It appears that global warming seems to have missed us again this year. Last year was quite cool but this year we are ONE MONTH behind!!! Normally our sweet cherries are in bloom mid to 3rd week of April, and started blooming last weekend .This year most of the fruit buds are pushing no flowers due to the cold temps and long duration we had in the winter(wow it was cold )save a couple but are blooming now along with the sour cherries ,Asian plums and also the euro plums all at the same time??????
So we were quite lucky even though it has been very cold it seemed to be quite linear slowly warming up and nights were just a the cusp of frost for the past two weeks but never getting any until last night! The weather channel called for -1C (30F) so I ran around the property covering everything I could with buckets, flower pots, blankets whatever!
Some things could not physically be covered like the bigger vines so remembering what another poster did a few years ago to save his kiwis placed a sprinkler on them .
By 10:00 I could see my breath it got cold really effen fast! so on the sprinkler went:) I ended going down to -2C(28F) for a few hours. The kiwis and grapes growing on my deck were covered in ice(see photo) and I was a little disappointed thinking that all that sprinklering was for nothing, but to my surprise after the ice melted the tender shoots came out totally unscathed! I couldn't believe it !