I cant wait for spring! I dont like february, but at least it means march is almost here. I think tomorrow is Groundhogs day so I guess the warmer weather will be on its way. By me April has no hard freezes and sometime in the middle of the month most of the plants will start to go outside. The more tender usually dont go out until late april, and the less tender will probably go out in early april or late march depending on the weather. Last year most of my plants were out by mid april because we saw the hottest temperature of the season (94F) in april.
Once those first plants go outside spring has started for me and summer starts when it actually feels warm outside. This week is cold by me though, and the coldest air of the season came last weekend. At least February is the shortest month, but usually if any big snows come they come in February.

Good luck!

HAPPY FEBRUARY! were almost most there everyone, hang in there!

Couldn't be better said.

Its almost time for March preping of palms depending on your zone. Extra ventilation will be needed on sunny March days because the hot houses get too hot, and loosening plastic on structures once we pass 3/15. Is there anything I missed for zone 7?

I don't feed year round, so March is the first month I start feeding regularly (for the indoor palms)--still too early for the outdoor species. When do zone 7ers start outdoor feeding (Trachycarpus and S. minors for example? Thanks.

good idea

Jim,

I agree with you 100%....I can't wait until spring!!!

PLEASE HURRY AND WARM US UP MOTHER NATURE!!!!

Laura in VB

Here is a little hope,and the numbers get better the farther north you are.

Length Of Visible Light: 11h 28m
Length of Day 10h 36m
Tomorrow will be 1m 43s longer

NorCal has seen the last month of possible frost go by-February can be a wild mix of heavy rain or even 70's and warm. The 60's are here in the south bay-upper 50's cooler areas.
You just never know if the rains end sudden or taper..but we need more.

There appears to be a nice shot of cold coming to northeast MN after this weekend. Next week not looking too warm. We had -3F in Rochester, MN this morning.

Yea,we are pretty much locked in to cold with 2/3rds of the country covered in snow.
We may have to wait for the March sun to work on this snow before things change much.
Even a normal March would seem very mild after the persistent cold of the last 3 months.

It has been a terribly long winter. My palms are doing ok but beginning to show strain. I need one of those mid-atlantic February warm spells but that doesn't look likely right now. I'm like you Jim, I hope March is better. It appears the only people spared from winter wrath is in the deep south. I hope all of you have good luck with your plants come spring.

Des Moines, IA is hovering right around 0F, same thing for Omaha... Still warm up to the NE in MN, but plenty of snow falling.

This winter will never end and the most recent model run shows MORE snow this weekend and not a SINGLE day with a temp above 32F. The best we can hope for is some sunny days.

Yep. It snowed yesterday for the 4th TIME! this winter. Most winters it does not snow at all. 37 for a high today-should be 52...more snow to come later this week...Sun is out though, 72 degrees in Washy greenhouse...Uncovering palms seems a long way off...

The New York City meterologists have noted that the sun angle is getting to higher and soon will break these winter patterns. Even if it looks unlikely, when the sun is out its starting to penetrate my plastic green house with higher temps and causing plants like my citris to bloom.

The sun is getting stronger but the cold pattern is locked in,this actually make things worse.
With the northern jet reinforcing the cold every couple days and the southern jet very active.....
The stage is set for the epic snow/storms to continue AT LEAST through this month!
Did I mention that 2/3rds of the country is still blanketed in snow?
It is and this is not helping!
The sun sure feels good when that north wind stops blowing for a few seconds!!!

We had full sun up here today. It was a little chilly (low 20's) but man that sun felt good. The plants enjoy days like today, even if tonite we go below 0F.

I have noticed even with cold temps today, the snow that was on the driveway melted, a good sign of a higher sun angle.

Just looking at the newest model run, there is not one reading above 32F for this part of MN.

The sun does defintely starts to feel really good at this time of the year. Even if its cold outside it feels at least a little warmer. Even my indoor plants are liking the longer days and they are growing much faster now. Spring is slowly coming, and once the temperatures start to show it, Spring will be here!

Good luck.

Thanks for the encouragement man!!

Now if we can only replace that PESKY high pressure system that has been sitting off of Greenland since last year, we just might get a few Bermuda highs, and a warm spring and finally hot summer!

To be quite honest, the sun as high in the sky as it was last spring and summer, only came out 30% of the times from June to August!:-(

Mike..:-)

Z4MN-
We had beautiful sunshine today but cold,it did(as you say)melt the snow off the pavement a little,one of the benefits of Feb sunshine-it usually burns through the snow even when it's below freezing.

73f in the cactus house today,mid 70s in some of the palm enclosures but possibly below zero(outside them) tonight,all this snow makes it difficult to break this cold streak right now-we are locked in!

Ill just be glad when its over. I don't like shoveling snow and wading in the snow so I can't wait till its over.LOL

I think they are predicting a warmer summer overall which would be really nice since last year by me summer got a very very slow start as well and everyday was below average in the month of june with very little sun and lots of rain. I didnt water my plants once that entire month. Im just hoping summer comes quick and it is nice and warm! At least february is almost half way over.

Good luck.

Me too. We're unseasonably cold in Jax, been below average high/low temps it would seem 75% of this winter. Really weird & cold winter.

If this year is anything like the last 2,it will be a slow steady climb out of winter.
This makes for a nice spring but it is sloooooooooooow

The current model doesn't show an above freezing day the whole run! and that is through March 2... Our avg right now is right around 32F for a high temp. This is getting nasty. A lot of snow, late in the season... Flooding potential goes up weekly the longer we go without some melt off.

I've noticed some 'winter yellows' on trachys recently due to reflected sunlight (snowcover). I typically fertilize in March, which allows a few weeks for the nutrients to wash down to the root zone. A light sprinkling of epsom salts around trachys and needles will alleviate the 'yellows' as soon as soils warm up.

Im also still below average and in the mid 30F. Looks like that will continue until at least later this week, but nothing even a little above average for the next 10-15 days at least. Looks like a cold February for most of the country, and im sure march wont be so great either. Hopefully once April starts to kick in, so will spring.
Im going to fertilize my palms once the first week of april starts. By then temps are usually in the low 60s with nights in the low 40s. So far none of my outdoor palms have damage, so there is a good chance that they will come out of the winter just fine.

Good luck!

Hopefully the extreme cold is done with here in Mass. I can feel the sun getting a little warmer!

Has anyone heard of the Methuselah date palm tree? There are a few articles on the internet, but they are outdated. It is a story from Israel about 2000 yr old (extinct) date palm seeds that were found in the Masada archaeological site, and were planted a couple of years ago. One sprouted, and was growing! I'm trying to find out the progress of the tree, since it may be ready to produce fruit.The whole idea fascinates me,if they could bring the species back from Roman times.

Never heard of that. Sounds interesting.

Just peeking at the model run this evening and it doesn't show an above freezing day here until March 3. By then averages should be about 40F. Ugly, ugly stuff. Hopefully its like last year and it turns mild and never looks back. Lot of snow to melt off, with all kinds of water in the snow pack. Be nice to slowly get rid of the white stuff, but don't see that happening much with such cold temps.

Sun is a lot warmer. Need to set up the greenhouse and start moving things outside during these days of full sun.

I heard about that story, but I couldnt find any recent articles about it either. I think its very interesting. The fact that a species that has been extinct for nearly 2000 years and now its growing again! From what I heard in one article, they have many seeds of this palm and only tried to germinate a few. Lets hope the one that actually germinated is a female.

Nothing even at average is coming by me either. The warmest we got so far is 44F, just one degree above the monthly average. Coldest was 11 (I think it was more like 13F by my yard). It doesnt look like I will be getting any average temperatures until March at least.

Good luck!

Try this.

Here is a link that might be useful: ancient palm

Weird. You've got to wonder what else we could bring back.

Looks like a VERY ugly forecast for up here in the Northern Plains/Midwest. Today may have been the warmest day for the next 2 weeks... ugly ugly ugly. I will admit the sun has been great and if i'd get my butt moving on the greenhouse (i'm trying to get the snow to melt some before i set it up), i could move a bunch of plants out during the day.

Like I said, as long as that same pesky high pressure is sitting off of Greenland like it has been for over a year, we will only get a warm spell here in the east once in a while, but over all temps will below normal for the east, while the west stays above normal..

Lucky us in the East, ha? Hey. it has been raining at the Olympics while we are colder here in the east...lol. Lucky for those in the west, with the warm high pressure ridge setting up again, while the east shivers, probably right to through the summer again..

Hey, at least the sun is feeling hotter and hotter and the days are getting longer and longer!!

Mike..:-)

This pattern actually set up at the end of Nov 2007,that was
the last above avg (high temps)month we have had.
The one exception was this past Nov we averaged 7f above the mean temp for the month,that got slammed back immediately in Dec.Unbelievable!

We had a little battle going on here to retake the streets,
everyday it would snow a little and the streets would get covered then,the sun would come out and melt it off.Overnight it would snow again and the sun would come out and retake the pavement.
That's all it could take though,the grass and everything else is covered with 5-8" of snow.
This is going to be a slow transition into spring this year and this pattern doesn't look to cahange much until possibly early March.Another shot of Arctic air looks set to invade again next week)-:

Well... The forecast has been under doing the "heat" the past few days, with yesterday reaching the mid 30's because of the "conifer" effect (according to the NWS) which shows what a lot of forest can do on a sunny Feb day (forest warms up better then the fields of snow covered Iowa cornfields) or simply put the albedo.

I have to say, if its going to be cold, let it be all sunshine. The area i want to put the greenhouse on has been shoveled, but still some remaining snow that has to melt off. Once i get to bare ground i'm laying down clear plastic to warm the soil.

I hear ya!
When we had our warm up*in mid January it was foggy(freezing fog)and cloudy for 2 weeks,I was like-hey,wheres that Arctic air?
I would rather have cold and sunny over cloudy and (insert whatever feels warmer to you these days)blah any day!
My plants inside love all this sun and my outside stuff warms up just fine to above freezing(unless it's single digits for highs or less)and that works for me!
I don't see a warm up any time soon here,I have looked at the 15 day forecast and everytime they say 40s for early March that gets pulled back the next day to the same old upper 20s-at least it's sunny.
It's not going to warm up here until this snow melts and the snows not going to melt until it warms up!
So there you go!

More snow to go too!

I got up to the mid 40s today, its 43 outside right now, thats around average for this time of the year, and it was a sunny day too so it feels pretty mild. It will probably be like that for the next 4 days or so before the high 30s come back which is about 5-10 degrees below average for this time of the year and the chance of snow is also in the forecast (maybe a rain and snow mix). Lots of snow to still melt and I hope its all gone once march comes. Very similar pattern persists which means the west is mild, and the center and eastern parts of the country is bitter cold. Right now some warm air is filtering in a little especially in the south and at least some average temps for a lot of the east and plains. Unfortunately the cold air isnt going to completely leave and its going to bring temps back below average in the same places next week.

Good luck! Some good news is the days are getting longer and even though the weather is still very winter like, spring is finally getting close.

Thanks, Coltrane. Did read that article on "ancient palm" link about the date palm tree. Maybe if they can someday repopulate them if it's a female we can get seeds!

Saturday, the 20th, reached 52 degrees. I actually hand washed my vehicles. There was still snow on the grass. People drove by and stared at me.

I'm anxious for spring.

Monday, back to low 30's again. We're running 10 degrees below average temps for February. But this coming weekend looks better.

Looks like by the first week of March we will see some mild weather.
I have seen this predicted for a while now,we'll see,it looks like a slow "steady"climb out of this long winter-

>

Well,

The high pressure that has ben stuck near, now I forget, is it Nova Scotia or Greenland?

Anyway, it pulsated for 2 days, and we finally broke the freezing mark.Unfortunately, it has taken over again, backed up the weather pattern again, as of tonight, with freezing cruddy weather through the rest of this week. Below normal temperature right down to Florida, might I add.:-(

I promise, the day we finally get a Bermuda high, I will toast anyone that can feel my pain..

At least my indoor plants are enjoying the sun as said here! Oh the sun, thank god that doesn't go away like in Alaska for 6 months..lol. How do they do it?

It can actually be in the 20's outside now, and almost hot in my car if parked in the sun all day. Even my Gardenia id reacting to the sun coming through my skylight. It is setting new buds..My indoor palms are growing new fronds too!!:-)

Mike..:-)

Ps..

If we can just to get this troth to sink in the west and rise in the east, after months of favoring the west with warmer than normal temps, we might get lucky!!

Can anyone tell us if this is going to happen? Are all the signs there for a major shift in the jet stream finally?:-)

Nothing significant on that front yet.
Negative NAO is the problem,fueled by El Nino's moisture supply.The funny thing is El Nino was at it's strongest in early Jan just when we had the coldest weather!
This winter is one for the bizzarro record books.I have never seen a moderate El Nino(which should bring mild winter weather and few Arctic outbreaks)smashed by the NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation)it is in a negative faze now but is predicted to go neutral by early March.
Take it with a grain of(road) salt though until it happens!
We do have some 40s in the 15 day forecast,we'll see,they tend to be pulled back about the time you believe it!

BTW
What you were referring to is a Polar low over Hudson bay keeping us in a Northwest flow aloft,it has been like this for over 2 years(for the most part),since Dec 2007
It would be very encouraging to see a strong Bermuda high this summer but it has been squashed by that dang NAO for to long-this is also what has effected the hurricane season.
Pray for a warm spring/we can deal with a cool summer-RIGHT?(-;