Sammy, I feel for you. I used to live in SE Texas and it was always a gamble whether we'd lose out on the spring bloom. I don't know how many times I saw the wisteria come out with 1000s of buds only to see them all freeze off before blooming and have all the spring growth on the roses zapped to the ground. It's not quite as wacky here in Northern California, though this winter for us exactly matches what Lance said. We had an exceptionally cold autumn (our place down to 15°F a few nights in a row), and then winter ended, and we've not had another real frost since mid-December. Possibly that means we'll get another May frost like we did a couple of years ago that ruined the bulk of our cut-flower crop for over a month. Gardening, it's not for the weak-willed! --Ron

NOTE: In two nearby cities for which I have good data, the mean temperature RISE over the last 40 years is +2.4 to +2.5 deg F (not even including the hot years of 2007-2008). Â Â Lawrence, CA (slope +0.0916 deg/year) Â Â Fresno, CA Â Â Â (slope +0.0635 deg F/year) From the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) dataset, posted (wry chuckle) on CO2science.org, a web site that tries to show that global warming is a myth. PS. It's a great web site! I've used their fine graphs from the USHCN temperature dataset to demonstrate just the opposite to a science class, in a unit on global warming. .... but it is pushing me to build a house that's tight, energy-efficient, CO2 minimal,... and sized for the likely much longer, hotter heat waves in the next decade(s). Here is a link that might be useful: CO2Science.org USHCN Trend Calculations -- California

Frank, Thanks for going back and looking, but the year which had the earliest bloom was 2012, not 2006. I probably didn't write that clear enough earlier. Hman, You're right. Jan and Feb had a little higher temps than normal in 2012, but March was quite a bit warmer. From the Website you linked, Jan. 2006 was the warmest Jan (I moved the location to Kansas City-much closer to me) since I've been keeping bloom records. That year, the ave. high temp for Jan. was 52F, while the normal high temp for Jan is 40F. The ave. temp for Jan. 2006 was 43F, while the normal ave. temp for Jan is 31F. As Frank mentioned March 2006 started off warm that year but then dropped pretty quickly. My records show a peach bloom of March 30 for 2006, which is about normal. My take away from all this is that Jan. temps haven't seemed to affect fruit bloom (at least in my area) which was your point. I suppose the real danger of warm Jan. weather may be premature de-hardening of wood before winter is really over. The warm Jan. weather this year has caused maples to start to bud, but maples come out very early anyway. Of course waking up early doesn't seem to hurt them. This post was edited by olpea on Sat, Jan 31, 15 at 8:57

I am in Vacaville which is technically "Bay Area", not desert but more Central Valley like. ( I have also lived in LA, NYC, DC, and Maidugari near the Sahara!). Rarely 115, and never 125, but triple digits from May through October is common, with the occasional days where the heat pumps out to SF, and the cool air pumps in. I can tell when it's going to happen because we get these hurricane force winds by way of the openings in the bay. We are within 45 miles, but we dress different than folks in SF. You can always pick out "the valley folk" spending a day in San Francisco. Even after 25 years I have to remember to check the temperature there, before I head out. To me, in addition to picking plants accustomed to little water in the summer, and lots of rain in the winter, I have to remember that (for many? I did not know there were deserts with hot nights...) the nights are cool, generally 50's, even in the summer. That means some of my best gardening happens November to April, but also that timing summer veg can be tricky. I cannot put in tomatoes and peppers in the early spring because it is still low 50's at night, and so is the soil temp. I think this is a bigger deal in the high desert, when nights can be downright cold.