Folk wisdom where I grew up holds that it's risky to set out transplants of tender annuals (i.e., perennials grown as annuals in colder climates) before Memorial Day. The climate where I live now is about the same and I have largely held with that, unless the weather forecasts were exceptionally favorable.

This year I'm going to be away for the last 10 days of May. I've scaled back my plant orders, and I have at most four vulnerable plants coming. All will be greenhouse-grown and probably quite small when they arrive. They'll probably arrive in the first few days of May, so I'll keep them on the back steps (north facing) or the deck (west) and bring them in at night when needed.

But I'll have to plant them on or soon after May 15, so I want to have plans for protecting them. Just covering them at night won't work, since I'll be away.

If the 10-day forecast doesn't indicate any hard freezes, all will be well. But if it does, would it make sense to cover each with a 2-liter soda bottle, bottom cut out (of course) and the cap removed? The worst possible forecast would be some freezing nights and some genuinely hot days, and that's probably as likely as anything else.

BTW, the reason I'm thinking about this now is that 2-liter bottles aren't something I ordinarily have around, so I'll have to start accumulating them before they're needed, if that's what I'm going to use.