Good afternoon M, well heavy snow will keep your trees asleep nicely until the right time to wake up hopefully. Is it going to be a normal year weather-wise, !!??? Let's hope so, some normality would be very welcome. Regarding skating and ice, I've seen it's the same for Scotland, lots of snow but no skiers. There is a word for this, but won't repeat it on the forum, Lol.
Hello D, today is almost like spring with 10C and sunny so the trees are in for quite a shock as some shrubs are beginning to leaf out and bulbs are coming up! Fortunately my maples are showing no signs of waking up yet.
That is Spring like, but as you say a shock to come temperature wise. I've been watching my Katsura very closely, as it's always the first in my garden to leaf out, but always the one that gets hit by a late Spring frost. But who knows in these crazy times we are living through atm. Blijf Veilig
Here it comes !!! Back to sleep for our trees, Lol. UK weather: Met Office issues warnings for rain and snow lasting until next week
Still quite warm here (min. 7, max 12), but it will get down to 0° with a few snowflakes on Sunday night. Well, that's what they say...
The forecast for next week predicts down to -25°C. That's colder than records of several latest winters. That makes me worry about my inground figs. Luckily we have plenty of snow this year, but my faith in global warming is about to die. It seems, that the global warming was cancelled, after they shut down oilshale based power plants in Narva. I just got fresh cuttings of Ronde de Bordeaux, Hardy Chicago and Brown Turkey, but it seems that growing figs in Estonia will be greater challange than I expected.
That is extreme weather Sulev. I don't think anybody else on the forum has temperatures like that. Unless anybody knows different???
Friends who moved back to Saskatoon, SK a few months ago face -36C today (feels like -48C). They're not gardeners though; just golfers.
After an unusually warm winter so far, it looks like it's our turn here on the west coast of BC to deal with more extreme weather in terms of cold temperatures. Alerts are in effect throughout the entire Province. I hope don't I need to worry about my Japanese maples if it gets as low as the predicted: -8C. I have a stash of sheets to throw over my rhodos whose buds can be damaged in freezing temps but the maples are too large to cover. Wait, watch and hope. :-) Could that be a title for a new book?
Good morning Margot, as they are still fast asleep they should be absolutely fine. It's always the late Spring frosts that gets to mine. But perhaps as the weather seems to be following a normal pattern this Winter, I'm hoping that the rest of the year will do also.
I got -20ºC in the morning and on the ground even -28ºC was measured in the nearest weather station. That turns my experiment for overwintering fig trees in ground pretty extreme. The average temperature of January was 6ºC colder than last year.
That is so very cold Sulev and something I have never experienced. It's going down to -6° C here tonight and we are already panicking. Lol. But I am a softy Southern England person!!!!!
100 km eastward from me -29.5ºC was measured in the air in the official weather station (people from this region sent me photos of their home thermometres with below -30ºC on display). Unfortunately that small weather station does not measure the ground temperature, but it could have been near -40ºC there, as we had clear sky in the night. My closest weather station (8 km away from me) measured -17.5ºC in the air, but -28ºC on the ground. The positive side of that - nice ice flowers were on windows this morning. I can't even remember, when I saw such beautiful window frost recently.
If you can understand this Sulev , 'Mind boggling'. It basically means people like me cannot comprehend or understand those extremes in temperatures. I can see why your maples struggle...... This is a great thread started by @AlainK to make people aware of the difficulties faced in growing plants all over the world. I have certainly learnt a lot.
I don't worry about my young maples too much, they are covered with half meter thick snow cover and snow is a good insulation. My fig trees are under 2.5 meter thick snow cover. This arctic frost is leaving now and we will get more softer winter again, around ca -5ºC. I am glad, that I got my fig cuttings from the Netherlands a week ago. Exposing to below -15ºC might had them killed.
Some more snow tonight for us, then on Sunday, and a lot more in the middle of next week. February is living up to its reputation. I am tired of it already. Cannot wait for all the snow to eventually melt. Temperature is not too bad though, between -8C and 4C.
Here we have -12° to -13° in the morning since 2 days. That's a good thing for nature but less for those who are waiting for spring to enjoy their trees starting to bud break. Have to be patient, we are not so far now.
Well it was the coldest day in the UK since 2010, it got to -22.9C in Scotland, so not far off the extremes from @Sulev and @Margot. Here it was -7° C last night, so not as bad, but cold enough. Expect R @dicky5ash and M @ROEBUK are shivering this morning looking at the weather map ?? How is it in Kent J @Houzi, maps are saying you took quite a hit. I agree with N @Nik, it's time for some warm sunshine now to cheer us all up. -13°C for I @Shin-Deshojo means the trees are going to take a while to wake up, but that's not a bad thing tbh. I wonder how the Spring like weather is atm for you M @MapleMO, has the cold got to you? How about Alain @AlainK, last you said was a few snow flakes. Think you are further South, so may have escaped the freeze. The same for Emery @emery has the Acertum escaped the white out? I expect J @zfrittz and Monica @monicasanchez are basking in warmth now and getting close to posting those lovely new Spring shoots. I looked at the Noth America weather map and see they are talking about a polar vortex. How is it D @LoverOfMaples ? Also expecting J @dangerine49 to be a couple of feet under snow still. Bet Harry is getting fed up with this now, lol. Would be interested to hear how C @Cjart, G @wind-borne, S @Atapi, K @kbguess , J @Osoyoung, A @vbx, are coping. It does make our forum so close when we hear how things are and especially atm during these difficult times. Anyway hope everyone's doing OK and hope others will update this thread on how they have got on this Winter. Such a good thread. D
The snow began to fall on Tuesday night and stopped at noon on Wednesday. Between 5 and 10 cm, and since the weather is very cold (-12°C this morning !) it's staying on the ground though it was sunny yestarday and this morning too. Photos taken on Tuesday night (a Lonicera nitida trained as a bonsai, it looks like a cedar in the snow), Wednesday afternoon and yesterday (the larch look good too) :
And I thought you might miss it Alain !! Wonderful photos and with the hint of sunshine makes for a very pretty scene there in Orleans.
That's very cold. Some of the maples here would probably object. We had -7C this morning, already cold enough. We are lucky to have a mitigating effect from the surrounding forests, and the height, though we pay in other ways. Still for snaps like this it can be as much as 5° colder in the low parts of the village. We got a couple of inches (maybe 3-4 cm) of very powdery snow, the roads are quite treacherous. Not that we're going anywhere! The rest of the pots are in a mostly open stable, I've stapled up some tarp to keep the airflow down there, as there could be a few tender maples to worry about. I had moved some tropicals and sprouting seeds inside a building where it doesn't freeze, but left some near a window I hadn't noticed was broken; they were frozen solid yesterday morning. The seed (a tray of A. pictum f. ambiguum) actually seems OK, I brought it in the house. The one I'm really worried about is A. albopurpurascens, which has been frost delicate before, and of course the subtropical planted trees (coriaceifolium, paxii, laevigatum etc) who may be in for a tough ride. It is overcast today, which is better for maples! Extreme cold with bright sun and/or wind (we have a bit of that too) can lead to sever winter burning. Still, makes a change from the mud, and if it slows down the early leaf out, that wont be all bad! Good luck everyone. cheers, -E
