The last frost date for the Washington DC area runs from April 1 to May 15, depending on the year. The percentages are about 50-50 for a last frost date of April 18. Of course, a couple of years ago we had snow in April.

How much further north are you than DC?

I hope you are talking about buying annuals rather than expecting seed to germinate, grow and start blooming by April 23rd.

If you are buying annuals already in bloom, why not just pot them up and then decorate with the pots. That way you can keep the pots sheltered from any drenching rainstorms, which are even more common than freezes in April but can be just as devastating to having lots of blooms looking pretty. Then the actual weather forecasts can govern when you set the pots, tubs etc. out.

If you want to hide the pots, you can always set them on the ground or up on risers (made of anything the right height) and drape with table clothes, sheets, netting, aluminum foil or even sphagnum moss or turf, depending on your budget and decor idea.

I'm right outside of D.C. to the southeast. I had wanted to plant a bazillion petunias along the driveway, in garden beds, etc. How well do row covers or just plain old sheets work for keeping out the frost? I could monitor the weather closely and cover stuff if that happened. Granted, it wouldn't do anything to protect against a sudden real cold snap or snow.

April? How about pansies. They do well in cool weather and will give you some blooms. If you want petunias blooming away, shift wedding to... July :)

Unless you are buying petunias already in bloom and then plan on deploying covers for every major rainstorm let alone frosts, I agree with Cynthia go with pansies. There is almost every color of pansy available and they will thrive on the chill.

So what did you decide to do for the wedding?

I think I'm just going to go with the pansies, maybe snapdragons and whatever else I can find that looks good at the local garden center. I'm off all next week (the week before the wedding), so I can plant a bunch of stuff then.

Some of the tulips I planted are up and blooming and look lovely, but I don't know that they'll last that long. Hopefully my mid-season tulips will be up next. I also noticed that my crabapple is about to bloom, but I don't know how long they stay in bloom. I don't suppose I could entice my roses to bloom if I were to Miracle-Gro the hell out of 'em, could I?

Mircale-Gro may not provide a miracle for the wedding date, but I did notice some miniature roses in bloom at several nurseries. You could always mix in a few pots of exotic blooming stuff with the beds that you plant.

Here's hoping for no major rain showers for your wedding plans.