New Englanders Know Not to Plant Too Early

I woke up yesterday morning and looked at the calendar to confirm that it was indeed May 1st, because if you looked out of my windows you would have seen a substantial frost on my lawn, so substantial that I had to scrape ice off of my windshield. Ice on a windshield on May 1st, it must be New England. Just the week before I was contemplating turning on the AC.
I am glad that I am a seasoned New Englander and not a recent transplant. My husband and I were at our local Lowes's checking out new bay windows, ours has seen better days, and as we were leaving we strolled through their garden center, which because it was a gorgeous warm early spring day, was mobbed with customers. We were surprised to see annuals all set out, and we were even more surprised to see folks stocking their carts with pot after pot. Been there, done that. A true gardener in the north (unless they have a hothouse) knows that planting anything before May 15th is just asking for trouble. I am willing to bet, that all the recently planted impatiens and geraniums as well as the recently purchased hanging planters have fallen victim to that heavy frost.
Most local garden centers simply have pansies and potted perennials for sale this time of year. All of the flowering annuals generally are still in their greenhouses, while the hardier varieties of plants are for sale outside.
One would hope that the staff of the big box stores would at the very least give a heads up to customers that if they plant these annuals early, they should listen to weather reports and be ready to run out and cover the plants to protect them when frost is in the forecast.
I remember my father in law, who lived in NH telling me he would not dare to set out any vegetable plants until Memorial Day, for fear of frost. RI is a bit warmer than NH, so we can start about 2 weeks earlier. May 15th seems like it will never come! I'm anxious to get my hands dirty, and see flowers growing in my window boxes, on my steps and in the ground!