Here, it was winter one week and high summer the next. The plants were all kinda like, HUH??? It's up and down too, now cooler than it has been. Our outlook is for below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation for the summer. Oh joy.

I would describe our spring as similar to marciaz3's: winter dragged on forever, and then suddenly we had days in the high 20's. For the past week or so we have cooled back down to 16-20 during the day. So who knows. Tonight it is supposed to get down to only 4 above! Argh! I don't know whether to cover or leave it.. We keep getting rain every couple of days too.

I had a lot of dead irises this year...like, entire clumps dead. I don't know if they rotted for some reason or winter killed. I'm getting so sick of dealing with perennials being wiped out all of a sudden, I'm seriously considering replacing the dead ones with reliable shrubs instead.

Roses have been slow this spring. Basically the weeds are the most impressive so far. Goooo Dandelions! Sigh.

Last year i lost two clumps of sibs, and it wasn't that bad a winter, so i don't know what happened. I thought all three were gone, but one put out some foliage later and looks not too bad this year, so far.

Terry, I haven't planted the cucs or tomatoes out yet. They are still on the deck, protected. Totally odd weather and today is another loss. About the only thing growing around here is the dandelions! And all the maple seeds!

I have all my annuals still in cell packs and my geraniums in their pots from last year! Irises are really slow and soggy but the daylilies and asiatics love this wet weather. ???

Snow yesterday in Grande Prairie. :(

Ginny

This morning the foothills were dusted with snow. Everything is way behind compared to last year but surprisingly enough, no big losses.

Low of 4C forecast for tonight and 2C on Friday. Great.
I have planted my tomatoes. I knew I shouldn't, but they were getting so lanky. I have them covered with plastic containers. Also I do have some spares, just in case. They are in the shed.
I haven't planted much for annuals yet, due to construction going on in my yard. So that's good at least. Most of my tender plants haven't even made it out of the basement yet.
I expect this cold spell in June. It seems to happen quite consistently. All my hostas are leafed out though. I'd hate to see them get touched by frost..

Well, it is 6 degrees C outside here in Calgary! It will even drop to 3 degrees tonight.... I heard that there's a frost warning for places like Cochrane, Olds, Airdrie etc... YIKES! Totally unbelievable...

So many things are still not budding out, but I know that they are not dead when I scratch on their stems. My patience is wearing thin!!!

To sum it up... it sucks... haha

Not much is growing and what is growing is very slow. I finished planting (seeds) the garden last weekend and was shocked at how cool the soil still was.... not surprised to see nothing is up yet... and greatful nothing is up at the same time so this cool weather doesn't damage them.... it could be an interesting summer...

Only 5 C at just after 10 pm and with calm winds and clear skies. The tomatoes are well covered, though the corn will just have to tough it out. I think there's gonna be many upset gardeners that wake to find their prized tomatoes nipped by frost.

ostrich, yes, it's one of the slowest and coolest springs I can recall. I was just watching the Weather Network's long range forecast for Alberta and it's not looking good at all.

We went from "it hasn't thawed yet" to "no overnight frosts" in three weeks. Slow start but we jumped straight into summer. I have optimistically planted my tomatoes and peppers.

Spring has been extremely slow here. So cool and slow I have had lots of bulbs (tulips/daffy/garlic) rot in the ground. So disappointing as I planted hundreds and hundreds of tulips and daffodils to get a lack lustre display. As well was my first try at garlic. Even the annuals, tomatoes and cuc's I planted out 3 weeks ago haven't done anything....I could go on and on.

Weeper you know it is only a weed if you don't want it there. Maybe you should reconsider your position on dandelions. Look at it this way, they bloom in flushes, nearly impossible to kill, zero maintenance, nice green foliage, reseed themselves and last, and of course not least, they are exceptionally hardy!

SCG

Reminds me of June 2011 when it snowed all over northern Alberta (including Edmonton) as well as central SK.

All I can say is.......it's annoying :(

SCG - well I produce such a beautiful crop of dandelions in our lawn, it is essentially yellow as far as the eye can see! So I figure I can have one corner of my yard(aka the bed surrounding the house) to be actually green, dang it! ;)

I was watching a video of a bear eating dandelions so maybe you just need to start bagging them and selling bear food? :)

Ginny

Yes it has hailed here last week, snow this week. I've had tons of things in the ground due to a grad at our place. Ginny I'm in fairview, nice to see you are so close. Anemones are putting on a show and some tulips are still blooming and Therese is budding nicely and should open up some blooms soon I'm thinking

Tracey, I'm actually in Edmonton. Cold here too this week. I am lucky to have micro zones in this big yard; one of them being the back deck. :)

I watch the weather you guys get up north and feel lucky to be down here in this zone 3ish. :) This has been an odd year all round, I think. My irises are usually blooming and some done by now. Just had a couple of dwarf bearded so far. Tulips and daffs are done tho since it has been such a cool spring.

Ginny

I just got back from a week in Miami. The weather was pretty much perfect while we were away and as soon as we returned, it was rainy, cold and cloudy. I am a tad disgruntled. Still have to put in the garden; I only had time to plant the potatoes before leaving.

My clematises are still not up...I think they've kicked the bucket. I lost a few other hardy perennials like salvia, catmint and Japanese painted fern.

Not too bad this year! Mid-May was warm, then we had a brief dry spell and now a week of gentle rain. (Last year, we had snow until late May, jumping directly into hot summer by mid-June, ugh). Night temperatures aren't far below 10 ðC. Brassicas are getting established, leafy greens are growing well, and radishes are getting close to a first picking. I'm also growing a lot of Lamb's Quarters.

After a looong winter (altho not too severe), but did I say it was loooong, we had a short week of nice hot weather when I even sunbathed for a few days. Since then it's been rainy, cool, rainy, cloudy, rainy, cool, occasionally sunny but not hot. Not sure what's coming next altho haven't had frost. Highs of 15C - 20C forecast with some rain and cloud for the next week. I'm not impressed. Irises are budding here and all foliage is getting huge. My garlic are knee-high.

My huge crop of dandelions are doing very well, some have gone to seed. I need more than 3 horses to eat them all.

I'm waiting for summer.

See-saw weather. High 20s to 30s and now cooler. Was 2 degrees last night and the days are touching 20. Rain every single day which helps with watering duties.

I now have hosta's coming up that I planted 2 years ago as root balls. Last year I gave up and tossed the name tags out... weird.

Nice patch of dandelions there luckygal !

Oh yeah I still have tulips coming up, new sprouts seen yesterday....weird

Double post.....weird...

This post was edited by SouthCountryGuy on Sat, Jun 7, 14 at 11:33

I haven't been here in a while, as I had a baby . . . who is now two and a half. And I now have another baby . . . but here I am!

Weather has been, let's say, "less than ideal". I planted a ton of bulbs and transplanted a bunch of perennials last fall, and was delighted to get good snow cover early. It seemed fine when it all was melted off the beds by late April too, until it went back down to -30. I lost every plant in a big swath of my new bed. I maybe could have covered it, but I was nine months pregnant,so iI didn't.

Since then, we've had at least two nice days :P

I found myself coming back here to check for hardiness before I replanted my beds, and thought I should check in.

Also, hello to tanlinetracy, you're in my hometown! I live in Sk now but grew up in fairview.

And I'm really glad to see so many names I recognize from my first stint here.