cayenne peppers and cold nights

[tjg911]

seems a lot of hot peppers that are not in the tropics grow in hot dry locations and if at elevation fairly cool if not cold nights - in deserts daytime temps of 90 often drop to freezing at night.

pepper plants due to smooth leaves like basil vs hairy leaves like tomatoes are very easily damaged by frost. last night i failed to cover the cayenne plant and the entire garden had frost on the ground yet the cayenne plant and sun gold next to each other were untouched by the frost. the coldest air is closest to the ground but the air temps at 3' off the ground had to be around 33 or 34.

do cayenne pepper plants handle cold to near freezing w/o problems?

tom