Ack! More Snow?

There's a chance we may get more snow the middle of this coming week - probably a definitely for the midlands and beyond.

This has got to stop! It's going to be April before I can get anything done!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

X

I second your aggravation... this is getting a bit ridiculous. Normally by this time of year I can at least take a few things outside or start unwrapping plants as temps are typically in the 60's or low 70's - with just a few more cold nights. This year we barely get into the 50's a lot of the time and with more snow likely - it's definitely setting things back a bit.

Guess having winter come late last year is catching up to us this spring.

It's really messing me up .. I was just looking at my March garden calendar from last year and by this time I had divided the gingers and canna and had started to notice growth from some of the brugmansia in the ground. I still haven't dug the canna & ginger and the brugs aren't doing anything.

X

Yeah, I was cutting off all the dead growth to things this weekend finally and noticed a lot of my gingers are actually kinda mushy near the surface - so that's not good. Makes me think all that rain combined with the cold probably did a lot of damage up here. Worst part is, if the soil temps don't start warming up soon, it could be June before most of the underground bulbs and all start growing - and we won't even know what we've lost until it's almost Summer. :(

Once I've finally dug and divided I'm seriously considering covering the beds with clear plastic to warm up the soil quicker.

X

Couldn't hurt. Been watching the climate center for the monthly outlook and I think it's gonna warm up a bit, get us closer to normal. They say soil temps are around 50 degrees now, which is pretty good considering the temperatures we've had and all the wet stuff.

So did any of you receive snow last night? We got a pretty good dusting, maybe even up to a quarter inch or so before 10pm. Then the temperature rose and melted it off a bit - kinda turned back to sleet/rain.

Still, was unusual to see snow so late. I remember one time back in the 90's it snowed on the first day of Spring, but that's the only other March snow I remember.

I got up at 6am this morning and there was no indications that it had snowed.

X

I agree about the soil temps keeping things dormant for a while. We stay cooler in the spring that Wilmington (15 miles to our North) because the ocean's still cold.
I do see daylilies peeking their heads up, along with other bulbs. The only plants I'm really uncertain about is my tropical hibiscus (H. rosa-sinensis) and chinese lantern hibiscus (H. schizopetalus). I have several of the chinese lanterns, so if I loose the one in the ground, not that big a deal. But my tropical, it's the only 'President' I have.
We'll see, won't we???!
Barb

When we hit the 60's for just a few days last week and I noticed most of my bananas pushed up just a tad of new growth. Now that's kind of a surprise because they aren't even supposed to grow with soil temps under 50 degrees. It'll be interesting to see what happens after next week's warmer weather. Maybe all this rain has put some energy into them and they'll pop back to life quicker than expected. But then again, many of my EE's and such which are true bulb plants will likely take longer. But like you said, we shall see. It's been an interesting winter.

We had a good two inches of snow on the back deck Wed morning and the kids where thrilled when school called a two hour delay on Tuesday night! LOL

John- I've noticed alot of mush in the yard too - and my salvia which last winter stayed green all winter (it's a native one I got at the cola plant market last year) has been burnt back nearly to the ground (and it was about 8' tall) :(

we shall see what spring truly brings in the yard - crocus and daffy's are starting, hyacinths capping right now, tulips have the right idea - their only up about 3" - too cold LOL