WINDSOR, ONT. -- With snow in the forecast for Windsor-Essex, gardening experts have some advice for how to make sure it doesn’t ruin your flowers or trees.

“It’s the frost we’re concerned about. It’s the tender growth that has started, its soft,” says Vera DiMenna, owner of Provincial Nursery in Windsor.

Any blooming perennials or trees will likely have buds or leaves on them by now, so DiMenna recommends protecting them with yard fabric, or covering them.

“Even if you have empty pots and you have smaller plants you can flip the pail or the empty pot right over the plant and protect it that way as well.”

The good news is, spring flowers like tulips and daffodils should be able to handle this dose of winter weather, according to Wanda Letourneau, Windsor’s horticulturalist.

“They can tolerate the cold.” she says but only if it’s one night of cold weather.

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Any more than that and the blooms on flowers or leaves on trees could get frost bite.

Letourneau is hopeful it doesn’t stay cold the rest of the week, so the weather doesn’t ruin all of their hard work on the city’s numerous flower gardens.

“The display of tulips and daffodils lasts a whole month, total. When this happens and you get inclement weather it could be a week.”

Out in Essex County, farmer Brendan Byrne is happy for the added moisture.

“It’s been a little bit dry,” he says. “We did catch a little bit of rain there that helped but I think in this case, it’s just a little blip that we’ll get through and get onto some normal spring weather.”

Byrne is also the chair of the Grain Farmers of Ontario and he says most regions of the province could use some moisture, be it rain or snow.

“To see some moisture in April so you’re planting into moisture get things off to a good start right away,” he says. “And so far, it’s been a little bit dry for April.”

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