As said fingers crossed! For the first time we have an overseas trip planned for April/May so my spring chores will be condensed into whatever “good weather” we have until then. My garden has kept us to winter vacations for 40 years and finally giving it up to the gods and going in spring......

Er, um, we have about a foot of snow on the garden and the temperature is dropping to zero.

LOL!! Yeah, cross-posting to the Perennials forum could be a little misleading re:comments about PNW weather conditions..........

We finally got that badly needed blanket of snow. Along with it came frigid temps in the single digits with real feels in the (-)’s. Brrrrrrrrr!

If I could just figure out how to designate my zone next to my user name, it might help. Anybody?

I can see your zone 8.

I can see your zone as well :-) But there are a lot of zone 8's out there, covering parts of the PNW, Georgia, Texas and other locations in the southeast. Sometimes adding location is a better clarification!

I guess it is only me that can’t see it!

in the 50’s next week. (sorry Garden_Ho and Paul).

No need to apologise...it may be here too! Lol doubtful, but you never know with this crazy weather...

Do you enter from Houzz?? That seems to prevent one from seeing what is essentially a GardenWeb holdover feature (I am only in GardenWeb - actually never sign out - so zones show up for me consistently).

You can try accessing only via Garden Web - https://www.gardenweb.com. Or you can go into your profile and amend your screen name to include zone/location as well. Then anyone from either side of the platform can see!!

We have had a fairly mild winter, but this past weekend were under threat of storm and frigid weather. Supposed to get 5"-8" of snow, but ended up in the line of wintry mix and mostly rain. I ended up dramatically stomping around the house and complaining about the lack of snow cover for my poor garden. Husband thought it was hilarious.

We did get roughly three inches and had -5 for a low last night. Tomorrow, it will be 37. &@#!.

It seems that to an extent climate change is turning the Pacific Northwest into California and CA into Mexico. So we have been having soft winters and hot summer spells up here for awhile now. Meanwhile the local summer climate could become like that of Portland and it would still be within past norms for western WA. And the local weather professor that maintains a media presence has said thereby that the year-round climate here may have experienced permanent warming.

I don't think of things like "putting the garden to bed for the winter" as relating to our area very much. Lawn services tend to take a winter break but then what often happens is when they start reappearing early the following year customer's turf areas are overgrown.

I have definitely noticed a change and so has "Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada". I just found out this year that they have revised my zone from 7a to 8a! As I stated in another post I have lived in my current home for 4 winters now and the number of days with snow-on-the-ground (which is how I measure the severity of our winters) have been the following:

• 2015-16: 6 days
• 2016-17: 60 days
• 2017-18: 14 days
• 2018-19: 1 day only (so far)!

And it looks like we won't be getting any more snow any time soon. We have only had a handful of nights below freezing and the day-time averages have been oscillating between 2 (36F) and 9 (47F).

I have way more green stuff still in my gardens than I ever have. All very interesting!

Mmm it's in the post. Snow and minus temperatures making their unwelcome presence felt. Have so far avoided coats or jackets but thermals and my winter leathers are back in use. All day outside tomorrow, doing a bloody clearance job (sigh). £££ though.

Last year the weather was even more unusually mild. I remember going outside (last Winter) on New Years Day and there were lots of big camellia bushes in bloom.

(U.S. Northwest we're talking about, since this topic has been categorized in the "Northwestern Gardening" section. That's another sort of frustrating problem since site began allowing threads to be categorized in multiple categories. And the East Coast that year did NOT receive a mild winter)

There are camellias in bloom here right now! I also have a hardy fuchsia still in full leaf and flower, cupheas still blooming and self-seeded nasturtiums that are growing like mad but unlikely to flower any time soon :-)

Our winters have been consistently cold and snowy in the past few years. I just took this picture of our driveway. Thought you guys would get a kick out of it :)

Thanks for the thought but not for me!! I detest cold and snow, which is one of the reasons I live where I do. It is rarely very cold here - seldom even into the 20's - and snow is very infrequent, thank goodness!! And when it does fall, it is generally not too much and is gone pretty rapidly.

If I want snow I can easily drive to the mountains :-) That's plenty close enough for me!

Mazerolm, at least you have a respite from gardening. This weather in the PNW has been great to get an early jump on garden chores but it also puts the pressure on. Sometimes the to do lists of a gardener need to be on hold for the sake of the mental health of the gardener (and the gardener’s spouse).....

Well old man winter finally arrived with a curse! After only one small dusting up until January 22 (my last post above) we have had somewhere between 16" (40 cm) and 2' (60 cm) since February 7 - our highest snow fall since 1996 and 4-6 times our average February falls - with more in the forecast!!

All my tall shrubs (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 'Victoria'; Euonymus japonicus 'Silver King'; and Pieris japonica) have been flattened to less than half their usual height. It will be interesting to see if they spring back or if they will have broken branches to prune off. Anything that was poking it's head up such as Narcissus, Tulipa, Primula, Muscari, Hyacinthoides, Iris and Helleborus are now deeply buried!!

But... Spring is coming soon, right?

Yeah, I was surprised!! Who expected almost a foot of snow in just over a week?? In an area of the world that seldom sees more than a few inches at any given time. Typically, it's one and done, not day after day of snowfall! And with sufficiently cold temps to keep it hanging round for a while.

And nasty heavy, very wet stuff. Tree parts were raining down all around me....just glad no direct hits! But lost power for 48 hours and lost cable/internet right before final round of dog show.....I was not happy!

(I have friends that live on the Sunshine Coast of BC and school there was cancelled for Monday, Tuesday *and* Wednesday of this week....according to them a very rare occurrence.)

Have a look! This was taken about half way through the snowfall! The plants on the left foreground (normally 5' tall) are now completely covered and flattened! Oh Dear!

Note 'Victoria' is a hybrid selection and not a pure version of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus. And may also be the same as 'Skylark'. So it is correctly listed as C. 'Victoria' (unless a synonym of C. 'Skylark') and not C. thyrsiflorus 'Victoria'.

As I remember it TV news said that so far local snowfall for this month has been the 8th deepest on record (for Feb.), with the all time record being in 1950. And I believe the same broadcast showed a whopping 59 in. total accumulation for Feb. of that year.

Ah, those lovely winters of the early-mid 1950's...which I just missed (not that an infant would remember anyway).

Ron, I remember going to kindergarten at Richmond Beach School during the winter of 49-50 in almost waist deep snow. I was only 5 so it wasn't very deep for an adult. The school was only about 3 blocks from the Sound and our house was between the Sound and the school. The area is called Shoreline now.

I've lived on a bluff near Maple Valley for 40 years and this is the most snow I've seen here.

Apparently, we are getting a chilly Atlantic blast from you guys...but with a continental hot front coming up from Africa, we are bracing for some excitable weather (I always have a bit of anxiety about the older poplars in my wood, landing on the horsebox).

Records from the international airport:

http://www.seattleweatherblog.com/snow-stats/

(I am sure the one TV station showed a table with this year being the 8th snowiest Feb. and Feb. 1950 having over 50 inches, cannot explain now how this does not jibe with other sources).

It's now snowing again this week here in western WA.

It was snowing today in Shoreline but not sticking. We are expecting more tonight. All the cuttings are still in the basement and looking very happy! lol The plants out side are fine. The grevillea victoriae, 7ft x7ft got totally flattened. We shook off the snow and most of it popped up except for one large branch that was broken. Now I have lots of material for cuttings! lol The rest looks great and the winter blossoms are still at the top. The hydrangea Golden Crane still has green leaves on the tallest branches - approaching 10 feet with new buds breaking out. It is a strange plant and I am letting it get as tall as it wants. Part is 4 feet tall and almost as wide, and part is tall. Interesting and along a staircase so the blossoms can be smelled up close all the way down the stairs. Don't know about the rest of you - but I am ready for spring! lol