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Cottage Gardens

how weird is the weather?

16 years ago

My winter jasmine has started blooming! Actually it's quite pretty, the cheery yellow flowers right next to a purple malva, but.... it's AWFULLY early. And my witch hazel? Supposed to bloom in about January? It has flowers. Not a lot, but some are there. I'll have to go out and see if my winter honeysuckle is joining in. Such crazy, crazy weather this year.

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Comments (9)

utdeedee
16 years ago
It sure is. Not just in the SE US either. We are in the 19th day of 90+ heat. Haven't had substantial rain in about 3 months. I sure hope the Fall and Winter is better. That is strange that you have Winter flowers blooming now.
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chris_ont
16 years ago
After weeks and weeks of 90-degree weather and very little rain, it is currently 64 degrees here. My toes are blue, I swear. Still no rain in sight, though
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We have had the real roller coaster ride for weather this spring. Sometimes it seems as though parts of the track were missing. Everything in the garden looked good, green, and dormant as winter progressed through February. Then, in March, the roller coaster started and continued into April. We had cycling temperatures from below freezing then going up to about 80F followed by snow and freezing. Then it repeated that cycle, another set of temps near 80F followed by freezing and snow. Then it went to near 90F followed by cold, but not freezing. Then, this past Wednesday, we had our turn in the tornado dance. Fourteen tornadoes touched down in the greater Kansas City area which takes in a large part of west central Missouri and east central Kansas for news reporting purposes and jurisdiction of the local National Weather Service office. Some funnels were above Kansas City, but did not touch down. My garden, which has a number of old, once-blooming roses in flower, took a beating from the rain and wind. Oh well; it happens. However, as a result of the extreme cycling of the temperatures in March and April, flower quality has suffered immensely when compared to last year which did not see the wild temperature roller coaster with its deranged ups and downs. I also have lots of aphids but few, if any, ladybugs to prey upon them. I also see a lot of thrip damage. I may have to spray some with insecticide to keep down these bugs. I don't normally use insecticides unless absolutely necessary. I let nature's predators do their thing. The following pictures of the hybrid tea Chandos Beauty typify what has happened. The first one was taken last year when it looked really nice. You can see that the flower above is quite large when compared with the foliage size and well-formed with good color. The next picture is what it looks like now. You can see that the flower is much smaller and a bit messed up along with some foliage problems. I see this kind of difference on so many plants. Few were unaffected. I have also seen more blackspot from the damage to the plants' immune systems because of the wild temperature changes. This has not been an easy year this time here.
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I'm working at a start up website called Daily Green www.thedailygreen.com. We are set to launch on April 11th. It's an Eco-friendly website. All about leading a more conscious, natural foods oriented and earth-friendly lifestyle. We will have a special section on weird weather, climate change and global warming and IÃ¢ÂÂd love to see pictures that show how these affect your gardens. I Ã¢ÂÂm looking for pictures of unseasonable activitiesÃ¢ÂÂ¦ flowers blooming early, birds back in the gardens too soon ect. Please email me if you think you have something great. DPHOTO@hearst.com Thanks!! Gloria
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irene_dsc
16 years ago
Can I send you some of my rain??? We've had the rainiest August here that I can remember in years! Not to mention that most of it is via thunderstorms. I'm getting divebombed by mosquitos when I try to harvest tomatoes, and ds' flag football practice is getting cancelled because they don't want to ruin the fields. And Intellicast is forcasting scattered thunderstorms for the rest of the week...
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DYH
16 years ago
Our drought just broke! We're having a thunderstorm right now. Things were just snap, crackle, pop out in the garden from the dryness until an hour ago.

Newskye -- my son is in graduate school in London. He's coming home in mid-September. Where in the UK are you?

Cameron
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flutterby81
16 years ago
Yep, we're having weird weather as well. August for us should be fairly dry, and we've had substantial rain every day for the past week and a half (maybe longer, I can't remember anymore). Most days it will be hot and sunny and then in the evening or at night we get an inch or two or three of rain.

July should have been hot, humid, and stormy, but we went 5 or 6 weeks without any rain.
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newskye
Original Author
16 years ago
Hiya Cameron, I'm in south Wales... in fact all I've really seen of London is the airport. I'm not much of a city person... stick me in the dirt with a fork in my hand and I'm much, much more at home!

I bet you're proud of your boy though :)
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fammsimm
16 years ago
The weather all around the world has been strange this year, hasn't it!

I guess this is another way we are all united as gardeners. We can certainly all commiserate with each others trials and tribulations.

It's got me wondering what kind of winter we are going to be facing.

Marilyn
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angelcub
16 years ago
Chris, I know what you mean. I have been closing all the upstairs windows at night because it is so cool. One morning it was hovering around 50!

We have been below normal temps since about May. We should be in the 80s in August but we barely get to the high 70s. It's been great for the gardens but I kind of miss the warmer temps for swimming and boating. Can't wait to get to Kauai in a couple of weeks to warm up. : )

Marilyn, I've been wondering what winter will be like, too. The last time we had weather like this we had a fairly wet and snowy winter here. I hope it repeats itself. Mmmm . . . I can already smell the aroma of hot cocoa and a pile of new quilt fabric. ; )

Diana
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DYH
16 years ago
Newskye -- my son loves Wales! He's a country boy, too. That's why he went into archaeology. He told me he just can't work in an office! He's great help in the garden when he's home. Let's just say that archaeologists are great at digging! :-)

take care,
Cameron (living in the countryside, too)
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