They say don't prune your roses until the forsythia blooms. I personally wait for a couple of weeks after that :).

It seems like around here Mother's Day is the green light to plant transplants. Maybe that's true everywhere?

My Phenology Schedule:

Crocus blooming - keep reading catalogs, don't get too excited yet!

Daffs blooming - plant tough cool weather stuff that can still take a late freeze (peas, pansies, nasturtiums, etc)

Cherry and Peach tree blooming - probably safe to plant out some more hardy stuff. Probably won't freeze again, but it's not really a "safe bet" yet.

Lilac & Iris in bloom - OK, go crazy in the garden, plant everything except plants that really require WARMTH to do well.

Desert trees leafing out (Mimosa, AZ Willow, Mex. Bird of Paradise) - Warmth loving plants can be planted, house plants can go out on the patio.

I think there's no reason to assume that domestic plants (trees, etc.) won't give us an indication of optimum planting times. Wondering about oak leaves the size of squirrel ears mostly has to do with the wide variety of oak. A native tree that I once hoped to provide guidance is the Douglas fir. When the buds break it's time to plant corn . . . but that doesn't really work. A large tree will have buds breaking on the top and south side while the buds on the shady side are still tight. Smaller trees in some shade are also delayed. Locust trees seem a little better guide.

Steviewonder, you are relying on the calendar. That's okay because it indicates the height of the sun in the sky and the hours of daylight. I think some plants respond strongly to that despite other variables like temperatures.

The forsythia is in midbloom here and I pruned the roses yesterday, Binnesman. (Really surprised that they suffered so much damage after such a mild Winter.) Looked like I waited until nearly the last optimum moment.

Abq_bob, this is really great! I think that it should be very useful to everyone.

Steve

I haven't pruned my roses yet, but probably will this weekend. I have noticed quite a bit of dieback myself, even on New Dawn. I think maybe because it was a dry winter, at least here on the Front Range, we're seeing more than normal. One success: Ramblin Red. Planted it last year (own root) and it did ok, but not alot of growth, as you would expect with a first year own root. But it has leafed out already and has practically no dieback, except for a broken branch (dogs!). Hoping to see some brilliant red blooms from it this summer.

Here, its plant peas and potatoes on Good Friday. Then, don't plant anything thats frost sensitive until the snow is off the north side of Mesa Verde.

Or, in other words, early June with fingers crossed. 20% of the time we get a frost in mid to late June.

'Cherry and Peach tree blooming - probably safe to plant out some more hardy stuff. Probably won't freeze again, but it's not really a "safe bet" yet.'

How right you are, last night we had something like 17 deg., ice in the chicken water bucket this morning, so again, we will NOT have any fruit on the trees that were blooming during our heatwave all last week. Aaarrrgghhh...

I plant my Sweet Peas on St. Patrick's Day. Other than that, I plant whenever I have Spring Fever, even though it means I sometimes lose things to freezes. I figure since it can snow in the Reno area even in July or August, it just doesn't matter. I'm ALWAYS going to lose SOMETHING to excessive heat or excessive cold.

I forgot. I order plants to arrive Mid-April and hold them in my mini-greenhouse if need be. Otherwise it gets too hot too soon and they die anyways.

Lisa

This was going to be our year with LOTS of roses - won't be. The ones that I pile snow on every Winter and which have no noteworthy cold-hardiness came thru just fine again. The special tough ones I got 3 years ago and planted at a distance from snow shoveling - a couple died back nearly to the ground. Mild Winter!?!

How can we think Cherry trees have the brains that God gave a goose if they so often suffer blossom damage from Spring frosts? I'm wondering what brains the birds have, also. I can never be sure just when the swallows arrive. They always seem to be around on my earliest cultivation days unless the weather is bad (9 times out of 10). Those days they must be "holing up" under a bridge somewhere. The robins . . . who knows? I've seen one or 2 in January some years. Geese are now here year around. I'm thinking of shooting at them. How can I miss 'em if they won't go away?

Ljrmiller, your experiences, despite your enviable St. Paddy's Day start, is why you are here in the RMG forum. Nowhere else in this country would people understand how you could be in the same USDA zone as Seattle and have such risk for extremes.

David, how do you know if there wasn't twice as much snow on the north side of Mesa Verde this year and therefore more time needed to melt? There are old timers here who used the same technique for other mountains but we've got 13 feet of snow at the nearest Selkirk ski resort. It was open thru the kids' Spring Break for the first time in years.

Your environment makes me wonder if an idea I had AFTER I moved from a similar location years ago wouldn't have worked. It seems like David was telling a Wyoming gardener that boards set up near newly planted seedlings can protect from wind damage. What about larger "walls" (say, 4 foot) set up throughout the garden protecting from the cold? And so that they don't cast too much shade - what if they were plastic film?

I realize that this isn't a very far step from plastic tunnels which should (I say should) have significant protective features. But, tunnels require venting on sunny days and shield the plants from beneficial rains and overhead sprinklers.

Anyway, itÂs something I never tried and now that I no longer live in + or - 100 day growing season, don't quite feel compelled to try.

Steve
. . . tho' an old man, I'm a young gardener. - Thomas Jefferson

I had kind of ignored that thread on "when do I plant" because I didn't think I had anything to contribute regarding Colorado growing conditions. Then I saw Lucky's comments and wanted to include them here in a thread from last Spring. Hope that's okay:

RE: Safe to plant?
Posted by luckybottom 5b on Wed, Apr 18, 07 at 17:32

I love the "what is happening in your garden" theory and the temp. of the soil. Generally this is what has been working for me:

Forsythia blooming/soil 50° plant: greens, radishes, onion, peas, start tomatoes sets

Lilac leaf/soil 59° plant: carrots, beets, kohlrabi, fennel

Lilac blooms fade/soil 68° plant: cucumbers, melons, corn, squashes, beans, cabbage

Iris bloom/soil 77° plant: tomatoes, peppers, basil, okra, dill

Of course there are hundreds of kinds of lilac and iris so you do have to find what works for you. Hence the tip about befriending the gardening guru in your area.

How cool! Being so new here and the thread not being mine, I never even knew of your year old "conversation". What fun to read about what was being hashed-over last April. It is especially rewarding for me to: 1.) learn that there is an actually term for the process and 2.) my thoughts are appreciated by the likes of those that are far more experience (both in gardening and this forum). You go right ahead and use any of my comments, any old way you want, Steve. You Rock!

I especially loved abq bobÂs comment: Crocus blooming - keep reading catalogs, don't get too excited yet!

Bonnie