Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden prepares for possible freezing temperatures

PHOENIX - The Valley is in for one more night of cold temperatures, so the Desert Botanical Garden is making sure they take the necessary precautions to protect their plants.

The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning for the Phoenix-area until Wednesday morning, which means folks at the Desert Botanical Garden are busy protecting their plants that are susceptible to frost.

Tracey Rhodes, a horticulturist at Desert Botanical Garden, is preparing for another night of potentially freezing temperatures. They aren't taking any chances.

"My mind immediately goes to those few plants and what I can do to protect them and get them through those crucial few hours of freeze," said Tracey Rhodes, a horticulturist at Desert Botanical Garden.

Rhodes says of all the plants they have at the Garden, there is only about five percent that is at risk of freezing, and they do their best to protect them during cold snaps.

"It's a really rare event that we have to do a mass coverage throughout the garden," says Rhodes. "There's usually just individual plants that because of their own nature or their location, that they need a little boost through the night."

For your plants at home, Rhodes says never cover them with plastic, and make sure you're covering the plant all the way down to the soil to maintain as much heat inside as possible. You can also place Styrofoam cups on the ends of cacti to protect them.

"Our plants are very important to us and weather is a big factor in that," said Rhodes.