chris Kimble, Lead Meteorologist for the National Weather Service St. Louis tells 5 On Your Side, "We can get frost at temperatures significantly above freezing, but generally we are expecting frost at 36 degrees or cooler. At that level, you can get temperatures at the ground even colder, just cold enough for some ice to form."
It's that ice that has both professional and hobby growers on alert.
Julie Evans Straatmann is Passiglia's Nursery Manager and Buyer, "The thing you want to protect right now is all your house plants and your tropicals that you want to bring in the house for the winter."
Mums are popular in the fall and some of them need a little protection from the cold.
Evans Straatmann says for mums in full bloom, "if you don't put a little cloth over them when we have these frosty nights, then you might get a little burn on your blooms and they don't last as long."
If your mums look like shrubs, she says you are good to go, "they're waiting for the cold to start bursting open the blooms."
The late bloomers need the frost, but not too much.
Evans Straatmann says those mums will stay blooming until the end of October, "The milder your frost easy, the later your bloom will last."
If you think of the fall as break time for your gardening, think again. Evans Straatmann says you can plant trees and shrubs year around.
Keep track of the weather on 5 On Your Side's website.