What timing! I was just getting online to ask the same question. :) Although we'll only reach highs in the 50s!

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.)

For most of you they worst thing that will happen is that you won't have a great flower show on your trees and shrubs. Any tree or shrub that is already leafing out is almost certainly capeable of producing a second flush of leaves if the first ones are killed. Many trees have the ability to produce extra flower buds as well - they won't be as numerous or as big as the first set, but but for those ones you'll still get to see something. Some fruit crops will be heavily damaged or destroyed if they get frost damage at a critical time. You will often get a nice flower, but the pistil is killed, so no fruit will set. If you've got anything that is only marginally hardy or is already in decline it might not make it - it might not have the reserves to put out that second flush of leaves. Most perennials won't start growing until the ground is warm enough, but if that has happened and they get zapped by a freeze, they'll recover and put up new growth. As long as you give them a good feeding of compost this spring they'll recover and you won't see much damage. Bulbs can be iffy. Irises will be fine - they frequently keep some green growth throught the winter and they're one of the first up in the spring. They can take it. Crocus, squill and other really early ones might be a bust if they bloom early and get covered by snow. Tulips and daffodills will be fine as long as the flower bud hasn't emerged. If it has, you might lose it, but the bulb will survive to bloom another year. Whatever you do - do not cut those leaves off!! The bulb will need them to provide the energy it needs for next year - it might have used up more of its resources than normal if it had to send up extra leaves this year. The only thing that has me worried is the lack of permanent snow cover. My soil is frozen solid, and nothing is showing any signs of waking up yet, but I usually have two to three feet of snow on top of my plants for insulation. So far it's been warm enough that I'm not worried, but I've seen it get close to -30 this time of year. If that happens in the next week or two then I might lose a lot of plants! I just have to hope that the weather stays mild! Snort - yeah right!! BP

Well, here we are in the deep, deep freeze. No more snow as yet but what we have is staying for a while for sure! It was -34C this morning with the w/c of -48. That is pretty cold I'll tell ya! Feeding the birdies 3 times a day to help them keep warm. Oats and straw for the city bunnies. They look forward to food they don't have to "find". DH has thawed the food for the big birds twice already today and just went out for a third time. I feed them catfood and bread and just about anything they will eat. Gonna start making little sweaters for them! Kay, I have at least 2 dogs in bed with me every night and I get about 2 inches of space to sleep on! I don't mind it these days as most nights have been 3 dog nights! I do have to share tho and my husband gets 2 of them! And even they like to curl up under the covers lately! NOTHING growing here except the cold! :) Ginny