We'll go from winter into summer lol...I see a huge advantage...might be getting more fruits and maybe apricots... not killing off flower buds or set fruits in a frosty night which I see allot in a normal spring.

You grow apricots? Wow. My dad used to love grow a lot of types of fruits and vegetables a bit of everything including apricots, but he was in Southern Ontario, well we were in Southern Ontario, about zone 6. So yummy, I can taste them now warm off the tree or below the tree. My dad had this thing about waiting for pears to drop to the ground before they were ripe, So naturally despite (or because of that) that I liked picking the green ones off the tree. Do either of you grow any magnolias? I'm trying Ann and this is her first winter.

Good Grief, calving has started and the poor little things probably wonder what happened to their warm environment. I am wading thru snow up to my thighs to cut a few scions and the wind is frigid. On the bright side, as Konrad suggested, once we get a warm up it will probably be here to stay. Although flooding is now an option :) I do need a break, I am sounding down right crabby. LOL.

The skidooers are happy this winter / spring that's for sure, though lots of folks not pleased about the very long and cold winter, not much one can do, this is Canada! Last spring, we were also under La Nina conditions and April ended up being very snowy, wet and cold ... when it had finally warmed up and the fruit trees were in bloom, the arctic air surged back in and we received a severe frost, the lady down the road recorded -8 C at her place.

Just went outside and it's a bitter -10 C at 11:15 am and I'm sure it's -20 with the wind chill!

With the windchill, it is 9 degrees F here today....ugh, so over this!

Is this cold going to kill a bunch of trees? We are very close to breaking the all time April cold record and it’s only 12:42 am and it’s supposed to be coldest at 7am. Trees budding and -20s. Incredible.

I think it would depend on the bud stage of the trees. Ours are still fully dormant so I don't think we will have any damage.

Yes...no problem for the hardy ones....

Heard it mentioned today that it's now the coldest start to April in 40 years! This seems correct to me, because I remember being about 12 years old and going ice fishing on May 10 th here in central Alberta! Obviously, that had been one heck of a cold spring back then!

18 or 19 C below normal today with a biting NE wind. According to the Weather Network, the next two weeks continue well below normal. Likely to be one of the very coldest Aprils on record, add that to being the third coldest November.

Luckily we didn't hit record lows this winter..about average...here it went to about minus 35C..[in town]...but this late cold sticking around this long can't be good, especially for borderline plants.

I feel sorry for farmers with calving cows...so easy to loose them!

The only saving grace with this spring and calving season, is that there is lots of snow so none of the "mothers to be" are straying too far from the barn.

Do marginal plants suffer much if the winter is long? Why would that be?

Adding in my gripes as well. Today it was -5 with a windchill of -55! Felt like that anyway. This is crazy. I was sick of winter on October 26th and it looks like it's going to definitely be a 6-monther this year. :(

>>Do marginal plants suffer much if the winter is long? Why would that be?<<

Not much is written on this subject but it has to do with the many freeze/thaw cycles which does damage on plants we know, on trees it's the cambium...then simply can't recover. Hard on ground plants also when snow is gone ...freeze drying out...can't recover after a long period!

We still have good snowcover here and there weren't any thaws this winter, unlike last. But the spot where i do have some marginal plants bares off quickly in the spring. I've shoveled snow on them and also put some straw on the area (but i didn't have much straw). This is also hard on roses. Many of mine will die back almost to the ground because of cold snaps after the snow has gone down.

Hmmm.... we set a record cold April temp for the month yesterday. If my “borderline” trees survive this, then I will never worry about them again. I know of many years where April was 5 degrees below average but we are currently sitting 17 degrees below average. Never seen a year like this in my life. Longest sustained cold end of December I have ever seen, coldest November I have ever seen and coldest April week I have ever seen.

You're certainly not kidding, I just checked the current US temperatures and it's chilly right down to the Texas / Louisiana coast!

As of April 8 th 9:15 am Mountain Time

I wish i could find a picture but i can't. Last night the Jays were playing in Texas and the Rangers were wearing balaclavas because it was so cold! LOL

Approaching the middle of April and it's still darn cold and with the Weather Network claiming that they do not see any sustained warm up ahead of us. The ground here remains 100 % frozen and covered in snow. Until the jet stream decides to head to the north of us we're just gonna remain in this cold sluggish flow. I heard the geese about two weeks ago on what had been a rare mild day. Though, back south they headed the next day as the arctic air again surged back in. Give it just a few more weeks and we've had an entire half year of winter!

-2 C at 2 pm with heavy gray skies and light snow flurries, ugh! In comparison, we had warmer temps for most of the month of December!

Well....on top of that, we got the double whammy this winter, snow came late and the ground froze deep before the snow! [no insulation!]...Had to dig a hole the other day, was still frozen at 40 inches depth ! Usually I can dig trees ones the snow is gone...wonder how long I have to wait this year.

Once the snow is gone.? Although some of the snow has melted we still have snow banks left over from winter in both the front and back yards.

2 foot here and more coming next week....getting colder again..but hasn't really warmed up much anyway lol.

Today is #Edmonton-Blatchford's 166th consecutive min≤0℃ day which put October 29, 2017➞April 12, 2018 in a 2-way tie for 1st place for the longest run ever. #yegwx

We reached the highest temperature of the year here back on March 13 with 8c. Hoping to see that surpassed tomorrow...

Don’t fear plus 16 on Friday. Finally and next week looks like May temps. I’m so glad the meterologists were all wrong by thinking it wouldn’t warm till May.

Like rain in July I'll believe it when I see it. Nasty freezing rain yesterday and today, slippery roads, power outage, phone was out. All to build anticipation for spring when it finally comes.

Yes, get past the next few days and the forecast now looks much improved for most of the entire country. Let's hope we get a lasting break and May doesn't dish out many unpleasant surprises!

FrozeBudd, make that ANY unpleasant surprises in May! We've had enough!

Well what’s interesting is that I had a discussion with a certain meterologist on twitter Thursday and he was convinced that it was impossible to have average or warmer temps for the rest of April. I told him that just two weeks before he told me they couldn’t predict more than 1-4 days out in spring. He rebutted by saying that it was almost a certainty that it would be below ten degrees to finish April.

Two days later, all the forecasts changed and today he is predicting everything over ten and lots of mid teens from Thursday through the ten day forecast. Ironic eh? Wunderground is saying +16 Friday and near 15 all next week with some 17s. It doesn’t hurt to wish that things could finally balance out. It always seems to do that in the end and we will need temps like that to get anywhere near balancing April.

What I don't appreciate is that one day it's too cold and frozen to pull a weed and the next it's so hot you sweat to death trying to dig something up. I find the weeding and garden prep window in comfortable weather is slim.....Not to mention the bugs adding to that.

There ain’t no sweating in the prairies. But I’ll take mid teens as it snowed last night. I was worried we would have no leaves till end of May and now that may change which is great. Could see em early May if the forecast holds. Two years ago I had leaves mid April so.... either way.

Two years ago and same date today....

Sigh.....nowhere near that right now! My red maple had flowers end of march last year and this year its barely getting started opening up right now. My purple maples were leafed out end of april and right now they are nowhere near that. Even my crabapple had leaves out end of april last year and it was a really cold start to april but not this bad...

Spring has finally more or less sprung here. The forecast temperatures are still supposed to be below normal but still far better than what we've had. A few days of 12° and then a little cooler, but the nights will be around 0°, either above or below. And there are crocuses blooming in the garden bed in the southwest corner of the house! Mind you, every other bed has a couple of feet of snow on them...

My iPhone weather says e town has a week of summer that has somehow popped up. Four days into the 20s this week and Friday at 23. My town is a little cooler but highs still reaching 20s. Ironically my wife is going to Tulsa, Oklahoma and we will be warmer Friday. Odd.

Last week I watched about 16 inches of snow in my yard melt in three days with sunny temps in the low to mid teens and 10mm of rain. Wow things change quickly.

Bring on the leaves.

I know it's like spring is the fleeting moments between parkas and bikinis when the snow banks are still there and the mosquitoes are waking up. What is this thing, called spring?

spring has sprung and the flooding has started

It went from about +17C to 4C the other day in a matter of minutes the other day. Nice to see some rain too on the weekend instead of snow.

A good month behind on things here, but the bulbs are quickly catching up, they seem eager to get going.

April 13th, 2017 last year:

April 22nd, 2018 this year:

Crocuses are up here too, thank goodness for ‘foundation plantings’, photos from April 22, 2018:

I was really happy to see Allium ‘Ambassador’ returning!

It’s fun to take a walk around and see what’s alive. Amazing how many plants I forget about and then rediscover in the spring. I hope to do a better job of labelling/adding plant tags this year.

I may have some red maple flowers with +20 tomorrow :) forth winter passed and -39c, I think we can now say it’s fully hardy. No dieback either. Red rocket maple btw.

>>I had a discussion with a certain meterologist on twitter Thursday and
he was convinced that it was impossible to have average or warmer temps
for the rest of April.<<

I think he should find another job lol. ....we don't need to be a meteorologist to know that things can change quickly here.

Ok let me rephrase. Lol not impossible but very sure of it which I found very odd considering he said two weeks before that it was impossible to predict in spring.

Environment Canada is calling for a possible high of 27C today, hope some of us can enjoy the weather in this area. My husband frequently interprets the weather maps for his job, he says we can only predict, at most, up to three days ahead, anything beyond that is based on historical data.

Some years around here it seems like there are only two seasons, winter and summer. We didn’t do much snow farming this year, the south beds against the foundation were very dry and needed watering yesterday.

Good to see geranium ‘Rozanne’ has made it again this year, even with all the long cold temps this winter.

Spring is springier around here now too and the front bed is mostly bared off. There are crocuses blooming in a few spots - whenever i see them, i tell myself to fill every bed with them! Never get around to it, though. Several of the daylilies are showing some growth, and the Knockout Rose that is zone 5 has green canes! Alliums are up in one bed and look like they will be great! The major thing i have to get out and do is drag off branches that were broken in the heavy snow last fall. DH is hoping to burn, but it has been fairly dry so he's not sure if he should. After all the early snow we had, it's amazing that it is dry at all.

The raised vegetable beds are snow free now and i need to get to them and turn them over and add some compost because that never got done last fall. And the main bed needs something added to it. Parts of it seemed to have no nutrients at all last year and produced very poorly. So we will probably have to get more black earth.

At the moment my mind is full of all the spring chores but the knees are not. I was thinking yesterday that i need a long handled trowel and clippers too! LOL

Expecting a high of 25 today. Finally! The last two days were warm enough to sit on the deck. Brought out the deck chairs and thoroughly enjoyed it!

In the gardens, there is still no sign of any perennials coming up or leaf buds starting to open on trees or shrubs. This April was just so cold!

With no other flowers in sight, the crocuses were quite crowded with bees today. I like crocuses too Marcia, a few years ago I received from Botanus a free gift of ‘Blue Pearl’ snow crocus and I like them more than the large ones, they are very dainty. The only thing I struggle with is accidentally digging crocuses up once they have faded. It’s clear this year some have multiplied while others have faded.

Every year my gift to myself for my ‘spring’ birthday is a load of compost.

Connie, my thermometer says we’re up to 27C here now as well. A bit too hot for me to do anything right now.

We hit 30c it has definitely sped up the buds. They looked dormant two days ago and now I see green on my weeping willow buds, romance cherries etc.

22 here today and apparently tomorrow too. The only leaf buds so far are on my white lilac.

From HOT yesterday to overcast windy and nipppy today ... long range forecast is looking pretty good though.

Our "high" on Tuesday is supposed to be +3! LOL

Well...don't forget, most every year we'll still get snow up to May 19!

Yeah...crazy high / low..yesterday a plus 28C too hot to work and today plus 8C.. had to put long jones on for pruning lol.

Man did a lot of my techny cedars take a beating on the south side. I thought these were zone 2 hardy and burn resistant? Far from it... or maybe I’m missing something. Some of the best looking ones I have are burned and others which aren’t as nice, are lacking any burn. So lost...