I know some members of the forum in a normal year would not be dug out of winter snow till April, this is an unusually heavy and persistent snow year for me in NJ. I wanted to start this thread to capture everyone’s observations.
Last year for example I was harvesting my first Shitake mushrooms and panicking about buds getting ready to break on my plums. I cant even find the ground this year. I have an apple tree and euro plum that have yet to bloom will this be there year?
This is the longest my Hardy Gardenia and Tea Camellias have been covered in snow will they be fine?
This time last year in PA some of my peach buds started to swell since it was 2 weeks of weather above 50 degrees. Then the early start combined with the late frost killed all the blooms.
This year we have 8 inches of snow on the ground and it’s been 19 days since the high was above 29.
Kent, Wa
Feb. 16: Honeyberry flowers opening! This is about 2 weeks earlier that last spring. Early this week I noticed a roadside cherry plum with flower buds popping, so I am moving my spring grafting calendar about 2 weeks ahead.
Tomorrow Sat night will be 17F. It’s the lowest that we got here in VA this year. Not bad. After that, the temperature will climb up to 50s during the day time.
All my gardenias and camellias are doing fine so far. Snow did not bother them a bit. I just hope they will survive tomorrow night, then all will be good. IF every year is like this, I will consider keeping my satsuma owari in ground during the winter.
Low of 6 projected for me Saturday night near Pittsburgh. After that it looks like we might stay around low 30s and a high over 50 one day next week! Spring is coming, time to graft my apples and get them to the hot callus pipe on Sunday!!!
One thing I noticed this year is I have leaf growth well before the flower buds opening. I home this is a sign the roots are awake sooner and the tree will have the energy ti maintain fruitlets and not drop them.
We had a mild winter on the Northern California coast. Right now, my earliest apples are already blooming:
Chestnut crab
Trailman crab
Hunge
Grimes Golden
Sinta
Mott’s Pink
Magnum Bonum
Albemarle Pippin
Winter Banana
All of the local peaches are blooming now, and many of the plums have already finished.
We got a surprise April freeze that actually killed off some of my young apple trees a few years ago. I’d hate to see that happen again. We sure could use more rain, though.
