It is 60 F right now, and was 60 F for a high yesterday last night was 24 F, tonight, I don't know yet. A few nights ago it was -4F. For several hours. We have partial melt, I was able to look at some things, my Live oak "late drop" are still holding ugly tan leaves, with buds that still look promising for spring leaves to eventually come out. This winter has been a real pain in the butt. It's the first winter I needed a push to get my car out of the driveway, likely the ice under the wet abundant snow.

Nothing real or true about this Winter. Minimum was 5.0 F. back in January but the snow depth has been persistent (maxed out at two feet). Biggest problems associated with roof collapses and other structural damage from snow load, pot holes, and soon...Spring flooding. Minimum tree damage though. Should escape the worst of the next polar express but at a price. Hints of a major coastal storm coming midweek. 50's to near 60 today and tomorrow though.

This is reality for the upper midwest...a small sampling for your viewing pleasure. Things are getting ROCKED by the sun now and these aren't even my variegated conifers. Late Feb and most of March is where the most damage can happen due to the increased intensity and duration of the sun, along with freezing temperatures and frost extending 6' into the ground.

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Wow, no pleasure in that! Were they established plants, or more recent? Is long-established plant/tree life also being affected?

Kinda makes me wonder, Whaas. We, one hundred miles further north, do not appear to have that same level of "burning" going on. I mean, none really, beyond the highway-side white pines that always look bad by now. Hell, go yet another 60 miles or so further north, and things look just fine.....to the point it almost seems they'll come through winter in great shape. Of course, all my little guys-the 6000 we planted last spring, etc...are and have been buried under snow for months now. I don't expect to see burning on them!

Quite a bit of "thunder sleet" Thurs. evening. That was interesting. Meanwhile, far NW WI had the slightly more well-known thunder snow, 18 inches worth. Peeps can't get out to see all the ice caves up by the Apostle Islands anymore.

+oM

I wouldn't expect much burning in your neck of the woods where you hit zone 4. All your going to have are zone 2, 3 and 4 plants like Picea abies, glauca, pungens and Pinus strobus, resinosa etc. Same as here you should only see burning on yew, boxwood and alberta spruce.

Most of what you see are zone 5 and borderline zone 4 plants. Doesn't help that they are only 3 to 4 years in the ground and some are now getting up to 10 hours sun.

Siberian spruce in full sun locations are now showing just a little bit of burn.

Surely what you see will likely live but they will be weakened. It is what it is. I just want to get out of the damn house where my two young kids bring home the nastiest crap from daycare.

Part of the problem is the reflection back off the snow, too. Some MAY re-foliate in spring.

Yes, there is some truth in that, whaas. However, I've got those blue Lawson's cypress planted up there in Z4. But heck, they've been completely snow-covered since Dec. Kind of hard to really gauge anything by that. It does appear to have been a good idea to cage around these 4 plants. Deer tracks like crazy all around. Still, my Thuja o. forest , as I'm sure I've related here before-gets no browsing whatsoever. Kind of strange all in all. Those things, BTW, do appear to be having no problem coping with this winter so far. I have seen widespread burning on Thuja o. stands in certain harsh conditions in the past. But again, this winter, thus far, does not seem to be providing those conditions.

+oM

Obvious spring is on now. Elms, silver and red maples flowering. Clethra Ruby Spice and Hummingbird as well as Aesculus pavia (pictured) breaking bud. Magnolia flower buds shedding outer cover. Redbud flower buds swelling rapidly. This all seemed to happen since I became hospital bound Friday morning. When spring decided to start, it went into a full sprint!

It's coming my frozen friends, it's coming

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Sun, Feb 23, 14 at 16:41

Get well, j0nd03, whatever ails ya. I won't say I can't imagine spring starting this early in the year-I can-but talk about what a difference a few hundred miles makes! We won't be seeing/feeling that particular yearly phenomenon for some time yet.

+oM

Tom, fortunately (or unfortunately) I will be reminded of my newly acquired "ailment" daily for the next 18 years at least! ;-)

whaas,
Sorry to see your plants are having such a tough time. I was sweating it a couple years ago after we got to -25F. But we didn't have a bunch of conifers telling us they were unhappy by turning brown either. I have every compassion for you and your conifers.

As for spring, John has been enjoying the fact that he is already beginning to show some spring for at least the last 7-10 days. He sent me a audio clip of the frogs croaking last week (for you very urban folks, frogs and later crickets, are as much of spring as flowers in our part of the world). John is significantly ahead of my location, despite that I'm only about 70 miles north and 800-900' elevation higher. Still, I'm seeing lots of signs here, that were nowhere to be found just a week ago. We have a chance for some snow this week, and it looks to be much colder for the next 10 days at least, but it's all downhill from here.Same for all of you.

Arktrees

The spring migration is ON

Here is a link that might be useful: Birds gorging themselves

Now that's funny, I imagined JOnd03 being a guy named John, cute kid, BTW. Congrats.

Husbands can go to the hospital when a baby is due. I always did. :-)
Congratulations!
Mike

Congrats!!!

Thanks everyone! Third time being a father. This one seems easier than the first two. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this...

Just wanted to add a tidbid to this thread. Saw a number of Silver Maples in full flower yesterday, along with Elms that very obviously have swollen buds and about to flower. There was none of this over the weekend. This flowering is despite the fact the weather had cooled considerable the previous couple of days. Also seeing the first Crocus as well. We are not done with winter (it's currently 16 degrees with 2 shot of possible winter weather in the forecast), but spring appears to be "chomping at the bit" ready to get it on. Take heart northern readers, spring in process, and appears to be very aggressive this year.

Arktrees

I'm watching the news this morning looking at all the ice dams in the upper midwest with temps in the teens.
Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the first rhododendron blooms of the season. This one is called 'Olive' and I usually get pictures of the blooms with snow on it. Some snow is forecast for later this weekend.
Sticking with the conifer theme, can you find the Thuja plicata?
Mike

I saw a bunch of snow outside. They say it MIGHT go up to zero tomorrow. I did some basic pruning, but for my smaller stuff I had to dig down several feet in the snow.

Congrats j0nd03! Very nice. I'm a grampa now and man I got to tell you, it's all true-the stereotypes about how you cherish your grandchildren! That being said, it is important that us tree-loving types have kids/grandkids......we must pass this love of nature forward!

+oM

It's 4 F now and is forecasted to be -2F for a bit in early AM. This is definitely a winter to remember, and or for the record book. I will literally make a note of it, because in a year or 2 I will forget which year we had the brutal winter in zone 6 Pa and surrounding areas.

About 0F again here. Some astonishingly low temps just north & northeast of Lake Superior -- below -40F.

Started having a faucet run 24/7.

Some Rhododendrons and hemlocks are pretty brown as well as one Chaemacyparis.

Magnolias at the Stephen F Austin campus are in bloom. BTW, Mike's picture above made the GW garden pic of the day so congrats to him. His garden could be featured weekly in all honesty...

And I saw this at the pediatrician's office earlier today. Hang in there just a bit longer guys.

Edit: Oh yeah, freezing rain/sleet mess coming for me and Ark Saturday night into Sunday but it is looking like we won't be hit quite as hard as it looked initially

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Fri, Feb 28, 14 at 18:55

John,
NO hate for anyone else, but I don't need anymore ice and snow for this winter. I appreciate the pics as it's feel pretty freakin cold out here at the moment.

Arktrees

The cold air is pouring down a little faster than expected. Just upgraded to an Ice Storm Warning. Yay...

Been thundersleet off and on all morning at my house. About an inch of sleet so far, with light snow occasionally mixed in. Got a while to go yet.

Arktrees

JOnd03, Sorry for the assumption you were the mom, congrats either way, you know what I mean.

NBD, poaky. I don't think I've ever been confused for a woman IRL. A grandpa once, but never a woman. I think the beard helps.

All of my daffs and tulips have poked through the soil and are on their way up!

After spending a few days encased in a glaze of freezing rain/ice and then buried in a couple inches of sleet and snow, the a. pavia I posted above has continued to push. We'll see if there is any damage from the cold (two nights in a row near 10*). This is about 11 days since the last pic.

Does anyone familiar with this species know if they are normally this early? I have read they are a good nectar source for early arriving hummingbirds but this seems a little too early

Hey Jon,

A. pavia is the by far the earliest to bud for me and my plant is on a north facing slope near the house. It is extremely resilient to freezes and frosts. As the earliest to bud it one of the first to drop as well. I don't think I'm going to get you those weigela until June!lol

Well its no question that this was a very harsh winter for many.

Few stats for us....

Potentially going to break the record for longest streak with snow on the ground.

Potentially going to break the record for number of days with measurable snow.

11th Coldest winter on record

6th greatest number of days with sub zero temps (40 total - average is 12)

Its basically the worst winter since 1978/1979.

It was spring today for several hours. I checked my marginally hardy plants. My Mags, wild EG Grandifolia?, and Brackens Brown B look weatherbeaten, but buds are good. My Quercus Virginiana "late drop" are as follows: The tallest one has some top dieback, but underneath branches look good, dog yard 2 of them have some top die-back, but under-neath branches are okay. I think if it weren't for the last 2 -0 F evenings they would have bounced back with no die-back. Also their youth, with pencil lead thick branches was a factor. There are some that look like the are goners, they were planted in the fall, and didn't get roots in the ground to combat biting drying winds. I had one fall planted one that is likely to come back fine, it had a thick PVC pipe over it, and it fell onto the ground. Somehow being flopped to the soil level seems to have helped, plus it was close to the neighbors house.

Things still moving along down here... Might get a little snow tomorrow...{{gwi:329486}}

duplicate*

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 18:24

The most accurate word describing this winter in my neck of the woods would be persistent. It's been a heck of a lot colder, we've had worse snow covers. But this one started early here and has just hung on, with very little break, especially during the polar vortices. I'm just thankful I retired three years ago and am not heating a range of greenhouses with expectations of making a profit. I'm heating one I kept for my personal use just above freezing. I don't think I've ever seen the ground frozen as deeply as it has this year, either. I know you all want warmth, but last year we had a late, cool spring and I'd rather go that direction than have all my fruit crop (what survived) annihilated by an early, warm spell and then plunging temps. I am seeing more than usual death in my grape vines .......some of my rhodies suffered, and the conifers are nastier brown than usual. Edith Bogue was insulted, but she'll get over it. I'm not going to make the same mistake I made last year, putting in my vegetable garden after the supposedly last frost date. It froze but good two weeks later. I saved everything, but not without gargantuan effort.

It's too early to say most of winter is over. But I think the super cold (below zero) is done with. I will be starting some seeds in my basement soon. First will be Cabbage, broccoli,snap peas,

I thought the same as to avoiding early season freezes. Although after surveying the damage over the last couple weeks, I'd rather have a hard freeze kill off all new growth then have such a deep frost depth through April after this winter. I think back to 2012 when we had 70s and 80s in March then in April things got zapped. Lost but a couple plants and limited to no tip damage.

My landscape at my current home isn't as established so the loses and damage are severe. Not tip die back but death. Along with trunks, main laterals coming off the main trunks have brown cambium.
Average min lows mean nothing to me anymore. The persistence of the cold is what has been so damaging. I looked back at some of the casualties and the majority are zone 5 with a handful of not so surprising casualties but I have some zone 4 plants declining quickly.

With the longer days and the sun's intensity increasing it continues to dry out the plants that aren't able to cope. Soil has been frozen too deep and too long at this point. Any gains of thawing out the 1st inch of soil is quickly erased with a day like today with lows in the single digits and highs in the teens.

I believe ice cover records began in 1918. This March we broke a 37 year all time ice cover record for Lake Michigan. We didn't have record lows but this winter is sure one for the ages.

Lesson learned, and I actually planned to do it this year, plant more shade trees (zone 4 or lower) throughout the yard so the silhouettes can shade my garden beds during the winter. Any areas with winter shade, even dappled from near by tree silhouettes, have much less damage. Cambium is green and juicy for even the ones with damage. Go to areas with full sun and you can snap the branches/shoots of a similar species.

67 degrees yesterday, and heavy snow with 1-2" wide wet snowflakes today just after 11AM. Some of the biggest snowflakes I've seen. Saw some bigger when I was 12-13, but that's it. Yeap, weather in this part of the world can be a bit changeable.

Arktrees

This post was edited by arktrees on Sun, Mar 16, 14 at 13:00

Any of you northerners considering a move south after this winter? Seriously, I don't how you do it.

Looks like a couple more frigid shots of cold headed your way over the next week -10 days. Hope the pattern changes for you guys up there soon.

I'll post this again here since it's relevant:

Here is a link that might be useful: More cold waves

The good news, if there is such a thing...most of the time, the coldest Marches are followed by a normal to warm April. Interestingly, the coldest Aprils often follow a rather mild March.

So here's to hoping for a nice warmup in April.

We're likely to see a cool spring due to the record ice coverage of the great lakes.

The frost depth and winter sun are really causing issues at this point. My casualties are unbelievably severe on zone 5 plants and now creeping on zone 4 plants where they don't have shade from the house or tree silhouettes. Its quite relevant that more mature, established trees have much more tolerance. 4 years of establishment meant nothing apparently.

I guess its a year of rebuilding!

Wonder what a "cool spring" entails. I bought me a mini-greenhouse to put IN my 8X6 greenhouse. For veggie and flower seeds. Not much help for my trees though. I thought I saw a damaged new sprout on my biggest live oak, but it may be from last summer. A late sprout that was TOO late. I am going to try some seeds from Sheffeild's seeds, of Quercus Fusiformis var. Virginiana. I already sowed 2 of them. I know I had a "true" winter for my yard.

Bradford Pears are heavy with buds/blooms and just beginning to open. It's 3/18 and we just had a freezing rain storm. I secretly was hoping this would be too much for them and they'd succumb. Wishful thinking I guess.

Allergy season is in full swing. Spring is here :-( :-l :-) ;-) Like JQ, our Callery pears are getting very close to full bloom in town. Forsythia is a little behind though. Redbud look to be flowering by this weekend with a couple 70* days tomorrow and Friday.

At the house cedrus deodara, prunus, malus, salix, aesculus, and heptacodium all have leaves. Bald cypress has open pollen cones. A late hard freeze will be devastating at the rate things are waking up down here.

Pic is a magnolia stellata 'Royal Star'

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Wed, Mar 19, 14 at 11:05

Whaas=

How close are you to the lake? What percentage of new trees (or even old trees) would you say are goners?

I'm over by La Crosse and I haven't seen too much damage yet, but its way too early to tell. I know rabbits got my Hemlocks good...like killed them.

Looks like spring is starting in the South-Central part of the country, hopefully spreading eastward and northward!

It's hard to asseess overall damage yet here. Nothing is really waking up, except Acer saccharinum and rubrum, and witchhazel. Even the forsythias and daffodils are still mostly not yet blooming. I even have some Dutch crocuses (in mostly shade until the sun angle is a bit higher) not blooming yet.

The Cedrus deodaras around here are a bit yellowish at the tips but appear alive. Some other conifers also have some slight yellowing or browning. Especially Pinus and Cryptomeria. A little Acer palmatum I have does appear to have a bit of tip dieback, but it had a very late flush last summer (Aug/Sept) that didn't even defoliate until they were frozen off, so that was to be expected.

Pyrus calleryana does show bud swell, and appears to have not been damaged from our several deep freezes this month.

My wife's rosemary, however, is toast.

hair,
There seems to be a rather thin line in our region of "where" spring has arrived. John is not so far away, but is well ahead of me. I even had snow on Sunday. We have crocus still coming up, with the later flowering the purple and white ones are just beginning to flower. SOME daffodils in a few places, but have seen no forsythia yet. Redbud buds are pushing, but still have a while to go before flowering. But our Roses, Crabapple, and PJM Rhodo's which are normally early, are just beginning to push buds. Its all rather inconsistent for me locally.

Personally, if it helps to avoid the late freeze of death, I can wait a couple weeks longer.

Not that this map will make any of you suffering loses feel any better, but click on the link below. While much of North America has suffered from cold the last few months, that has not been the case for most of the rest of the world.

Arktrees

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:329479}}

Hey Frank, I'll start a different post with pics in a few weeks. Some are completely game over like a Acer truncatum and Japanese Black Pine. No real shockers there.

Picea orientalis, Acer griseum, Fagus sylvatica, Dawn redwood are a few that have the dull green cambium. You'll see both a zone 4 and 5 rating on these plants. A bit surprised on these. Ages range from 5 to 10 years old and 1 to 4 years in the ground.

I'm not seeing damage on the typical plants grown around here like a Thuja, Red maple, Aesculus, White Spruce, Freeman Maple etc.