Jim, Thanks so much for the reply and the photos. Wow, yours is huge! Does yours stay in the ground year-round? Or do you dig it up and take it in for the winter? In the bottom photo, was it being freshly planted for Spring, or were you just adding goodies/amendments? Also, what is that wrapped around the trunk in the top photo? Boy, I can't wait for mine to get that big. Here's how it looks today. It's about 2 1/2 feet tall: Carol

This spring is shaping up as the worst I've seen here in 20 years for early blooming fruit, worse than the Easter freeze of a few years ago. A bad combination of a mild winter, a warm March and then deep freezes in April. I'm expecting complete losses of all my unprotected stone fruit except tart cherries and deep losses of apples and pears. I have limited resources to provide protection to the trees, but have constructed enclosures up to 20 feet tall with tarps and heat sources around some of my favorite apricots, plums and apples. Some observations I've made: Usually apple bloom is consistent in timing among my trees, but this year, my varieties on more dwarfing stock are running about 3 weeks earlier than average while my varieties on semi-dwarf stock are well behind that. These "smarter" apples are probably the only unprotected ones I'll be eating this year. The critical temperature tables give information about European plums but not Japanese plums. A quick survey of my blossoms in my orchard after 23F exposure show that despite being later blooming, the Europeans are showing near total loss while the Japanese are showing around 60% loss, which is not bad at all. Sadly though, these will likely be wiped out tomorrow. Fruits like grapes, persimmons, mulberries, raspberries, ribes, blueberries, kiwi, jujube, serviceberries and blackberries look ok. Pawpaws were coaxed to bud out about 3 weeks ahead of schedule by the warm weather, and I expect complete loss of the developing blossoms, but this native tends to have reserve buds that develop later on, so I'm far from writing this one off. In general the native fruits seem to have the resourcefulness to deal with the difficulties of this type of weather pattern.

Lots of those little microclimates in the Bay Area. Inland where I am is a lot dryer. We haven't gotten as much as other places inland... but I love the rain we have gotten! It's the snow and ice that helps the drought the most. Here's a good article on the current state of the CA drought. Making headway, but not over. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theweathernetwork.com/us/amp/news/2017-pacific-storms-take-a-big-bite-out-californias-drought/78018?client=safari

Doesn't look like any damage right now, but I learned from the last freeze that damage doesn't show for a few days sometimes. Still, last freeze I saw damage immediately. I think the cloud cover helped and the wind. This is a learning experience for me, because in SW FL, when you had 27 degrees, that was cold enough to do damage to tropicals, no matter how long it lasted. Up here, the plants are a lot tougher. I'm hoping to walk away largely unscathed and praying this is the last scare this spring. Well, not even spring until the 21st, right? So hopefully, BUH-BYE WINTER!