ST. LOUIS — In only a matter of hours, temperatures went from the 80s to the 20s in St. Louis. Wild temperature swings like that are not pleasant for any being, especially not plants.
The only saving grace of the whiplash weather was the wind that came with it. Winds were strong enough to prevent frost from forming on delicate buds.
Even with the lack of frost, some plants that bloomed during the 70s and 80s were damaged when temperatures plummeted into the 20s early Wednesday morning.
"Unfortunately there's really not much you can do about that," Missouri Botanical Garden Horticulturist Justine Kandra tells 5 On Your Side, "there's going to be some cold damage on those petals and that's just sort of what happens here in St. Louis with our roller coaster ride of a winter."
Eckert's Assistant Farm Manager Jack Lanxon adds, "The warmer it is, it pushes the plants along further and the more it does that, the bigger chance you get for damage to the crops when it drops below 32 like it did."
If home gardeners started early because of the warmth, Kandra says their plants could be in trouble.
"Cabbage, kale, broccoli, things like that. If you started those outside, you are definitely going to want to put some protection on those for freezing temperatures overnight," she said.
Budding trees have little chance of protection. Magnolias that flowered early browned during Wednesday's cold snap.
"It just makes the flowers a little bit discolored," Kandra said. "You see some browning on the edges, some browning on the petals, but the health of the tree is really not affected."
As for resident farms, despite the cold, farmers are sweating it.
"You never know what's going to happen," Lanxon told 5 On Your Side. "Mother nature is a beast, it's very difficult to kind of see what's going to happen and we're at a critical time right now, with the warm temperatures things pushed in the growing stages and we're just trying to save ourselves and protect ourselves this season."
Eckert's peach orchard did take a hit during January's extreme cold, but they told us the crop is looking better than last year's. Lanxon is very happy with how the strawberry crop is looking.
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