I am just throwing out an idea here it could be a factor and I could just be talking out my other end. I am in nw tn and our spring has been so long. Me and my husband have been talking about this, in the first part of may here its usually so hot we are all searching for a pool to jump in, usually we all have had many sunburns by this time.

This year has been totally different, the first part of may was very mild very cool weather. We have been having alot of mild weather up to the end of may. The last day of school here was may 26 and my oldest was invited to a swimming party, I remembered thinking heck its probaly going to be to cold to get in the pool. We have just started getting our temps in the mid 80's which by now we should be in the 90's. I dont know if this is the case where you are but I believe this is playing a role with my plants.

May was so cool here I had viola blooming, if that tells ya anything.

I just posted a similar question about my Beautyberry this morning. I'm suspecting to much rain to be the culprit here.

I'm glad that it seems to have abated for a while.

Hope that yours speed up soon!

same here. What I planted out is still pathetically small, but doing ok- not dead. Other things such as late-started Zinnias are still way small in their containers, even though by now they SHOULD be well on their way and in the ground. Some have been sown about 2 weeks and don't even have 2nd set of leaves yet.

But I guess I'm ok since it gives me time to get to other garden chores and I can let those containers sit just a tad longer.

I'd really like to be done, though.

same here. And the neighbors have their annual "instantly magically appearing" gardens put in. the landscapers have been around the last couple weeks planting the bedding plants. they all got their begonias and impatiens and stuff in and I got a dianthus and a columbine in bloom.

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

I paid for pool passes and its three weeks into the season and we havent been there once.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It hasn't been warm enough for the lake here to warm up yet. No reason to spend the day on the boat if it's too cold to swim. The plants are loving the rain/sun combination of the past couple weeks. I'm not complaining either. July is going to be a killer.

I love weather statistics, and comparing them year-to-year.

Here are my last 5 years average/average temperatures for May. The average is daily high and low averaged, and that daily figure averaged for the month.

'05: 54.8°F
'06: 58.7°F
'07: 59.9°F
'08: 56.7°F
'09: 58.2°F

Temperature is one thing. Sunlight is a whole nother ball game.

You got that one right, token. We've had warmth, but not much sun it seems. Lots of rainy or cloudy days, or both. On radar it looks like another round of rain will bere he in a couple of hours. It has already rained about 5 times today. What's one more?

Karen

The rain and cool spring has everything in stall mode. Its so depressing. We might see the sun on Saturday for awhile, but then again next week...more rain. Both my plants and myself need sun and warmth to thrive.

Alberta

We finally got some rain yesterday---over 3" in our yard, some had 5" or more. Street flooding, trees down, the most constant lightning I've ever seen with strikes starting house fires and blasting trees apart, fences blown everywhere, a couple of brief touch downs of funnel clouds and.....it is supposed to hit 100 by the weekend. Just imagine the sauna factor. I hate to sweat.

Debby

I'm in the same boat. A lot of stuff sprouted and never grew much at all. I finally started putting them in the ground no matter how small.

Bugs got some before they even made it out of the containers. Others grew only slightly once in the ground but started to flower anyways. I have flowering 3" five-spot and 3" thrift... really funny looking. In addition to the cool weather being a factor I also used some old and some cheap potting mix. I bet the old stuff didn't have much fertilizer in it anymore and the constant rain probably washed away a lot.

Last year we had our pool open on Memorial Day week end. This year, because of the cold, wet weather the association couldn't get some work done,(painting the inside of the pool) we are opening it tomorrow... yippy! The high is supposed to be 71 steamy, hot, sweaty degrees!!

I still have very, very small spouts, my tomatoes are 6-8 inches... if that. My peas have JUST started to blossom, I may have 3 on my plants by morning. The farm next door to us, is nearly a month behind... at least two weeks on sowing. So much for his corn being knee high by fourth of July! I can just now barely see rows! It's a tough year in some places!

Anna, I am in Ottawa and am in the same situation. Our weather has been unkind to say the least: cold and wet. My cucumbers and zuccchini have not yet sprouted, and many of my containers e.g. zinnias and zinnias have much smaller seedlings than would be expected. I planted out a few tomatoes and have them under 2-litre pop bottles, but they are not moving either. My Canna tubers have not budged, nor my dahlias. Nothing that has been direct seeded is growing so we may have to re-seed. We are expecting a few warm days this weekend, and today I saw evidence of slugs, so better weather must be on the way!! Not at all encouraging.

"annual "instantly magically appearing" gardens "

I hate those instant gardens, I keep thinking to myself, I will show them when mine get blooming!!!

I too have some stalled seedlings. Some are blooming but not enough to make a big show yet.

We need some heat :)

Karen

Molanic, I did the same thing, I planted out sprouts I could barely see! I treated the bed with Sluggo first, and lucky for me, it hasn't turned into a smorgasbord for bugs, yet.

I'm tempted to start painting flowers on all my mini-blind plant labels, at least that way I can have some color!!! The bed just looks silly with all those white things sticking up all over the place.