Not necessarly. Thought my Spring had arrive one April. 5 in So. Calif. and went on to my convention without a worry, well it hailed on April 6 and ruined every plant that I had left uncovered. It is not over until it is over. Listen to the weather news every night. It different iin every zone location also different every year. We have had a very rough Winter, nothing was the same as in the past years. We all got caught w/unexpected weather this past year. The plants also.

This isn't California. Pampass Grass is also a weed in some parts of that state and so are Eucs. I grow both of those and they work just fine here. Gorse does grow here and there on our island especially along some of the road sides. I don't see it taking over our island, because it has been here for years and years. It is the Scotch Broom that is more of a worry. Everytime I see a new clear cut open up that stuff takes over in no time if nothing is done to prevent it. The seeds on broom probably stay viable just as long as Ulex. I have also seen Gorse along some of the hillside near Florence, Oregon. I rather like the plant myself, it definately makes a great barrier to keep hooligans out of the garden. I am open to growing all species of plants if our climate will allow it. I know there are alot of gardeners that only believe in growing native. Well to me that is so narrow minded. These same gardeners have no problem growing Geraniums ,Lilacs or apple trees. Most of those same people aren't native themselves, they also came from somewhere else. Cheers, Joe

Good morning Dawn, Doesn't the cooler weather feel nice this morning. I know what you mean about it being hard to hold back on planting warm season items this early in the year. These days, most of the lower temps seem mild like they would be perfect for such plantings, and the higher end temps that are happening every now and then, seem to remind of the potential for the 95 degree F. and above temps to easily return too early. It was only almost four spring times ago, when I planted 13 Loblolly trees and 12 Foster #4 Holly along the back farmer's fenceline of a vacant residential lot we had recently purchased back then. I did this planting in 85 degree temps. But for the first two days of the very next week the daily high temps rose to 102 degrees F. Even though I transported water to the then newly planted trees almost daily at that time, many of them still died. Events like that heightens my awareness of the need for getting the spring plantings in the ground soon enough for them to establish a good root system. With temps like we have been seeing this week, planting bare root and warm season items seem perfect right now. Still, it is all too easy to remember last spring's second week in April, days of overnight freezes when during one of those days the temps dropping to 27 degrees F. In the last few years it seems the Northeast OK weather patterns have generally set up in a manner, which makes Spring time planting much less preferable than early Fall planting times. Fall is also most likely a much safer planting time for trees and shrubs in southern OK, Especially if the spring season has advanced so fast, and is giving indications that the Summer heat up is not too far away. At least that is what I think of when reading the reports on the items your area is already seeing leafed out and blooming. Of course you indicated your area is in a lower microclimate, so your fast heat up extreme potentials might be a lot less problematic compared to the frosts, which can so easily settle into such low elevated mircroclimate areas. My Arborvitae 'Emerald' which is suffering was planted late last spring, at the same time another one was planted on the opposite end of my front yard. That other one has grown twice as fast and currently is very green. The soil in the northwest corner of our lot, where the A E is suffering, has less deep soil moisture; so when the tree stresses from too dry of soil, it has a tougher time handling wind stressers. Both these evergreen trees receive full midday and afternoon Sun. but I think the one growing on the Southwest corner might also get some morning shade, whereas the one on the other end of our lot does not. Shrub roses and some Tea roses I planted, at the same time, just South of the suffering A E died very quickly. Where as the same kind of roses I planted just south of the other A E, which is doing well, have survived and are establishing nicely. I started a slow sprinkler for my suffering A E and Paperbark Maple, and when looking at the ground was surprised to see that the soil appeared to still have some moisture. So I am not really certain why in that corner of the yard every thing I have planted there seems to have such a hard time surviving. Maybe it is a simple matter of my needing to be more timely when I water that area, or maybe there are other subsurface factors, which I am not aware of, at play in this area of the yard,

Jerry, Glad you are ready to get out there and do some camping. Hubby said the Canyon weather was about 90 in the day and 40 at night. You were right, he LOVED it and already talking about next trip. The guy he went with has been there 12 times now. They said next trip might be Utah, I told them to hook up with you and get to some of your fav spots. As for us, the weather lately has been perfect spring weather, 60-70 in day with 40-50 at night. I love this time of year. Execpt for today, pouring, but thats ok, it has been a while since we've gotten any and my plants are loving it. Enjoy!!! Lynda