Warm weather can sometimes hurt!

Tulips, one of our first signs of spring. How can warm weather hurt us? The problem is this: regardless of continued above normal temps., we are still in zone 4. So, this means we can still get very cold temps yet. Continued warm weather, warms the soil, sends signals to plants to wake-up, which would be okay if there was a guarentee we would not get a long period of cold weather. Plants inherently are able to withstand drastic weather changes. It really becomes a temp & time calculation which can spell disaster. One night of cold temps not so bad, day & night for a week, not so good. How can we help avoid this? It's not too late. You still can cover your bulbs with straw, hay, pine needles or leaves. Don't uncover late April, sooner if plants poke through. The mulch helps to insulate the soil and keep it colder, so it doesn't warm up too soon.
We can't be fooled by warm temps into thinking we are in a different climate, frost can still hit us until mid-May, the average of the last frost date. The photo above is all I have left of my beautiful field tulips. After 2 years of the deer eating them to the ground, they got tilled up last year to make room for something not as tasty.