Yes, it make you wonder if this spring will be a big outbreak of tornadoes by having so many tornadoes all ready. We are not even in the peak tornado season that runs from March to May here. From forecasts and weather models it looks like in March we will have some good warm ups (70s and 80s) and probably many severe outbreaks ramping up as well.

Just to add, the southeast does have two tornado seasons: First one is in March, April, May. And the secondary tornado season is in November and December. Tornadoes can occur in February here but it is usually not common and almost never as bad as it has been this year already.

I cannot wait for Spring myself! I have so much to do that I'm waiting on Spring for! I am anxious to see how some new additions fared over the Winter cold. Namely, my banana 'basjoo's, I have one covered up fairly well with mulch about 2 feet deep, the pseudostem protected and plastic over the top, the other one doesn't have the plastic, so it wasn't kept dry so much. Interesting to see how they did, but I have the receipts at the ready for a refund in case they're dead. The labels say twenty below Fahrenheit, and it didn't get nearly that cold here so far.
And I have this one Redbud that I need to prune soon into a single trunked plant instead of the multi-trunked plant that it currently is. Its always nice just to see buds come out on everything anyway. I always get a kick out of my hardy cactus getting growth, for example, after they've been outside all Winter in pots.
Yeah, that early April cold snap here last year was a bummer for sure.
Now, if I can just get a Windmill Palm tree to grow here!
Will

"I made this picture of the little bitty LLP seedling ... the one big, mostly white spurt of new growth IDs it for sure as a LLP"

"I see LLP seedlings frequently in areas I know haven't been burned in my lifetime. Unfortunately they get shaded out and die"

I was thinking it was looking a bit sparse and thin from lack of sun, so it might not make it . . . or try improving its sun access by some pruning of whatever shades it

Resin

It has been much warmer here just to the northeast of atlanta. The past week or two in the 50's and 60's but the red maples aren't flowering nor is anything else but it probably won't be long. March can be a cold month.

Chimonanthus praecox or Wintersweet is really showing off on mild days like this. The bare stems are decorated with flowers resembling yellow waxed paper. I always cut a few from the top and bring inside, very fragrant!
Sam

It has been bitterly cold, and it snowed last night! We donÂt get much snow and what accumulates is blown off to bare ground but does pile up wherever there is a obstruction. The snow was months old and as hard as steel. We need more snow here, but its cold enough already. I donÂt mind the cold, but that snowmelt is needed. Spring is still months away.

The cold is making me somewhat grumpy these past few days, truth be told.

It's been a mild and wet winter here. Today, it was nearly 70 then there were heavy rainstorms. It really never snowed at all this year though there was freezing rain and sleet. Any cold weather has been accompanied by dry weather and sometimes a lot of wind. Ground is saturated and spring flooding is looming. I wouldn't mind seeing some snow before spring.

The cold front that brought the tornadoes gave us a cooler daytime temp - 67 degrees - and it's sending the temp down to the mid-upper 30's tonight, very wintry! I love these temps!
Sherry

Mid-upper 30's-that's a warm spell!

+oM

In zone 4/5 WI terms that would be equal to 5F for Feb 18th. Cold :-)

It was so great outside today. 73 degrees! I hope our trees are fooled by a warm end to the winter. This happened last year and then we had a terrible freeze in April. Mature trees lost most of their leaves due to that event...luckily they resprouted!

"From what I've heard winter on the east coast south of new england has been non-existent with places like NYC and DC getting less than a food of snow this season."

You're absolutely right. I think the snowfall total for my area has been three inches. Good thing I got out of the oil industry last year... Warmer winters mean major layoffs come spring.

The only thing I've noticed sending out new growth are some very small Dwarf Alberta Spruce I have. I haven't walked around much lately though, I'll take a look tonight.

It's so nice to hear of buds and blooms elsewhere. Although it was 60 degrees in NY yesterday, it was also quite wet. Even found a leak in a skylight as a result of the rain this past week, unfortunately.

Some of you may remember the trip I made last fall to Tampa to visit my daughter. Along the way, I stopped at a lot of rest stops and picked up acorns, some of which I've planted in containers, some directly in the ground. The first oak seedling to rear its head that I've seen is in one of the containers where I planted the acorns from the mystery oaks we couldn't positively ID last fall - they were all from south Florida, close to Tampa -
{{gwi:331135}}
Maybe we'll be able to figure out for sure what it is after it grows some more.
Alabama, at least two of the shumard oak acorns are about to come up - I can see the arched stem pushing up through the soil. I'm not seeing anything from the various white oak acorns, including the Montgomery bur oaks - maybe white oaks take longer? I'm eagerly awaiting their appearance!
Sherry

Red maples blooming over here in the area above and to the west of Atlanta. Also saw a magnificent Star Magnolia (huge) blooming at the Atlanta Botanical Garden last week.

No redbuds yet and my service berries are still sleeping. Sherry, thanks for sharing the picture of yours and the blueberry.

Besides trees and other plants, I'm a weather geek also. I just read where we (The U.S.) has experienced something like 6 times the normal amount of tornadoes to date than is the average. There were tornadoes in S.E. Wisconsin in January. That is clearly beyond the norm.

As to what it means for the rest of the year, you tell me and we'll both get rich on grain futures or something!

+oM

Sherry, a few of my Bur oak acorns have already germinated. When I saw them sending out radicles I immediately put them in the ground. So far I haven't seen any above ground growth, so I'm assuming they are getting their taproots formed first. All of my Shumard acorns are still in ziplock bags of potting mix in the fridge, so I need to check them. My nephew asked me a few days ago, "why do you have bags of dirt in your fridge?" LOL. I usually wait until my acorns germinate before I plant them, that way I know I'm not planting duds. Because of our wide temperature swings down here I try to delay germination as long as possible by keeping them cold in the fridge, but sometimes the darned things still germinate too early.

I enjoy posting pictures of any plant or animal, esh - I'm really a total nature nut!
I'm also a weather geek, +oM - is that Tom? I've been watching weather closely since after Hurricane Camille in 1969, and I really got into it when we moved to the country 11 years ago. I got a rain gauge, and I dutifully record the amount each time it rains. When you're into growing things, the weather matters!
Sherry

By radicals, do you mean roots, Alabama? I've seen roots coming out the bottom of some of the individual, smaller containers I've planted some of my acorns in, especially live oaks, so I know that activity happens below before you see it above.
Sherry

Yep, you got it sherry - a seedling radical is the technical term for the first root put out by a seedling embryo.

I have planted some cockspur(?) hawthorn seeds that I have stratified for 2 years, I hope the cool periods were long enough. Alright, so I forgot about the stratified seeds until this fall when i found them and stratified them again for good measure, but still -!

I hope they germinate.

"a seedling radical is the technical term for the first root put out by a seedling embryo"

Well, nearly, anyway . . . it's a radicle

A radical is a type of politician ;-)

Resin

>curse you spellcheck ;)

Hehehe!! I thought maybe Alabama had misspelled it!
And then there are the free radicals that you need to get rid of with antioxidants! :)
Sherry

-1F (-18.5C) this morning after yesterday's 2" of clipper-system snow, so winter's not giving up here. Coldest this winter (yes, I know, Great Lakes & northern plains people will laugh).

It's raining here, again. It's been beautiful and warm lately, and it's supposed to stay that way until the middle of next week when a cold front dips the temps down.
The pink serviceberry buds have opened - they're white fully opened.
Sherry

Our weather turned more brutal and cold this week. We were 35°F(19.4°C) below average yesterday and about 30°F(16.7°C) below average today with sleet and freezing rain. The forecasters have us not getting within 10°F(5.6°C) of our normal high temps for the next 7 to 10 days(always take that with a grain of salt, but it's still kind of pathetic!). It has been since November since we had any stretch of normal or above normal temps longer than 2 or 3 days. It's beginning to look it might not be until April before we see much of normal! This is easily one of the coldest(on average), wettest, longest winters we've had in almost 30 years. The one kind of strange thing is that while our high temperatures have been way below normal, most of the time our low temps haven't been as far below normal(we've just been a steady frigidly cold!) so the coldest temp I've seen so far is about +1°F(-17.2°C). The cabin fever is getting quite high! he he :-)

After a few frosty nights (down to about -4 or -5°C, with daytimes +5 to +6°C), back up to 12°C tonight

Resin

Here's one more pic, this one is my Asian pear. Rainy and dreary here today.
{{gwi:331136}}

* SEVERE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY *

"Low pressure approaching from the Tennessee Valley will continue to spread a mixture of snow and sleet across the region overnight. As warmer air aloft moves into the area after midnight ... snow and sleet is expected to change to freezing rain. The freezing rain is expected to continue through the early morning hours.

"At this time... less than one tenth of an inch of ice is expected before the change to all rain by mid morning Friday. This Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until 9 am EST Friday.

ROFL?

Pam

That is funny, Pam!

Well, okay - ice is not funny, but you know what I mean. The Mid Atlantic has had a dull winter: some cold, some warmth, little snow, a bit of ice, and some wind - a little of everything, but nothing that really stands out. I guess the weather folks are trying to drum up some excitement!

As for spring coming: There are some flowers in bloom here - I forget the type, but they always bloom in February. I don't think they are crocus, but I only see them from the side of the highway when driving by. The maple trees are starting to develop red buds: I keep an eye on the mid-sized red maple in the courtyard for this sign of spring.

So, spring will get here eventually!

Well, it's 71F degrees here - where's the cold front we were supposed to get? I got just under an inch of rain, but no cold weather.
Many of the shumard oaks are coming up, and I found my first white oak seedling showing its head. The bur oaks are in tall, clear containers, and I can see some white roots through the plastic on one of them, so something IS going on under the soil there! :)
Sherry

Sherry,

Are you doing anything to prune those tap roots? That's what I'm doing with oaks in my rootmaker trays. Pulled one out that wasn't doing great and noticed the tap root had alerady been air pruned and started growing lateral roots. It was interesting to see that. I tried growing a bunch a couple years ago and it was a nightmare with long tap roots circling around in the pots so that's how I found out about rootmaker (whitcomb system).

radagast: After reading about bitterly cold weather and mountains of snow, I thought our "Severe Winter Weather Advisory" was funny too. It wouldn't hit the radar screen in most of the country. By dawn, our temps were near 40. No ice; 3/4 inch of rain.

Sherry, after reading about your trip, I collected acorns - many different kinds. I planted most of the acorns from white oaks soon because the radicles were growing so fast. The red oak acorns are still in the fridge. I don't see any sign of life in the pots yet. A few warmer days will help.

Pam

I'm not familiar with the Whitcomb system, Lou, I've never pruned any roots from seedlings in containers. There are a few roots hanging out the bottom of the containers with the live oak acorns in them, even though they haven't shown any top yet. Should I go ahead and clip these off?
Pam, I think we've already finished our freezes down here, since the temps from the cold front we're supposed to have next week have been raised. We get the same kind of 'Winter Weather Advisories' as yours if the temp goes below 32F degrees. I've been listening to a radio station in Minnesota - streaming on the internet - and they said their weather was going to get warm tomorrow with a high of 35 degrees! I was ROTFL!
Sherry

Lou, I used SpinOut pots last year and they worked great for preventing spiraled roots. They look like regular plastic pots, but they are painted with a special copper paint on the inside. This year I'm using the paper plant bands, which is basically like the whitcomb system. I'm anxious the see how well they do.

Sherry,

With whitcomb system such as rootmaker, roots are "air" pruned where the roots are coming out of the holes exposed to air. They just die off causing more lateral branching throughout the root system. It's easy to end up with bad circling root problems with oak trees when they aren't controlled. Makes transplanting into the ground a breeze! In the past, I've had to hack away root circling and I end up with smaller rootball. needlessly to say that it requires longer establishment time... That's why I don't buy anything larger than 5g container at the nursery stores. Even with 5g, i still had girdling problems and one of the oak trees hasn't really grown into surrounding soil and it would shift around a lot. That's after a year and half of growth. It didn't take much effort to pull it out. I found out that the roots were growing in circle. I couldn't tell that when I planted it. I thought I had fixed it but I guess not. it would be nice if rootmaker or something similar becomes the standard for growing trees in the container.

As soon as they start showing tops, I'll prune any roots that hang out from the bottom of the pot, then. I've received quite a few trees via mail order whose roots had clearly been chopped off, so I guess it's a common practice. I always pot up these mail-order trees to the next size pot as soon as the roots start touching the edge of the existing pot - I haven't had any problem with roots circling.
Sherry

Sherry, be careful leaving those bur oaks in pots too long. When I went to the spring plant sale in Mobile, they had some bur oaks in 1gal containers. I was going to buy one until I pulled it out of the pot. The roots on those things looked like big corkscrews with no hope of being straightened out. From what I have read, bur oak has one of the most agressive root systems of the oaks.

Okay, will do.
Sherry

Typical bur oaks: big trees, big acorns, and big roots!

But that's why we love them! Tougher than nails, too!

Emerging bur oak - ta dah!

{{gwi:331137}}
Sherry

You better keep'em protected, it supposed to get down into the 20's again.

Last I heard, it's supposed to get down to 30F degrees here, but I'll watch the weather. I'll probably put most of the seedlings in the garage with the door shut and the little heater turned on, but the bur oaks will come inside to my bathroom - don't want to take any chances on them!
Sherry

Is it Spring yet? After this melts I'll let you know. lol

15 minutes from the coast in CT. Raining today but back to snow tonight.

{{gwi:331138}}

That's a beautiful scene, Naturalstuff!
Sherry

This year I'm recording the dates of every type of tree here (and some other plants) when they bud open and flower. I don't know why I've never done this before. I'll now know every winter about when everything starts to come to life.

Things that have budded open so far Feb 10th to present:
Silver and Red Maples (buds open on some)
Daffodils (full bloom)
Winged Elm (many buds opening)
American Beech (some buds starting to open in the tops)
Blackberry (budding open)
Pear (Some pear buds starting to open)
Hazel Alder (in full bloom)
Hinbit (in full bloom)
One of the next will be Bluet blooms in about 2 weeks that I know from last year.

Nice photos! We've been cold and have had lots of snow/sleet events here, but never more than about 2"(5cm) in any one event and even though it's been so cold most of the snow/sleet manages to melt off just before the next round hits, so no big build up. The ground is currently like the tundra, with a thin mushy mess of mud and water on top of frozen ground and no acorns germinating outside.

treeguy123, that's a good idea. I've kind of done that for some time, but I always end up getting too busy with other things that my list only gets about 1/2 to 2/3 done.

Interesting to see henbit is in full bloom, but here henbit will bloom virtually any time during the winter we have a stretch of sunny days warmer than the mid to upper 20's with peak bloom happening in early March. Although this year, I won't be surprised if it's not until May sometime!

Another brutal 20°F(11.1°C) below normal day today, but some possible signs of having some normal temperatures in the coming week(temps in the 50'sF(10-15C)) or even warmer! It's just not right when we were colder than the freakin North slope of Alaska 2 days last week! I mean come on! That's 2500 miles(4023km) North of here and 4125 miles(6639km) away in the Arctic Circle! If I went that far South of here, I'd by in the middle of the Amazon, why don't we get Amazonian weather blowing up here in February? LOL

The temps have been a bit higher than normal the last week and we've missed the brunt of the last two arctic air invasions, so the silver maples are just starting to open their flowers. That seems about average or slightly late timing for them. However, some cold and snow is in the forecast for the coming week, and March is the snowiest month here (and April the third snowiest).

The winter was fairly average in terms of precip, and a bit colder than average. The unusual thing was that we had far fewer than usual occasions of extreme temps on either the high or low side. The low for the season thus far is 3 F. (-16 C.) which is pretty mild for here.

Right now I'm waiting to see when the Parrotia on my front lawn flowers...first time for this one.

Daffodils in flower a couple of days ago

Resin

Continued cold (even snowing alittle right now) keeping things in stasis, but 'Valley Forge' Amer elm flower buds have opened, as have "pussy willows". Looks like nearby Siberian elm & Silver maple flower buds opened. My Dawn redwood & larches have slightly swelling buds too.

Alittle surprised that the Amer elm is flowering at such a young age -- only 4 yrs in the ground, but it's prb'ly a cutting from a mature tree.