DENVER (KDVR) — This week’s record-breaking temperatures have many of us excited to get some spring planting done.
“It is beautiful, 85 degrees today and I couldn’t be happier,” said one shopper at City Floral Garden Center, filling his cart with colorful blooms.
Gardening experts tell FOX31 patience is a virtue during what they call a “Colorado shoulder season,” which is a transition period marked by dramatic shifts in temperature.
“Unless you are planting in pots that you can bring indoors, it’s really too early to go into things like petunias or geraniums,” said City Floral Garden Center spokesperson Candace Wickstrom.
The staff at the garden center is getting things ready for the spring rush, carefully labeling items with information and identifying which plants are cold-sensitive.
“We are getting shipments of perennials everyday,” said Wickstrom.
With another probable cold snap in store for Colorado, Wickstrom advises planting hardy plants like pansies and perennials.
“If you want color, look at the pansies, snapdragons or these beautiful poppies. You can also plant bulbs if you didn’t do that in the fall. We have started bulbs and forest bulbs that you can put in planters or straight in the ground,” said Wickstrom.
Now is also the time to prep your garden for hardy vegetables that can withstand shifts in temperature.
“Choose peas, your carrots, turnips, beets, you know, lots of things that you can get a start on early. Cabbages, broccolis and get a crop say by May,” said Wickstrom.
Gardening experts warn that even covering sensitive plants with plastic won’t guarantee they will survive cooler temperatures this time of year.
Wickstrom tells FOX31 the frost free date in Colorado is Mother’s Day.