alpiner, better tell 'em to go back into hiding before a severe Siberian blast decides to come calling!

YES, it's been an extremely MILD winter!

Terry

This winter is awesome! Although no poking up going on here.

I was listening on the radio today and they say its hasnÂt been this warm since 10,000 years ago. I still wish we would get more snow thou.

Look out. I am about 1,000 miles east of Siberia, and am sitting at -40 right now. It is super-clear, so I am guessing that it will get colder tonight. Nothing blooming here!

We hit 7c today! It was so nice and warm with the sun shinning. :) I managed to get rid off all the ice off the driveway and deck. I did notice that my Lilacs has buds coming on them. Everything else is under mulch and snow that I've been piling on. I don't want things coming up yet, we still could get a real cold snap. :(
Syreeta

This is an extremely mild winter. When it hits -14c/7F it's considered cold and it makes me wonder how in the world we live here in normal winters. It did hit -30c/-22 on Sunday morning, but a day later it warmed up above freezing.

Still a bit too early to think spring, but the weather definitely makes the winter easier to handle. I just hope for a normal spring.

Glen

A normal May would be nice - not one with a foot of snow in the middle of it! I want to give my winter sowing a good chance, but since i've started doing it, we've had awful Mays and Junes, and i think that sets things back a bit.

It's going to be 10 today!

I like winter weather when there's a big blue Alberta sky, the air is calm, the temperature is about minus 5 c. and there's 6 inches or so of snow. (the plants like it too!)

'If' we don't get a real cold snap this winter (nothing in the forecast and we're already past our traditionally coldest time of year), it will be interesting to see if the type 'c' clematis (and a few other plants) have surviving growth above ground. One wants to be optimistic but the worse scenario for many plants would be to start their growth early this year and then get 'zapped' by a mid April deep freeze. This happened to some of our bulb plants last spring. Especially hard hit last year were the 'marginal' fritillaria like Imperialis and Persica...a few of our early tulip cultivars were a bit 'ratty' looking.

I was just thinking about posting this same thought. I have all my windows and doors open and my plants are drying out!

I have tulips coming up all around the house and even some delphs thinking about it! Half of my stuff never really died off! I still can go out and pick parsley ( I swear NOTHING can kill that stuff- I may regret that experiment!)

I'm very worried that I'll get everything started this spring and then get a horrible cold and wet june like 2 years ago (when I was just usurping my brother's garden)!

Vrie, I've had parley winter over too. Don't worry about "regretting the experiment" - winter might not kill them but their own biology will - they're biennials so they'll probably bloom next year and be done.

Alpiner, how long do F. persica generally last for you? I've never had one winter over, and had given up on them. Are they in your alpine beds and benefitting from the drainage, perhaps?
Haven't had any problem with wintering F. imperialis - they come back year after year after year...but after the first one or two years, the shoots are blind. What's the trick?

Last Winter was horrible for my perennial beds. We lost all of our snow before New Years. Then in the middle of January, we got hit with weeks below ZeroF with no snow cover at all. My little plastic plant tags were starting to ressemble headstones by June.

Much happier this year. We've been blessed with decent bouts of snowcover, despite being above freezing almost all month. The beds look much more content this year. So far, so good. February's always a crap shoot.

Sure, I was going to surf the Far North forum to try to get a little camraderie, and assure myself that I'm not the only one crazy enough to live in a cold climate. However, I'm not speaking to any of you. It is currently -25 degrees F (-32C), which is about the warmest it's been in 2 weeks. Last week it was -50F at the airport (one of the lowest spots in town).

Emily in chilly, chilly Fairbanks

Emily, go to the Roses forum, there are people talking about what's blooming in their Texas gardens right now... I wanted to send them hate mail ;-)

But yeah, it has been a nice winter with snow cover *and* warm temps for us. Sorry!

Haha on another forum that I visit....they are posting pics of iris, camilea and others......errrrrrr &$%*$

Problem children all of them!

haha
Sierra keeping fingers crossed cause didn't mulch anything last fall.

Edmonton has been having unseasonably warm temps, although today it is a chilly -7 C. (Terribly cold for this year. lol) Buuuuttttt, along with those temps., we have had no snow. We had a brown Christmas and since then, have only had small snow flurries that haven't created any type of cover. We've even had "corn snow" a couple of times in the past week. The only hope for the plants is the warmer than usual temps. I just checked the zone map and our temps. this January would put us in a zone 6a. If only it was so. sigghhhhh..

Shauna

Oh jeez, no problem with snow here - plenty of it and more falling right now - kind of blizzardy out. Those warm temps have been extending this way, too, but not so warm to melt snow or create icy conditions. I like to walk a lot (as do the canine girlies) and this winter's walking conditions have been great.

The only thing we're missing is sunshine - this has to be the dullest, dreariest, foggiest Saskatchewan winter I've ever experienced. I doubt we've seen the sun 5 times in the last month or more. I guess it's a trade off for the nice temps and little wind.

Lots of snow over here as well with more falling. The temperatures have been great walking weather here too Pudge. So far I've been able to walk the dogs all winter. I'm a little worried about February though. We might still get nailed with cold temperatures. As long as it doesn't drop below -20 during the day the dogs will get their walk and I'll maintain my sanity. Last year was bad, the dogs went three weeks without a walk. Hubby and I were ready to go nuts.

Syreeta

When it gets that cold here, DH takes over the evening walks as well as the morning which he usually does anyway. Like the arctic fox, he 'embraces the cold'. Tough old army dude.

Pudge, it's not me I'm worried about with the colder temperatures it's the dogs. One has no undercoat and the others' is pretty slim. I tried putting my fleece shirts on them to see if it helped but they still froze.

Sorry, Luv2gro, you have my condolences. I'll put up with frigid temps, if it's at least pretty out. I can always throw on the ol' long johns for a nice walk, if the wind chill is bearable. Brown winters are no fun. I mulch with shredded leaves. I'm starting to secure chicken wire over the top to keep all of my cover from blowing away during these "brown out" thaws that seem to be happening more and more every winter (or in my old age I'm simply resorting to "selective memory").

Shauna, I was chatting with a bunch of friends last night that also do gardening and we are all feeling the same way you are! ****** fingers crossed that this warm weather will keep the perennials OK ******

They are calling for snow??? this weekend??? I am hoping so!

I heard we were supposed to get some snow this weekend, too. With the amount of "winter" left, I could easily (I think) handle a 3' downfall right now. At least it would provide some moisture for the spring. Protection now is probably not necessary because we haven't had the consistently cold temps. this winter.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it really seems like we've only had a couple of very short cold snaps (3 or 4 days) and it seems like the lowest temp we had this winter was in the -25 C range. We've had a lot of days that were in the +3 to -3 range.

Unless we get some moisture soon, it's going to be a tough one again on the farmers unless we have a very wet spring. And just when our water tables seemed to have recovered from the last drought a few years ago.

Here's my backyard at present. I can't believe that this is actually in Edmonton. This is what it has looked like for most of the winter so far. I even dragged the hose out to thaw so that I can water if it is warm enough. So far, no such luck. Disregard the rest of the "mess". Many of you know, we are "still under construction". lol. That's a ten year project for us.

Shauna

Yup, that's what it's been like Shauna. I think we had -25° in December for a few nights and not really since then. So strange to see grass all winter long!

I heard on the radio just now that they are calling a "small snow storm" for Saturday! Yeah! LOL! My friends last night were saying that their kids are sledding on any bit of frost we do get! LOL! Our poor kids are totally stir crazy for toboganning or skating or ANYTHING winterish! LOL

Shauna, around here that IS the snowstorm! My lawn NEVER got that brown! Except for Thanksgiving, that is, your dusting is all we had at a time- and it didn't usualy last through the morning, much less the next day!

I like that word 'dusting'. That describes the snow we've had this winter. Fortunately there was good moisture in the ground going into this winter and the lack of snow so far is a bit of a non-issue. Snow cover has a much bigger impact in March. If temperatures had been their usual cold with no snow, then it might be more of an issue. All in all it's a curious winter...4th mildest winter on record for the Prairies through to the mountains. It was acually milder in 1919, 1922 and 1942.

We've had snow on the ground since the middle of November or thereabouts, but we've only had really cold weather in December. I think it was close to -30° once or twice. Still, it's only February, and even though the groundhog won't see his shadow around here tomorrow (he won't even poke his nose out!), there's likely to be at least 6 more weeks of winter. And you know, if that's ALL there is, that's a GOOD thing! :)

ok... I just spent 2 weeks in interior Alaska, where the coldest temp I saw was -66F (-55C) and the warmest I saw was -35F (-37C). For most of the time it was in the -50's.
I am heading down to Canada to warm up!

The amount of snow we have is about the same as everyone else in Alberta. I hear that everyone that depends on frost in order to do a job are having trouble. Getting stuck. Postponing work. No fun.

The mild weather makes me wonder what kind of a summer we are going to have with insects. Cold weather keeps them under control. Are we going to have a bunch of new ones show up that think our zone is their new home? I guess we will have to take what comes.

Cheers Al

That's a good question about insects and other 'guests' in the garden. We welcome 99% of 'bugs' to the garden as they are part of a healthy ecosystem. Fortunately most of the 'pests' are introduced insects and many don't survive our normally harsh winters. This growing season year might be unique.

The garden hose was totally thawed out today and I watered, very thoroughly, all of my flower beds and my asparagus bed. I couldn't believe how the water was disappearing into the ground. No puddling, no runoff - just soaking into the ground. I watered for about an hour. I even saw a couple of white asparagus tips poking up and I'm sure most of you will just think that is a "big fish" story. But its true. Everything needs to go back to sleep. There is far too much green out there for the middle of February.

It is 11° C today with an overnight of 2° C. However, after I watered everything in very well, I came in and checked the forecast . . . -19° on Thursday and Friday. Brrrrr...... Now I just hope I haven't "woken" everything up with the watering only to have it all get frost kill with those couple of days of low temps. However, regardless of what happens, the water was badly, badly needed.

Shauna

don't I know it! We have a forecast much the same -- near 50F today and tomorrow then near -20F overnight thurs/fri with highs of -5F! I don't even want to THINK about those numbers in C!

hopefully, there is also a forecast of at least 2" of snow before the real cold hits! I'm doing a snow dance, hoping that the snow might shelter something!

Party is almost over for us in central Alberta. We're supposed to have a high of -24ºC on Thursday.

I did see a -27C on the forecast earlier this morning... but just now the "worst" was a -18C. With this trend it may not be SO bad! Maybe we can bring those temps up a smidge more? Just enough to not do SO much damage??? We can keep fingers crossed and hope!

They are predicting snow for tomorrow. I really hope so at this point. I hate to think about how dry everything has gotten.

Condolences to those of you without snow... it was -16 on my way to work this morning and I thought I was going to die. We are turning into such wimps! Soon we will all be moving to the Niagara peninsula! (kidding, in case anyone's reading from there) (*wimps*) hee hee

Gotta say even if the temps get really cold as forecast I'm glad we have all this snow.

For sure, there goes our party, tonight it is supposed to get down to -30C, and with the extreme high chill warning in effect that makes it -40C! This will be my first time this winter to plug in the car.

Right now I'm feeling sorry for the birds, they're not used to this either.

Sharon

Sharon, I forgot about the whole "plug in the car" thing! LOL!

I'm worried about my kiddos -- they are supposed to go skating with the school tomorrow. It may end up being just too cold for that.

Here it's supposed to be in the well below 0F for the DAYTIME on Friday. At school I have a bunch of annoyed kids who are afraid they wont get their day off for Special Olympics skiing or their weekly bowling trip! I guess I have to look at the tulips and delphiniums in perspective!

-35C (-30F) on my thermometer this morning. Clear and quite calm, but still a windchill factor of -45C. I think I'll stay in today.

Well, no worries about the kids freezing out there today! Our school was cancelled here. It was -27&degC this morning with a windchill factor of -40&degC. I plenty happy to just stay put indoors today!

Oh boy I wish school was closed-- now work! But then again, I'd be home for 4 days with 5 cooped up kids-- hmm ill take school!

Anyway another update-- we hit our high of 12F at midnight and have DROPPED since then. windchills of -25F to -40F during the evening! Overnight -25F to -30F is WITHOUT windchill! and tomorrow more fo the same but not so warm during the day! But hey, at least they cancelled the storm warning LOL

I hate to say "I told you so"....
It's above freezing and sunny in Fairbanks today :)

Stay warm out there!

Kim

Everyone think warrrrmmmmm thoughts and it'll be over soon. Lots of fireplaces, hot chocolate and extra blankets and then cuddle up with some gardening books or mags. and we'll make it through this one, too. I'm just glad that it's the middle of February and not the first of January. That's when it is soooo depressing.

Shauna

Darn Environment Canada now predicts below normal temperatures across Canada for the next month! Boooooooooo! Yes, Shauna - that's the good part, that it's February now and really, we do have winter beat at this time of year. It might be cold but it won't be for months now. At least not this cold. And you can still feel the warmth in the sun, which helps a good deal.

I'm cuddling up to the Winter Olympics at the moment - go Canada! :D

LOL vrie, I am cooped up with 4 kids for 5 days! Yup, they already had a "Teacher In Service" day scheduled for today and Monday is a provincial holiday here! You can your bottom dollar I am pulling out every craft idea, game, puzzle, etc, to keep them busy!! LOL

Thankfully we are going to be at -10°C today and by next week we will be hovering around -4°C. I can handle that.

Ang

It's minus frikking 34. I hate it here.

Thank goodness the warm temps are coming back and this living in hell only lasted a couple of days!
Boy have we've been spoiled this winter, LOL!

Marcia, for sure that darn Environment Canada, I thought the last time I looked they said that it was going to be ABOVE NORM TEMPS for the next 3 months!

Sharon

I always look at it this way. If the temperatures are supposed to be above normal and it's so cold now, just think how warm it's going to be to bring them up to ABOVE normal. Wishful thinking, eh? LOL

Meanwhile, it was awful here today. It stayed at about -23°C all day with a mean windchill. We had a PD Day, so i was inside most of the day, but just walking that short distance back to the car was murder! Brrrrrrrrr! Things are supposed to get better by the middle of the week here too - not "warm", but better than this!