It's that time of year again...

...where mother nature starts to warm up and you think the forecast is looking good to you proceed to take everything outside because the lows are only in the 40's. The extended forecast swears you'll have near normal temperatures, or maybe even above. You think Spring is here.

NOPE, I'm not falling for it this year!! 3 years in a row I've been burned with late freezes or frosts, so to speak. Course this will be the year nothing happens from here on out.

What about you folks? Are you taking anything out already now that we seem to finally be at the end of winter?

Nope. I'm not taking anything out. I too have been burned the last couple of years. I'm not taking any chances even if this is the year we don't get a late frost/freeze. The joke will be on me. But, if the temptation gets to be too great, I might take a couple of plants out during the day and place them in the garage at night (less shock because of changing temps).

Me either .. Everything is staying PUT in the GH til the end of March. The weather has been waaaaay inconsistent to take any chances.

I'm with you! it aint coming outta hiding unless it's potted and I can move it back if need me..which doesn't leave a whole lot!

My bananas are putting out new leaves. Edible and inedible ones. I might have a shot at bananas this year need one to flower in the next month or two and I would have a shot I think.

Only my basjoo have shot out new leaves so far. The Dwarf Cavendish I think all survived outside (*stunned*) and they too appear to be coming to life. But I had one DC bloom and flower last March and even by November it wasn't ready - ended up loosing the bunch in the first hard freeze in late November. Maybe I should have dug it up.

This link is most helpful for Freeze / Frost Occurrence Data. It gives
3 tempertures and 3 probablities for many different areas of NC.
read carefully, b/c it can be confusing
http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim20supp1/states/NC.pdf

I've heard the last frost date is anywhere from April 1 - April 15th for us here in central SC, but it's been closer to the 15th the last few years oddly enough. In 2008, I took everything out in mid-March because it was in the 70's and had it not been for one final frost in early April, that'd have been a perfect spring. This year I'm not even taking anything out until at least April 10th when I can see the 10-day forecast.

It has been nice lately, but it's still pretty chilly for mid-March. Normally we'd have close to 70's every day by now. The soil temps have finally crept up into the high 50's, but I'm still not planting any bulbs or anything until it rises into the 60's just to be safe.

I don't ever know when or if we will get a freeze but it's not uncommon for me to be warm all the way thur Christmas. It would be nice to get a bunch of bananas but a lot of if/than's have to happen.

Nope! El Nino is a squirelly weather system, and that's what we've got this year. The deciduous trees haven't started to bud out yet here (at least 2 weeks behind schedule, and counting...). But that's always been my signal that it's OK to start moving things out of the GH. Put them under the emerging canopy to get their "sun leaves", after over-wintering in a uv-protected GH, then move them out to full sun 2 weeks later. The emerging leaves of the deciduous canopy seems to let just enough direct sunlight through to get their juices flowing but not burn them. I understand this is a very non-scientific approach to adaptation, but it's worked every year, (so far). Could be "beginner's luck", or it could be a recognition that Mother Nature knows a lot more than I do. Don't really care...it's worked so far!

wow what a beautiful but windy day .. spent most of it transplanting seedlings to bigger pots.

X

Today was a day you'd want to take everything outside. I've taken one set of plants out on a cart - but that's it. If I need to I can just roll it back in the garage.

Stono, I may have to try that with the garage plants - it might definitely help keep them from getting burned so badly. Some of the palms can go weeks without putting our leaves, so I always hate to see them get fried bc I know it's going to be a while before I get any nice looking leaves again.

I did break down and put a few frost tender plants out. I think they can handle the chily nights. I'm keeping a close watch on the 10 day weather forcast. Keonikale, I like your idea of putting them on a cart. I did plant some summer bulbs yesterday. I'll just have to keep a close eye out for emerging leaves and cover them with pinestraw when the last frost threatens.

I'm moving some things out of my house and to the new GH, but that's about it. I have some cannas that I have left in the ground the last two years, and they always come back, and they are already shooting out about 5-6 inches with new growth. But I agree about the trees. We normally would be seeing signs of life on them, but so far, still nada in Raleigh, NC (in my yard, anyway).

Our trees are still just fuzzy .. though the Bradford Pears are putting on a nice show.

X

I love Bradford Pears ... they're so pretty and "soft" looking ... like a tree of snowfall.

I did notice a little new growth on one of my trees when I was on the back side of the yard today. I guess that's a good sign, though I dare not put anything outside into the elements for at least another month or so.

When we drove up to Charlotte today I would swear the trees up there had more buds and growth on them that we have down here in Columbia - very strange. Part of the yard has come to life (basjoo in particular), while other plants still lay dormant (like my cannas and most other bananas). Strange spring thus far.

I was in Columbia last week and your Bradford Pears and Redbuds were a week or so ahead of ours down here. Ours are just coming on nicely now.

Very strange.

My nectarine bloomed 2 weeks ago and is leafing out now. My fig, pomegranate and persimmons all have small buds.
Yea!
I brought all my tropical hibiscus out of the greenhouse in the past few days and am hardening off hollyhock, leek and a few other babies.
Barb

Remember the infamous "Easter Freeze"?? Well, I do, because it was the first time ever, in 20 years of being together (and me begging) that I got my spouse out on a camping trip. He brought shorts and a light sleeping bag. And it was 14 degrees that night. In the "South."

It'll be another 20 years before he goes again, and before I put my tender plants out too early!!!

This year is certainly turning out to be one of the more tempting yet to pull stuff out. It's been fairly consistently up in the 70's lately, and the low temperature hasn't dipped below 40 in nearly three weeks. The long term forecast also looks to be warmer than average. Mark my words... the one year I don't move anything out early, it's the year the last frost was early March.

On a sadder (plant) note... for some reason my smaller 4' Christmas Palms did not make it through the winter in the garage, and I just noticed over the weekend. I was very sad to see their crownshafts had started to decay and die. I have had trouble with the larger 8' Christmas Palms (trying to figure out the right mix of light/water in the winter), but never my small ones. I'm not sure what happened - maybe they were too shaded under the other tropicals or got to much water. It's hard to say, once they started to die, any of the water I gave them never got sucked up so it appeared to make them too wet when they might not have been. So my only guess was lack of light and/or some sort of fungus in the pot. A third survived, but barely - I think it'll recover.

We've recently moved to the area and I'm loving the spring here. The bradford pears, redbuds and forsythia are beautiful. It's also fun to see what's coming up on the property from the gardener who lived here before me.

Oh dear .. I think I've jinxed everyone .. I put my kerosene heater away and dismantled the greenhouse heater.

X

X - as long as we have someone to blame...;)

Lol .. guess I'm it. Token scapegoat for the next freeze.

X

I may roll the dice myself this weekend... it's going to be in the 80's with warm weather forecast out to April 12th. The chances of a frost or freeze that late is very very rare (last year being the one in a dozen years occurrence).

I will have to decide if it's worth the work, lol... and if I'm bold enough to gamble this year or not.

i put out the rest of my potted citrus.... crossing fingers.....

In 9a you should be able to keep many varieties of citrus in the ground over winter. Mine all did fine with new leaves and flowers coming out this week. Have to say they did lose some leaves over the winter and what's left isn't looking very "fresh' but they'll be looking good again in May.

Depends what you have of course.

Core, I know. I probably could put some in the ground. I'm going to wait until they get bigger to try it though.

Now THIS I like!

I think we're safe, I'm going to start pulling stuff out and putting it into the yard. The long term forecast shows above average temps through April 12th, and the extended one beyond that shows normal temps.

I think even if we get a northern blast, it won't be too bad - especially since we're up in the high 80's already. It's starting to look like we're leapfrogging Spring right into Summer. This weather lately is nuts.

I too, succumbed to the warm weather fake-out, and moved some stuff out of the greenhouse yesterday and today...but only stuff that can take cold nights, plants that I had a lot of, and plants that are in small pots(

Now that I can see the 10-day forecast, I think I'm gonna start planting. The past three years have all been a little out of the ordinary, so I'm thinking we're probably safe. If not, I'll be doing a lot of covering up in 10-14 days or so.

Ironically, our last freeze here was March 8th (at 30F), two days after the last snowfall (which had a low of 24F). We had a three or four additional nights in the high 30's between then and March 16th, but I don't remember any frosts. What are the chances our last freeze/frost just happened to be a snow event weekend? Crazy weather.

Here's hoping mother nature doesn't pull a fast one on me... I'm gonna start planting and take advantage of this wonderful weather. 4th year is the charm? I hope so. Just heard the weather guy say today we hit 90F, which is 1 degree short of the record a hundred years ago. How do you go from having a frigid winter like we had to record heat in early April?

This message was edited Apr 3, 2010 1:26 AM

I have two bags of cedar mulch leftover from another area of my yard. Can I (safely) use that around the tropicals (bananas, elephant ears, hibiscus, cannas) or would it pose a problem/hazard to them, and I should use a different kind of mulch? I'd used regular shredded hardwood around them last year, but have this on hand, and thought I'd use it up.

I've used cedar from Lowe's and have never had a problem.

Thank you. I was concerned that the cedar might alter the soil too much for tropicals (only laying it on top of the soil). That's where I got it from as well. Much appreciated!

No I doubt it, I use mulch that always has a good amount of cedar mixed in and have never had a problem.

Ok, I take back everything I said earlier. I'm hot and sweaty and the plants are out. What happened to Spring? Seems we've jumped on into summer here....

There is a cold front moving through on Friday and it will be back in the 70's .. the temps I don't mind .. the pollen is terrible!

X

I don't know why, but I was thinking that with the more harsh winter we had, it (the pollen) might not be as bad this year. Good thing I'm not a meteorologist!

This message was edited Apr 6, 2010 5:43 AM