Here in the Boston area we had a mild winter and that's kept up into the early spring. Lured by the warmth, I went ahead and planted from packets of flower seed blends of mixed annuals and perennials into several areas outside. The instructions suggested planting 4-6 weeks before average last frost date (April 21-30 here), so I sowed the seed on March 12. In the last week I'm starting to get some (not a lot) germination and some tiny seedlings. Some of the flowers in the mixed seed packets:

• Texas Bluebonnet
• Annual Phlox
• various Coneflower
• Indian Blanket
• Butterfly Flower
• Showy Evening Primrose
• various Coreopsis
• Gayfeather
• Purple Prairie Clover
• Upland Aster
• Black-Eyed Susan
• Ironweed

But our weather is about to change. Over the next four days we're getting hit by a genuine Arctic blast. Pre-dawn temperatures are predicted to be 26 Monday, 22 Tuesday and 19 Wednesday.

I'm pretty sure un-germinated seeds won't be bothered by these freezing temperatures, but I have a suspicion that three seriously cold nights could damage or possibly kill anything that has poked its head up above ground. I think these are moderately frost-resistant flower varieties, but I may be stretching it if it's going down to 19.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

I have some good-sized frost blankets that I used last October to keep a single Morning Glory plant alive and blooming well into November. I have a feeling they'll come in handy over the next few days, but I'm not sure how much good they'll do at 19 degrees.