I'm back in short sleeves for the office. Around 80 with thin clouds and no rain expected for 3 weeks. Having to manual water the new thyme on the slope every day. Ceanothus has buds already for spring. It's a month early for them.

Desperately need rain so the fire fighters all across the state can rest.

My furnace is off.

Here in coastal Los Angeles we've had temps in the 80s for over a week now, with lows in the low 60s. Next 10 days calls for temps in the low 70s and lows in the mid 50s. It's been a very warm December, actually, I can't remember a warmer December. Hibiscus are blossoming, palms are still growing at a good rate.

We've been in the upper 60's here in the bay area. All it takes is a 70f to be warmest ever. Close today at 68f. We are having a soucal winter and soucal is having a Cabo winter.

One of our Japanese maples, the coral bark one, decided to put out some new leaves.

Weird winter! It isn't even officially winter yet and we've been having nights at or just above freezing here in the Central Valley. However, the trees are all still fully loaded with leaves; can't quite figure that.

Today we set a record of 73F. That broke the record of 67f that had been set in 2016! We had the previous to those records of 64f set in 1976. So,warming is getting a bit faster...

Yeeesh.......blowing my car around on the 91 fwy yesterday by Corona. Hot and blowy and dirt on everything. Warm and sunny today. No plums again if it stays mild. Warm days cool nights make some pretty roses. I'm ready to go to Big Bear or the Sierra for some winter weather.

Corona living up to the name..have one by the pool Kitty- enjoy!

As far as lows- we will finish near average. Yet- with a 35f as lowest low? That's about the second highest low since I've been into exotic gardening IF January doesn't go lower I should add. We will finish maybe 3 or 4 degrees above average. Nothing to brag about.

Now the real point-lol. Its the first time in years that we go into January with banana's,Brugmansia's and Taro in full green leaf. Not even a wilted leaf.

Through December..cross fingers for lots of rain and a mild low's January.

My Marken ginkgo, which had not even shed all of the brown autumn leaves yet, decided it was spring and began breaking out some leaf buds yesterday. I don't quite know how to break it to him. But maybe it knows something I am not yet willing to accept as the truth? ;)

It definitely has been quite warm for us here in the Central Valley as well. My ginkgo tree still has about 50% of it's foliage hanging on. We've had two nights below 32 and the remainder of our nights have been in the mid 30s to upper 30s and even low 40s! My bananas haven't had leaf burn this year yet - that's usually my indicator of how bad a frost was. If we stay true to the forecast, and the remainder of January is just as mild as the first two weeks, we may end up with a 10a winter in Fresno!

Here in coastal L.A the first half of December was really warm, with temps between 68-77. The 2nd half has been a bit cooler but still nice and mild. The lowest temperature I've seen this year has been 50 degrees a few nights ago, with highs in the mid to upper 60s (a few low 60s here and there) and sunny days. It is currently 66 degrees and sunny and tomorrow and the next day it'll be 70 and 72. Two of my King palms have opened new fronds. We've had basically zero rain this month.

I should also mention all my Crotons are still colorful and full of leaves and my Colocasia Illustris (Imperial Taro) are still alive and well, although not as full as they were earlier in the year, but hey, not gonna complain.

Just this morning, I noticed my pink trumpet tree is forming flower buds. I practically yelled at the tree, "Stop it! It is NOT March yet".

hahaha Gry_falcon, I did the same to my pear tree! I noticed it started leafing out and the buds are swelling up!

Not even January and my Mango buds have sprouted. Ok,it will be months I guess before its a real flush..but it shows the tree isnt in stasis.

Man,soucal has been near Cabo like this month.

For the record- December for me was totally frost free ( and Jan also so far) and that's the first time in many years we've done that. Its nice to see Brugmansia in leaf and flowering and a big clump of banana's still green. Usually the very soft leafed plants have some tip damage or worse by now.

I like a 10b winter. When it comes with rains too? BONUS!..lol.

Picked another cup of cherry tomatoes. That's a record for me this late. If the plant lives to spring,maybe just pour fresh mulch over it and see if it re sprouts new green at the nodes.

I have tomatoes ripening and new foliage sprouting. Winter skipped us this time.

With my tropicalia havey yard..its so nice to walk around and not see any frost bites. Surreal because its been so long since we had a winter of one 35f night. Sometime in the 2000-2006 years we had two..and that was the last as I recall ( my memory is not photographic-lol) so it's MUCH more important to me because what I have is yard filling comared to back then. Plants grow. I add. The added plants grow..ha.

Josue the Foxtail looks great..There is one trunking in Hayward. Surprised me to see it. You might have a shot at Royal palms too- with those summers,its bound to think its back in the tropics.

Yeah, this is that palm's second winter. Last winter it had some mild frost damage, and this year it has none. I have a couple of seedling royal palms that I will try out in the ground once they get some size on them. As with all of my experimental plantings, I expect them to die during one of our cold winters. For the time being, I can enjoy pretending I'm in a tropical climate :P

The warm trend continues. Yesterday we hit 85 on the coast in L.A. At 11pm, the temperature was 75 degrees. The forecast for the next 15 days calls for temps in the 70s and lows in the mid to high 50s. Here is the forecast for my location on the coast:

Here's the forecast for Downtown Los Angeles, 15 miles from the coast:

It has rained ONCE so far this winter. There was one week of "cold" weather a few weeks ago when temps were in the low 60s during the day and high 40's to low 50s at night. Lowest temp I've recorded so far has been 48 just for one night. The rest of the winter has been balmy and sunny. One of the warmest and driest winters I've experienced in L.A, and I've been here for 20 years. I like the warmth, but I miss the rain.

Its been a strange winter. The warmth down south is past even the drought years. The bay area has had trickle warmth. Maybe 3-4f above average..nothing extreme. No frost was a rarity for me. I see some of my tropicals showing growth signs. What gets me is- WE HAVE RAIN!..its been about perfectly average so far. I haven't had to water ( the yard plants) in weeks. Soon,that might end..but for now last I watered was in November?..not sure.