Fall-Winter is my favorite time to garden! The hot weather here in the Central Valley, California, makes me very sick (heat/sun stroke, losing my pigments, sunburned very easily). I measured the temperature in my garden this morning about 6:40 a.m., between 27-31 Degrees F. Our roommate's car at 7:15 a.m. still has solid ice all over the entire car! I'm amazed that all of my Tomato plants (Pear and Cherry) are still looking healthy, with no signs of stress. My Tomato plants have always died before when the temperature drops below freezing. Maybe they are acclimatizing to the cold weather ..... Looks like all of my seedlings are enduring this chilling weather. I have over 100 different kinds of plants growing now, including summer plants: Tomatoes, Eggplants > Thai, Peppers, Basil, Zinnias, California Poppies, Morning Glories, Four O'clocks, and more ... Now, if only the gophers will leave me something to eat this Winter .... Stray cat's nearly destroyed my most recent seed bed. Picked fresh Southern Curled Mustard and Red Giant Mustard and Chinese Cabbage to add to my sandwich yesterday! Looking forward to fresh Lettuce, Beet Greens, Collard Greens, Kale, Kohlrabi Greens, Swiss Chard, Radish Greens, Stinging Nettle, Dandelions which should be ready soon ..... -- Jim (Central Valley, California) > Climate Zone #8/14 > Hardiness Zones #8-9a

Missouri's winter has had above average temperatures. Today the high was 64 degrees. Tomorrow is supposed to have a high of 40. However, the 8 day forecast shows 50s for Thursday and 60 degrees for Friday. According to weather.com, the average high for this area for December 31 is 38 degrees. We've only had one morning that had a trace of snow; just enough to make the roads slick. This is a highly unusual winter temperature wise. The fall was pretty dry and with the absence of snow; I think the weather forecasters said we're a couple of inches behind in rainfall for the year. (Last winter, it seemed like there was snow on the ground almost every day.)

We have been having some freaky weather here. Very drastic weather changes. Thurs night I don't remember the low, but ay 11pm it was 51..Sat night the temps went down into the 20's..where the heck that come from? Now tomorow we're supposed to be at almost 70. They keep changing our forecast so much you can't trust it for sh!t. I can check in the morn, then by the afternoon its completely dif. Wasn't supposed to rain today, supposed to be in the 50's and partly cloudy. nope, its in the 40's and rainy. How do these weather forecasters keep their jobs??? Jersey just sux anyway. Daniella

a simpler way to put it.. is that you conifers DO NOT HAVE FEELINGS.. crimminey .. and frankly.. temp is irrelevant .. per se .. in and of itself .. its all about when tissue itself .. actually freezes .. and that would be not only temp .. but air movement .. ground heat .. humidity .. etc ... with hosta.. what i say is that in each individual cell.. when the water contained therein in freezes.. it ruptures the cell wall.. and that is when that cell fails.. in a hard frost.. the whole leaf will collapse .. in minor frost.. the leaf ends up speckled with brown dots a few days later ... either way.. there is cell failure due to the temps ... I DON NOT KNOW IF THERE IS EQUIVALENCY IN CONIFER TISSUE .. but i surely dont know why not ... all plants have cell tissue ... everyone got so excited about that warm VERY SHORT temp spike .. but in reality .. its been a pretty cold .. LONG .. spring ... and i am hating it ... in my z5 MI ... ken