I'm surprised you have anything trying to bud out with temps that cool. Here we have had the usual radical temperature swings this time of year, but bud break is running behind "normal" so far. I do have two peach trees starting to bloom, and we hit 23.7 F this morning, so I'll have to see how they are in a couple of days. I suspect they will be fine, but just a few more days and they would be toast. It was 60 F on Saturday, 70's for several days before that, snow yesterday, and 65 F today. Pretty "normal" spring weather! We still have 2-3 weeks of frost danger left.

Took some observations after the early (for me) freeze. The most freeze resistant deciduous tree in my garden is Cornus florida urbiniana. Leaves are only about 1/2 red, but the freeze did not affect them at all. I know from prior years it will peak around early December and they will finally fall off by January. OTOH, Japanese maple leaves have all shriveled up from the cold and will fall soon. (and btw, flowers of Camellia 'Mason Farm' not at all freeze resistant. All turned to mush, I'd mentioned in another thread they've never really bit hit by freezing because it usually finishes blooming by Thanksgiving.) The next most resistant, Fagus 'Rotundifolia'; which is always late to turn in fall and very late to leaf out in spring. Finally, driving around I see a couple Taxodiums I know of, whose orange-brown leaves also appear not to be bothered by freezes, and are a little showier than most of the late-hanging oak leaves, most of which are a rather plain and unattractive brown. (like paper bags hanging) In fact comparing my Metasequoia 'Ogon' to Taxodium, it looks like the Taxodium foliage is a little more freeze resistant. Might just be because they are old specimens, though.

Everyone does things a little differently, but I have had great success using peat pellets here in Salt Lake. I just find a spot on my kitchen counter to lay out a flat (my husband puts up with this for a few months), and then get out a calendar and decide which seeds I want to plant. I count backward 4-6 weeks from mother's day for warm weather veggies and flowers. You can start a lot of cool weather stuff, like peas and lettuce, around St. Patrick's day. I don't even bother sowing these things indoors. My dad mad a nice little grow light stand for me using pvc pipe and chains with hooks. This helps lower the light as far to the seedlings as possible without touching them. There is a lot of great information on starting seeds indoors on Gardenweb. Check out the "Growing from seed" and "Growing under lights" forums. I learned a lot about starting indoors this way. It's very fun, a lot cheaper, and a great way to keep your spirits up in the bleak of winter. :)

I hear you suze9. I live in The Great PNW. About 20 miles S from Seattle. Zone 7b I guess. Where is live is about 2 weeks behind Seattle weather wise. Normal Feb temps are 40-45, night time 35ish. The drop to 18 is somewhat unusual, even in Dec, Jan. It's been an unusual year, again. Snow in Feb is rare. March, almost unheard of. This year the ?last? snow was beginning of April. Today was 75. > Larger transplants can work well for some, for sure - > but at some point it is definitely possible to start > too soon, to the point that you don't get any benefit, > or are even set back because of it. I am trying to find that point. Expense versus effort versus results weighted. This is my third year running of 'starting way too early'. This year was the earliest yet. Last year I had my first ripe tom June 6th. That's a pretty major feat around here. 'Course the weather from June through July sucked, very cold, so the benefits were minimal. LOL. Plants were HUGE, 10-15'tall by end of season, tomato count, ENORMOUS. Ripe tomatoes, not so much. My starts are not normal put in a 1 gallon pot and let them grow starts. I continually 'repot' them into larger and larger containers. I bury the stem deeper each time. They are essentially pre-trenched plants. 1' of stem or more buried by planting time with vigorous root growth all along it. Lat year the tops are 2-3' tall. The plants suffer no delay/transplant shock when put into the ground from pots. Critical for the short season here. Growing an inch a day, to growing an inch a day right after transplant. This year, I am making cloches so my efforts are not lost to the AGAIN expected cold june/july. And by starting so soon, if things go wrong, I have time for Plan B and Plan C starts.