Mike, I am not far from you, so the weather here has been similar to yours. It seems that the annuals and perennials around here are two or more weeks behind schedule. I thought that my citrus would be way ahead from where they are now especially since they were in my greenhouse all winter.

It has also been a strange year here down in Southeast Texas. The winter was really mild but we had three consecutive nights down around 25F. I got some damage to my outdoor plants but the mild winter was followed by a coolish spring (for here) and it's finally getting hot. The rains were spaced nicely. My Satusuma oranges bloomed early and I hadn't done the spring fertilizer at the time so I fertilized during blooming and almost all of the fruit dropped. The fertilizer was organic and comparatively low in nutrients as compared to commercial fertilizers. Maybe the Satsumas are just taking the year off but can't help but think it was the late fertilizing. My "tasteless" lime was completely uncovered during the three cold nights but had no permanent damage. The blood orange was partially covered and suffered a lot of bark splits so go figure! The lime is now blooming a second time after setting fruit once already and I haven't seen it do that before. It's not a citrus but my Japanese plum set several blooms after its spring fruit crop. It normally blooms during winter and I have never seen spring blooms. Otherwise, all is WELL!

Whoops, I started a new topic for nothing, you already got this up, Mike.

It's bad for us with cold weather, but I'm glad we're not alone. Its cold, rainy, foggy and... cold again. I do like winter and cold, but for heavens sake let the summers be warm!!

Maybe it's time to get hibernating, somebody wake me up when it gets warmer.

Same deal here in Maine, Mike. Another cold spring in the northeast. I don't know how it's possible but it seems like we're behind schedule every spring around here. I can't remember the last time we had an early spring. We almost did last year in that March was quite mild and things were ahead of schedule, but then April was very cold and slowed everything down so that ultimately we ended up behind schedule again!

Just got to hang in for a few more weeks. We usually can safely say good-bye to sweater weather by the second half of June. ;-)

You can blame me for the weather. I just replaced one of the air conditioners. We did use it on Saturday for the humidity but now it's back to the clammy chill (around 58 F, day and night), when it's not raining there is heavy drizzle, no sun, depressing. February was milder here in NJ! Well, at least the drought is over. Citrus are growing (two that defoliated completely, regrew leaves), but behind in blooms. Noticed my Peonies are well behind schedule. Normally, by this holiday, they are either in peak or post peak! It is what it is. National Weather IS calling for a warmer than normal June in the Northeast to MidAtlantic (for what it's worth). LOL.

I think I am near you in mass..I am almost done picking kunquats

The moles are killing my trees over winter....

But yes, cold drizzly weather

It's been colder than usual here. I checked the two week forecast and the highest it should get is 78. However, that is fine for citrus. I am sorry you guys up north are having such cold temps. It has been awfully wet here. I need to go out and fertilize them again. I did up the Oscomote plus since it seems every time I fertilze, we have a downpour.

I have not fertilized the Citrus yet..., waiting for some decent weather. I brought some CitrusTone from a local nursery. I did fertilize many of my landscape plants (rhodies, holies, magnolias, laurels, camellias, boxwood, crapes, figs, photinias); I figure that the rain helps washing it into the soil and avoids over-feeding. We are around 70 tomorrow then near 80. Yes, it still feels like it's been a cold Spring. But it's been a great season for transplanting after two years of pretty bad drought. And actually, most of our Springs along the immediate NE coat are pretty crappy..., then, suddenly it's SUMMER and we get to complain once again. We live for the Autumn and the promise of 'Indian Summers' into November and beyond.

It has been a very cool spring here as well. Usually we are reaching mid 80s right now and heading for the pools. It is way to cold to swim right now! I require it be at least 80 to go swimming haha. My citrus are growing well, and calamondin is going bonkers pushing out new growth. I have 5 little tomatoes growing out of all 20+ of my tomato plants. Usually there is more, but the cool nights are slowing growth. No peppers forming yet at all.

Amanda, I wish we had those temps. No tomatoes. One of my young calamondins just decided to put out some buds but the old lady (30 plus years) old calamondin must think it is still too cold and is doing nothing.

Hey, Mike, as my fellow Californians have said, our weather has been a little cooler than average, but with a few nasty heat spikes! Temp's are pretty good now, though, and all my Citrus are outside.

Josh

In Oregon it has been 40-55 degrees rain, rain, rain, more rain, then 70-90 degrees for last week and back down to 60 and some more rain this week. Like most everyone it was a colder winter than usual for us and the 2nd wettest in 75 years. I have had my trees out since the last week of March when temps were mostly around 40 degrees, cooler than I would have liked but they were suffering in the garage so I thought what the hell, lets see what your made of. Most of my poor plants didn't appreciate the scorching they got last week but the citrus seems fine, without steady sun and warmth they are growing really slowly but my defoliated NZL has sprouted some good growth and is even crazy enough to put out a single bud. The Meyer is covered in buds but has maybe 1/3rd of its leaves, I would love it to stop with the flowers and put out some new growth. Everything else has a small steady stream of new leaves and buds and I look forward to them doing well this summer since we sort of skipped spring this year. I plan on re-potting them all to 5-1-1 this week or next depending on my schedule.

Looks like I am not the only one suffering through this wretched spring. Like my neighbor say's, better than snow. I am about falling asleep typing this. It makes one very tired..

Yesterday is was a whopping 48 degrees all day and night. Today a whooping 58 and grey. I don't think I have seen the sun come up in the morning for over a month. I forgot what a nice sunny morning is like. Tomorrow maybe sun, maybe the clouds will burn away, then Thursday 75, then cool again Friday and Saturday then I am seeing 50's and low 60's cloudy grey skies again for another 5 day streak. This is June.

To those of you having great weather, that's great and to those of you having crappy cool weather, I guess we should just count our blessings and say it could be worst...Keeping my fingers crossed we don't go from this to 90, In that case my trees will collapse...

Frank, what town do you live in? You might have better luck living away from the coast next week. I am too darn close to break from these chains of low clouds and drizzle.

..lol

I feel for you guys...Our weather pattern has been so up and down.. February/March and part of April found us in the clash zones between spring like weather to back to winter. I took my citrus outside to my GH a few weeks back when the day temperature were in the high seventies to even ninety degrees, and night temperature stayed above 40, only to have one night fall into the low twenties and the new growth on my citrus got zapped by the heavy freeze..pretty good.. Yikes!

We had some pretty good even temperatures this past week and a half, along with a mix of sun and rain. The citrus are out on my deck now and are flushing pretty good and are catching back up.. They are loving it!

The rest of the week will hover into the low to mid sixties with lows into the forties.. And lots of clouds and rain! The long range prediction, in our neck of the woods calls for a slightly cooler and rainier summer than normal . That will slow the new growth down a bit, unfortunately.

Pomona Sweet Lemon is pushing out the buds..

Mike and James have we spoken before, I am in groton mass

Well, it's raining today...and it sure feels nice! 57F out and very balmy.

Josh

Jinny, your trees look great! How's your ST doing? What is its growth habit like? Mine is very wide and sprawling. It still needs to grow leaves in the middle area which is still a bit bare from winter. However, it continues to grow out, not up...

Laura, here is one of my ST. Lemons. It lost many leaves and dropped it's beautiful fruit late in winter. It is sprawling outwards but the leaves are filling in nicely. Do you see that one, almost bare branch to the right that is sprawling outwards?

Thank you. :)

Santa Teresa Lemon #2.. It has spreading branches and a few that are growing upwards. The new young growth is so pretty. I love my ST. :)

I brought my citrus trees back indoors for a few nights since the temperature has dropped down..But they go out for the day..

Look at my first and only Xie Shan fruit.. It is a bit larger than a nickel. I took two other fruit off . We shall see if the fruit matures on this young tree. I am so excited.. What a lovely fruit!

Oro Blanco. . Amazing scent from the blossoms.

Budd Blood Orange.. Fruit and blossoms. .

Jinny, your trees look great! Someone should start a June thread and have people post pic's of the progress of their trees. I love to see how everyone's are coming along.

Thank you, Sammers! :) Hey, Mike! (Or anyone else) Would you like to start a June progress thread? :D I would also like to see how everyone's trees are progressing. . Lol

Very nice Jinnylea your' tree's are definitely a head of mine. My tree's have been out for a couple of weeks now and the temperature has been very up and down, down to 44 tonight and tomorrow night and windy . Mikey it's just has to get better right lol . Jinnylea great idea with the June thread.

Brian

Todays tops at 39F, rainy and very windy... High risk for freeze tonight, if so, I guess I can kiss my annuals goodbye. No chance I could haul them in.

Thank you, Brian. My trees took a light beating from the freeze weeks back, but are making some good progress now. I hope your weather steadily improves. You always have such beautiful trees. I am sure they will continue to thrive this summer under your care..

Jon, sorry to hear. Do you have a frost blanket or sheets to throw on your annuals for protection? It might help some.. We had a light frost yesterday and it nipped half of my tomato plants that are planted out in the garden. I do not understand how some plants were unaffected but another plant right next to it got nipped.. lol. I do have a few tomato replacements left in my sunroom that I started from seed..

I HAD frost blankets, but I already took them out to our summer home to cover up lettuce and herb seeds from birds looking after worms. Some birds did already do a bit of mess, but I hope the rows did not get too bad.

If my annuals go down, I'll replace them with my smaller citruses. So I dont bother buying new blankets. Either way or another, may the strongest ones survive!

After all, I think this weather may make the transplant of raspberries and currant bushes easier. Old bushes, so they lost a bit of roots, and I did a bit of pruning as well. Better a bit of coldness than full sun..

I'm also planning to buy some blackberry and chokeberry bushes too. They'll make a good adding to juice with rhubarbs and currants with some raspberries. Luckily forests here are full of blueberries and lingonberries, so they don't need to be cultivated..

Cooler weather is indeed best for transplanting . I need to move and transplant some raspberries that spread by runners and are getting in the pathway. I have a few blackberry bushes that die back every winter but sprout back through the roots and they never produce. I either need to move them to a more protected area or dig them up and give them away.

I was expecting a shipment of a few currant bushes this week that I ordered a week and a half ago, but I received a call from the nursery and sadly they will not be shipped out until next week. The weather should still be cool enough for planting..

Wild native blueberries are the best. So full of flavor and nutrients. . We have them growing in our forest and along the river banks. It is hard to get to them before the bears and other wildlife find them..

We bought 20 Bluecrop blueberry bushes from a gentleman that works with my husband. Someone gave him 400 bushes that were dug up from his property that used to be a blueberry farm. I transplanted them in containers Wednesday morning while it was sprinkling outside. He offered to give us more if they do poorly. Most of them had some pretty good roots still attached. They are in the shade for now.

Most of the rhubarb is ready to pick now. The strawberries are blooming pretty heavy.. I have one Red Lake currant that is loaded with fruit along with blueberries and sour cherries.

How do you like the chokeberries taste? We have native plants all around us but I have never tried them.

Chokeberry is, um, different. But makes a good add-in to juice. We use steamjuicer.

Chokeberries make a good jam combined with apples, too. But for us, it's only for juicing. It's not a native specie here, but thrives well.

I was also thinking of if we should get some blueberry bushes too, but we'll get them next year. Otherwise it's just work by the summer house, no time for sauna and relaxation.. Maybe we will have enough time to make the spots ready for blueberries and common sea buckthorn.

Strawberries is the only berry we buy from farmers, even we pick them ourselves.

Luckily there's wild strawberries on our summer-house property so we do get to make some marengue cakes with them. Delicious, our traditional mid-summer cake. But I think not this year, it's too cold..

Jinny and Jontte I love hearing about what other things people are growing, berries are always a great investment. I planted a few varieties of berries last year and this year they have there first crop setting which I am really excited about! I planted Honeyberries, Currents, Gooseberries and Elderberries in ground and a thornless Raspberry in a large pot. We have blackberries that grow along the path next to our house so I usually am able to get a bowl of them before everyone else (and the birds) thinks its a good idea as well. I wanted mostly berries I couldn't easily find in stores, being from the Portland area I jokingly call it my hipster berry garden. This year I did up a stackable planter with Pineberries and strawberries and I wanted to test out if the Pineberries being white would keep the birds from stealing them before me. I can't wait until we move somewhere with more room in ground to plant, I hate having to fuss about with containers.

I just got back from a vacation up at sleeping bear dunes national sea shore. I'll check tomorrow morning when it is light out

Very strange weather here also. Lots of rain this year and very windy. Some sunny days here and there. The pattern change is sudden. Today is sunny though.

Hey everyone....Strange here too...

Last night is was 46 degrees..No open windows at night yet when they should of been open since the end of April! My trees are getting much more growth since it finally warmed above 70 by day and 50 by night, but still there is much more work too do..

Temps here should average in the mid seventies by now and it has been well below normal. 50's for the next three days starting Monday and a whopping 60's for the next two days..That's very depressing but still feels comfy. My roses have yet to flower and phones, forget them. I am still using heat by night in my greenhouse.

I am thinking this is going to go on and on for the next few weeks. There goes my summer(((

Mike

Brian, I can't believe you are that COLD buddy! What gives? They are saying that the jet stream is being blocked from going west to east with a good flow by the pollution from China rising into it. It's blocking the jet stream like a blocked pipe or traffic jam which cause the jet stream to back up and buckle...NO good. There are rises and dips on it now which should not happen in summer and we happen to be on the cold side of the dips..What a promising future for hot summer..right..So depressing buddy. Hugs to you pal.

Steve, glad to see yo back from your long slumber..lol

Jinny, your trees are amazingly looking fantastic. Thank you for sharing. It's so nice to see what longer days and outside does for our trees! By the way, I started June thread as you requested..Good to see you back))

Mike, everything really is relative, including the weather. I am complaining (bitch/n about the weather too) with temps in the low to mid 70 and nights 55-60, then a drop into the upper 60's for Monday and Tuesday, and a gradual/seemingly reluctant rise to upper 70's-80 as Canadian fronts plunge south and sun is intermittent between the showers. Where is Summer?! Nice weather this time of year, but for San Diego, LOL. Citrus doing well, but I still have not feed any this season! Ironically, the National Weather has been predicting an above normal June for the coastal MidAtlantic..., I know, still only June 3rd. We might get the real heat this year after the meteorological peak..., SEPTEMBER!

P.S., also predicting an active hurricane season.

Hey, Mike! It's overcast and hazy today, but the sun is definitely burning up there!

It's only 80F right now (11:20am), but the humidity is at 70% - Yuck! Anyhow, the Citrus and other plants sure love it. I have all of my Jades outdoors now, too.

Josh

Now at 10am the thermometer says 47F, but todays highs are expected to be 55F. This is how it is predicted to be until wednesday, then it's predicted to rise above 70F!! And after wednesday it should stay at 65-70F, with nights at 50F.

Talk about a chage in weather predictions, but I'm not complaining, no, not at all! Calamondin is now bathing in sun and annuals perked up. The only loss for these colds were two small cucumber seedlings, which I anyway should have thinned out 'cause there was 4 in same container.

So, now it's getting better, let the sun shine for all of us :)