We are buried in snow, though 10 days ago there was a fair amount of bare ground showing. For us, this last cold spell and winter storm didn't cause even a blip in the plants since nothing other than the earliest bulbs had started thinking about spring. Whether we will have any issues with late freezes will be more likely to come up in April and May.

Notwithstanding the awful ice storm here, yes it was a bad winter but certainly not in the top 3 worst winters of the past 15 years. I was far more annoyed with the prolonged mild spells than the cold spells, such as they were. If the recent March cold spell had followed a normal winter, it would have been a "nothing burger". The upper bay did keep me colder and the seasonal advance more retarded, relative to say, the inner suburbs of DC or Baltimore, but not as much as in a typical year. There's only so much cooling water can do, when a dome of April-like temperatures is parked over the region for a week in February! Of course this caused plants to advance in growth too far. Therefore my Prunus mume bloomed almost as early as it ever has, but unlike the prior time this happened, it got nipped just after the peak. Likewise, my deciduous magnolias are not going to bloom this year (or if they do, petals will be brown)

HOWEVER at least there was not serious foliar damage to a lot of things, as during the polar winters. My replacement Euc. parvula is just fine. (As I have mentioned, the prior one was roughly 20 or so feet high, 3-4" caliper, when polar winter 1 killed it to the ground. It came roaring back, but polar winter II was just too much for it.) Even more impressive, my bigger Phormium tenax did not lose its top growth. A couple more mild winters in a row and I could even see it bloom. Camellia blossoms in bud stage seem impressively cold resistant, and 'Korean Fire' is about to start outside.

Pretty much winter as normal around here, although we had some unusually warm days in Jan, Feb that was not enough to warm the ground. Our snow has been gone for a month with the exceptions of a couple 1"-3" 'clippers' that didn't last long because the sun is getting high enough to melt even when temps stay below freezing. There's been more wind this winter than I've seen in my life, almost daily with gusts into the 50's mph. They're not predicting low temps above freezing during the next couple of weeks so that will keep everything dormant. Like you all, we hope it stays nice once it warms up.

Other than quite a bit wetter than 'normal', it has been a pretty typical winter for us. Generally mild, a couple of short-lived cold spells, minimal snowfall. Not even many windstorms. But I am sure getting tired of the rain!! Lived here all my life and not sure I can remember such a wet winter. We almost broke a record last month and if March keeps up the way it's been going, we could break one this month. In two and half months we have received just shy of 50% of our usual annual rainfall total and we are not even close to the end of the 'rainy season'. We just might really earn that reputation for being such a wet environment this year!!

No snow here. Spring blooms continue, with tulips starting to open. We did get a head-start compared to usual.

We had a lot of things pop after the warm February, and we have had multiple nights in the teens in March.

Everything appears it will survive, but a lot of damage and lost blooms/growth:

Redbud seedling (1 year old) had a bit of leaf bud growth that zapped. Lower dormant buds appear fine and should take over.

metasequoia has slight bud swell. Actually appear ok, still green inside.

Ornamental crabs - likely 100% bloom loss. The emerging flowers and leaves all dead.

Kwanzan cherries look ok. Only slight bud swell and they are green inside.

Slight bud swell on acer palmatum and japonicum. Look ok.

My trident maples are farther ahead, but they are in containers and I protected them in the garage.

Quercus myrsinifolia (evergreen) had some bud swell, and dropped last seasons leaves WHILE IT WAS STILL WARM...which doesn't make sense. The new buds look ok, so fingers crossed it recovers.

forsythia lost all blooms and the emerging leaves.

We're in drought in Colorado. Our heavy, wet spring storms just haven't come. We're under red flag warnings and there have been numerous grass fires the last few weeks. It's unusually warm, near 80 with night time temps in the mid 30's to mid 40s. We should be mid 50's for daytime temps. The winds have been relentless and kept us in single digit humidity levels.

It was very cold December through Mid-January with snow cover. We went below zero 3 times in those 6 weeks. We've had almost no measurable precip since.

The mountain snow pack is above normal but the moisture just isn't reaching the plains. It looks like the west coast got our moisture!

The bulbs are blooming a month ahead of schedule and I noticed bud swell on the lilacs yesterday. Thankfully the deciduous trees are staying dormant for now.

Yesterday I was in a tank top and capris, wearing my straw hat and slathered in sunscreen. I should be shoveling snow and I'm watering instead!

Barb

At my parent's place in Southeast Massachusetts the daffodils and

Allium were throwing up shoots, then got buried in a snow drift. This year I'm mostly focused about the newly planted white oak, pitch pine, and American holly, but I dont think any of those should be affected. Someone said a lot of lilacs were being killed in the area, but I think they were an alarmist.

"Someone said a lot of lilacs were being killed in the area, but I think they were an alarmist."

Very likely :-) Common lilacs are extremely cold hardy - zone 4 or even 3 (-40F). But existing flower buds, produced in late summer and fall, can be damaged by cold winds and late spring freezes, like most early flowering shrub and tree buds can.

You can't kill common lilacs. You just can't.

But, you could have flower buds that are far enough along to get froze in a cold snap. It won't kill the plants though.

My lilac never blooms, but I think it just needs rejuvenation pruning.

The hedge of lilacs in my new back yard were over 40 years old. Some of the trunks were 3" in diameter and so tall and overgrown they finally flopped over in all directions. But they bloomed like crazy every year. So you may have a different problem with them not blooming.

Yeah, it's not even that big. It does sucker like crazy, though.

'It does sucker like crazy'

That's their nature and how they spread. Common lilacs are a shrub not a tree.

Old fashioned lilacs - Syringa vulgaris - tend not to do well in more southerly climes, which would include NC. Apparently not enough of a chill factor in winter to encourage blooming. The smaller dwarf species and hybrids seem to fair better and bloom more reliably.

Here's what mine looked like 3 years after they were cut off to ground level. They bloomed fine the way they were but they were so full of debris from the storm that they cut them off so they could clean it up. 6 ft tall & 150 ft long approx.

There are no issues here -- forsythia wasn't even out yet (it's beginning right now). But certainly non-native yard stuff that's always too early for its own
good was burned by the cold/snow in the Hagerstown area to the east. As far as true economic damage, I don't think any orchards were blooming in the nearby Cumberland Valley to the east, before the snow/cold arrived, but not sure.

Well, it has bloomed in the past, but it's been awhile. I'm going to try some different things to get it to bloom. When I have time to work with it I will start a thread on here.

I killed my mother's hedge of Lilacs in east Spokane (Zone 5) because she wanted to plant something else there. I used a backhoe because her ground was mostly small round rocks. (Ancient gravel bar from Missoula Floods) It was quite a job...even for a backhoe.

Just curious, but what did you plant there? Rhododendron?

The closest "gardener" related to me would be my great grandmother. I have some of her daffodils, bearded iris, and roses. I was thinking of rhododendrons because I often see them growing on rocky hills and mountainsides, but I can say the same for pines.

'I killed my mother's hedge of Lilacs '

No, you 'removed' your mothers Lilacs.....

That's how rumors get started. :)

Yup, I removed them. :-)

Last year was great for hydrangeas, won't be good this year. Deciduous magnolias got hard hit here as well.