Freeze coming & Amaryllis in ground - Do I need to cover??

I'm in zone 8b and we have a freeze coming this weekend. I have a lot of amaryllis in the ground with buds on them. Do I need to cover the buds with something or will they be OK? Our temps our forecasted to be down to around 27 at night for 3 nights and the highs will be in the lower 50's. Oh, and if I do need to cover them, do I uncover them during the day? Thanks so much!!

27 for any length of time will damage the buds. Some of the buds may not make it, and some may if you do not protect them. It depends on the variety and a lot of other considerations.

If I were you, I would cover them with a blanket, but most likely you will need to prop the blanket so that it does not break the scapes.

At school, most of the buds survived below 30 degrees,but they were somewhat protected, and it warmer there than it is here on cold mornings.

The ideal solution would be to cover them with a 5 gallon bucket or bigger. Then cover the bucket with a blanket and pin the blanket down with bricks (buckets of water) or whatever you can find.

I will have a light frost here this weekend, despite being above 34 degrees. I live in a valley and the cold air traps into pockets in some areas of my yard. I plan to cover my Johnsonii (which has 2 of 6 blooms opened) with a frost blanket. Two layers of frost blanket will protect most plants from freezing down to 28 degrees, but 27 is pushing it.

Good luck and let us know how they do... There are a lot of us in the south that are going to be bitten by frost in the next 3 days.