O, Alana, can I ever sympathize with your feelings. There's no doubt that "Spring" is (or used to be, back when it was a "real" spring and not just an anticipation of the decadance of summer) perhaps the most wonderful season of all ...BUT...that is only so if it is proceeded by a REAL winter and a REAL autumn. The seasons are inter-dependent, IMO; I can't bring myself to seriously dislike even the dreariest of winter days (it's kind of the old "April showers bring May flowers"principle to me.) This year is seemingly fairly OK for us here in Tuscany; actually the weather forecast is for a period of cold, rain , and even snow,but thank Heaven we were not cursed with any long period of unnatural warmth beforehand. The roses are leafing out a bit,but I'm not too worried; since we didn't have that wretched 70-80 degree-type of weather-this year at least. But past experience induces me to to feel extremely grateful for the "lucky fluke" that has-so far-sent us fairly normal weather here. One just can't count on anything anymore,it seems...

Yea people here hate on winter, well I love it! Don't like it move somewhere that's not suppose to have one I say. I just hope we get some colder weather to put a halt to the growth, before it too late, and then we just get that last cold snap last we always do, and take my blooms again. If we get some colder weather for just a bit longer, at least through mid March, we will be safe. If we don't my Spring flush will be null AGAIN :(

I'm glad your weather is better this year.atleast somewhere got better than last year. This year for me, was a little better, because last year, this weather started in Janurary. So at least it waited until mid- Feburary, I'm lucky for that at least. I just pray we get some cold spells soon, because I know we always have that late cold snap. That's one thing that hasn't changed yet. We did get snow this year too, so at least that's something. Atleast we had some winter.

Feb is normally our coldest month. This year its been high 70's to 80F January was our coldest month this year. I had to pull everything out of the greenhouse (my tropical plants and fruit trees) early or it would cook in there its getting hot so fast.

Last year we had a odd late freeze in March that killed all the developing fruit on my Mulberry tree. It better not do that again this year.

ALana, I am having similar concerns too. Although my roses have not started any growths yet, we are having a warm up for the next two weeks. Due to very cold temps in Dec and Jan, most of my roses have dieback almost to the ground. The worst hit are the hybrid tea roses. If they start to break out during this warm spell, and then a bad freeze hits, I think some of my roses will be finished for good or severely weakened. It would be nice if we get an early spring but I doubt it. March freezes have been a norm since I started gardening.

I'm just across the border from you. Instead of picking a date when to prune my bush's, I'm now letting my bush's tell me when to prune. I usually ignore growth at the top of the bush's but ALL of my bush's have new growth from top to bottom. I started pruning (30 bush's yesterday) and cleaning a few beds. All I can do is look at the long range weather and pray.

Feb is our coldest month in central FL .End of January we had a 25-27 night and most tropicals were burned . A couple of weeks later the temps shot up to 85-87 degrees daily ! already every thing is sprouting . I prefer the colder weather myself .

The weather over here in Ontario, Canada kept switching from winter to spring every 2 weeks it seems. We just had a major snowstorm 2 weeks ago and today it is 2 degrees and misty. It is supposed to be 13 plus tomorrow and raining. I don't mind the milder winter because it means that many of my roses canes will survive.

Well, I thought it was milder here this winter until about a week ago when it suddenly turned cold. Now all of the NW is having real winter--it will be 13F tonight for the low. Diane

Thank you everyone who has responded, I'll get on later to wrote on what everyone has said, just so busy now, and wanted to thank yall!

Its been warm here most of the winter, and the last two months have been in the 50's and 60's. The roses were all budding out. But last night we had snow and it's supposed to be in the 30's today with lows in the teens. Yikes!

Yes Sultry Jasmine we always have a late March, early April freeze as well and that's what I'm worried about.

Oh and we are in the 80s this week, not the 70s, so even worse!

Karen I hope your Hybrid Teas come through everything well. I dont grow many of those anymore, more OGR, but I used too. That was right before our weather went bonkers.

Ken I'm fixing to do my pruning as well because mine are doing the same thing. I just finished cleaning up the grape vines, and have a few more things to do before I can start.

Pink Rose it's not that I prefer the colder weather, I just prefer for Winter to be cold, Spring to be Spring, same with summer and fall. Now I can't take the humidity in the summer much anymore, but that's another story. These straight jumps from winter to summer I do not care for.

Jjpeace I'm glad atleast your weather is doing well for you! :P

Diane I saw the West was getting hit with cold ,maybe we will get some before it's to late. I don't want my Spring bloom ruined.

Noseometer atleast you didn't have blooms yet. Just leaves coming out, right? Last year this started in Janurary and everytthing was covered in blooms and we got a 4 day or so freeze. Lost almost all my once bloomers bloom. That's my favorite class of roses, so I'm really not hoping for a repeat. I Will move...lol

Omigosh, that's just so terrible, Alana. I hope you will not get a repeat of that this year. I think I will be so devastated if that happens to me. Having waited so long and to lose them just like that. I now have a better feel and appreciation for the farmers' tough way of life. Can't imagine how a farmer deals with losing his/her harvests to weather disasters.

noseometer, I hope that your roses and buds will come through ok. Will you be putting covers on them? So sorry to hear this dreadful freeze coming at such a time. Don't what you can do about it except pray that the weather forecast is wrong.

I covered what I could last night with blankets and sheets and some buckets and actually it doesnt feel as cold this morning as they had anticipated . I think everything will be just fine. The only thing I have that is in Bloom is my Gigi that I just got so she comes in and then she goes out . She seems fine as well.

It's been weird here, too. Weather cooled off early and we had September in August. An early Indian Summer and December temperatures in November. Bitter cold and three very heavy (for our area) snowfalls (typical January weather) in December. Chilly/cold but more dry (like a typical February) was January. Now February is wet and has stretches of 60 and 70 degree weather....

The rest of the year should be interesting.

Sounds like your weather is ahead a month. Hope that spring is around the corner for your area. Today is the first sunny day in the high 60's for my area. Wow, what a welcome relief. Have not had this for a long while. Looking forward to more of this nice weather.

What a relief Kristine. I hope next Thurs night/ Fri am fizzles out too.

Me too

I was going to say, me, too, but I think our prediction for the next 10 days looks awful (cold). Diane

I hope everything does good with y'all cold weather Diane, Kristine, and Sheila.

Yes Karen yes I do believe we are a head a month, if not a little more. I'm glad your getting nice weather.

Verdantcroft you are right, we will have to wait and see what the rest of the year brings. I wonder if this is the new Norm? I hope not.

Alsdo Kristine, I hope everything made it through fine the other night when you had to cover them.

Everything looked fine , mostly crunched because of the blankets I put on top lol. I didn't cover anything last night except for a few brand new babies I left the buckets on top because they are in the middle of the yard. Most of the things that are new are still in pots and are protected by the eaves of the house

A dusting of snow But not really feeling very cold. I can always tell if the cats water has frozen out on the deck and it hasn't so it's not as cold as predicted thank you Lord.

Yeah it's been a weird one for us here in Northern CA too. A few weeks ago it was in the 70s and everybody was saying "we're not going to have a real winter, etc, etc..." I just laff! This happens to a degree every yr. We always get teasers. The almonds are blossoming, my plum tree is blossoming, daffodils are up, irises are growing buds... Then the weather took a turn a few days ago. Been in the low 40s and even down below freezing several mornings. It even tried to snow two days ago. Cold enough, just not enough precip. My roses are leafing out like it's full-on spring, and I've had numerous blooms all winter. I'm not worried about covering them. They will do just fine. I personally HATE cold weather. Anything below 60 makes me want to hybernate. My joints ache. And as always, the ups and downs in temps wreak havoc on my body. I will be soooo glad when winter is officially over! Altho... I'm afraid we could get a late winter storm. We are waaaay overdue for a real snow day. Been several yrs since we've had one. We typically used to get one or two snow days per yr in the past. It's been about 5yrs now, so I expect something to happen this yr maybe.... or maybe not! Ya just never know til it happens! LOL

Over all we had a decently cold winter...Crazy weather! Crazy I say!

Well today is 74 degrees, yesterday was 73 degrees but tomorrow will be in the 30's and snowing... I see a fair share of blackened canes already... Yep can not be good...lol

So sorry Jim!

I noticed my roses were budding when we had a few very cold days in January. Pruning the roses seemed to be the wrong thing to do but it worked out well so far.

A lot of people do "hate on winter", and I just can't agree; I like it when the seasons can be true to themselves, and I hate the fact that this is becoming so rare anymore.

Bart I feel the exact same way.

Oh I love the beauty of the changing seasons, I just do not like the freezing cold temps. When most people outside of here think of CA, they think it's a warm, sunny place all the time. Parts of Northern CA are freezing cold in winter. My temps lately have been in the low 30s in the mornings, peaking at maybe barely 50. My arthritis can't handle it. I feel like I'm getting frost bite when I go out to feed the poor chickies in the morning. That's why I don't like winter.

And it' snowing

Beth, I'd love to have your temps. We broke a record a few nights ago with a 9F low. Today, we broke a snow record set in 1912--we had 4.9" of snow this morning (must have come straight from Kristine). I know it doesn't sound like much to you in other areas, but for us in the desert, it's a huge amount of snow. I'll never get my pruning done! Diane

Yes Diane, pretty sure it came straight from Oregon right over to Idaho . That is usually how it happens isn't it . We got a ton of snow today but fortunately it's all melting off and I agree I am never gonna get my pruning done if this keeps up

Thanks, loads, Kristine-haha. Looks like ours is doing some melting, but I think we have more snow coming up today. We will prune together in May. Diane

Ice storm for us yesterday so no electricity or internet to complain about it with! Lots of new tender rose growth encased in ice and it was just too much for the trees and power lines.

I was so concerned about the roses breaking canes at first but there is something about instantaneously becoming a pioneer woman that got my priorities in order. Like where in the world are the flashlights and do we have any firewood left?

We went from drought to flash-flooding, though I can't say that extremes are unusual in our area.

Last year at this time I had blooms and lots of aches from all of the pruning!

That is so pretty, Kristine! As pretty as it looks, I enjoy the lovely snow in pics rather in my backyard though.

So sorry to hear about your weather, lavenderlace! That is the nightmarish scenario that I hope not to happen to my area. I have seen buds popping out on some rose canes. This does not usually happen until late March for my roses. Anyway, I hope that your roses will recover and put on new growths.

Thanks Karen! I think that I would have preferred Kristine's beautiful snow. That's amazing that you have buds this early in Z6. Mine just started a tiny bit of new growth rather than last year's blooms, which I'm sure that they regret. But they obviously knew something different was happening!

And I thought last year was crazy! The forecast changes by the minute. Spring in January, then February hit hard. Minuses at night and single digits daytime. This week is warmer, above freezing. So much snow on the ground I don't think it'll melt before July, and more on the way. I'm concerned about the freeze/thaw effect on my roses.

Some of you have had it much worse with flooding, ice storms, power outages, and even unexpected heat waves in So. California, so I'm not complaining. I don't dislike winter, but I wouldn't mind a shorter one.

Beth, I know what you mean about freezing when it's below 60˚. Your 60˚ feels like our 30˚ because of the humidity. We have NO humidity and that makes a big difference.

There's always something to be grateful for. It's been sunny almost every day, and the days are getting longer.

Lavenderlace, I mean some of my rose bushes are showing leaf buds not flower buds. You are right that it is too soon for flower buds at this time for my zone. If I don't get a bad freeze from now to April, I may have a very good chance of having flower buds in April.