I don't think it will get cold enough to freeze the ground, so irrigation lines should be fine, but I agree with Laura. When I was in the 7th grade, I walked to school on a nice sunny morning in a t-shirt and shorts. I ended up walking home, still in a t-shirt and shorts, in a snowstorm.

I don't trust "long range forecasts." I have seen the forecast change from sunny and 75 to 40 and snow within the span of a week and I've seen it do the opposite. It is a regular occurrence that the National Weather Service will be reporting "current conditions" for my location as clear and sunny while I look out my window and its grizzly and 100% overcast.

Plus, even if the forecast through May 11th is nice, like Laura says, we can go from hot and dry to cold and snowy at the snap of a finger. I would not be surprised if we get a snowstorm after May 11. I'm not predicting that we will, but if it happens, it won't be a shock. Mother's day may be good a good date for many places, but not the High plains and Rocky Mountains. If I had to pick a date, I would pick Memorial Day. Some folks here (I think Skybird is one) don't plant tender plants until June. The last week of May has generally worked well for me.

Yeah, Zach, I'm one of them! I discovered, by accident the first couple times--when I just wasn't able to get stuff in in May--that by waiting to plant till the soil is very well warmed up the seedlings quickly catch up to ones planted in "cold" soil, and by waiting till the first--or sometimes the second--week of June I don't need to worry about a "late snow storm," or about babying the plants in the cold soil--constantly worrying about them. I was amazed the first time "it happened," that when I put them in I was thinking I wasn't gonna have any garden at all that year, and within two weeks--in the warm soil--it seemed like I could almost see the plants growing they were so big! It's just what works for me! Everybody else needs to figure out what works the best for them!

Skybird

Thank you all! This is just what I needed to hear. We did dewinterize and maybe should have just let the grass go domant again. But I really needed to be reminded about the late snow storms. Thanks!

I'm also skeptical of long range forecasts. But I will plant out warm season plants in stages starting around the second week of May and won't finish up for a couple more weeks. As much as I'm skeptical of long range forecasts I will check it before planting out.

Trimming bushes, trees and other perennials I usually start late March.

Tomatoes will hopefully be planted the last week in May. I used to depend on good weather in May and plant the week of Mother's Day, but that was almost 25 years ago. I also used WOWs to keep the plants healthy, but stopped that hard work 10 years ago and moved plant out date later.

Peppers will be planted the first week in June. Like Skybird said, the plants catch up in a couple of weeks.

Beans and cucumbers should be planted between the tomatoes and the peppers.

Deadheading and clean up from winter kill start as soon as it gets warm enough with no snow on the ground. This was a hard year for many of the perennials as many will have to be replaced.

Remember last year? May 21.

Poor hostas on May 21, 2019.

It seems like early June is safe.

And then this happens: June 8 2019

I am enduring the work of WOWs and growing mega root systems as we speak.

Thank you for all the input! I have some orders coming from on-line and it appears they will show up around May 7th or so.

Oh, the H word! Now you've done it, Jerry! I have WOWs on hand and am sorely tempted to set a couple up and plant a few tomatoes this weekend. I divided and up-potted last week, so I should let them grow on a bit first. I see 4 night temps in the upper 40's coming this week but dropping back to upper 30's for next week. Still, I'm tempted! The flats are hardened off to about 6 hours of sun. We're under a Red flag warning today, so I think I'll keep them in out of the 35mph gusts.

Tomatoz1, I'm seeing the same thing here. The Pulsatilla in 3 different areas are gone, not just doing poorly, they're gone! They looked great last year. 3 or 4 own root roses from HCR look like they are dead, too. I'll give them water and time, but it appears I'm going to have some open spots this year, too. I have a couple of conifers, new plantings and older, established trees that look freeze dried.

I'm speculating that the 70 degree temp swing in fall combined with the wind driven snow storms we got were just too much for some of my plants. I think -4 was as low as we got, so it shouldn't have been just the cold. The snow storms over winter seemed especially violent here, for lack of a better word. I thought the extra moisture over winter would be a benefit, but a lot of things just look rough. It's very dry now, so I'll focus on watering.

mmmm12, my dad turned his sprinkler system on over the weekend, too. His midwestern roots simply can't bear the sight of crispy grass in spring. Fingers crossed for no more hard freezes, but I don't believe for a second that we're done with frost. I think it is time to go ahead and prune back the roses. They're going to take off growth-wise with these warm temps so waiting any longer will just make pruning more difficult.

I think we'll be turning on the a/c Thursday. Crazy!

We also have seen a few bushes that we never thought would die, die. They were very established and on the north side, providing protection to my rose bed. I hadn't thought of the fall weather but what everyone is saying makes sense, especially since it isn't just ours that went.

Gcore, Leslie took the really big bush from the last spring swap. It should be blooming yellow flowers right now and smells great. Did it make it?

Glad to hear we aren't the only weak willed ones when it comes to dewinterizing the sprinkler system. :-)

All of my roses had little red swelling buds and some had begun actively growing until the horrendously cold temps a couple weeks ago. Needless to say they got fried and now they are not even trying to regenerate new buds. Hope they didn't get killed :( The only roses that're seemingly in good shape is John Cabot (completely and utterly unfazed) and zone 7 (lol) roses whose crowns I keep buried under mulch, Blue Girls and All My Loving.

Raspberries that I planted last summer are coming back vigorously, so that's a positive.

mmmm12, no the big bush did not survive. Though we have really planted a lot of stuff here in Westminster over the last few years. Those of you who attended the spring swap here would hardly recognize the "new" yard.

I took my own advice and started pruning the roses yesterday. It is time! I see what you see, Lane. Evidence of previous bud formation, zapped by that snow/cold spell 3 weeks ago. The good news is most seem to have made it and have either new buds forming, lots of green cane or new growth already coming up from the bases. I am sold on own root roses for the front range. High Country Banshee, Morden Centennial, Morden Belle, Grootendorst, and William Baffin are my standouts for pure toughness. They just don't seem to care what you throw at them.

mmmm12, it's dry enough to justify getting the sprinkler system going. It sure beats the hand watering I'm doing!

gj, that's awesome! It is amazing what 2 people working together can accomplish in a yard. It'll be great to see what you've done!

gjcore, Thank you for the update. Sorry to hear it didn't make it but that helps us know if we did a good job getting something like that out.

treebarb, Thank you so much for you tough rose list! We have been experimenting with roses since 2017 and every spring I look at all the dead cane thinking, I've got to do a better job choosing roses. If you get a chance can you post pictures of your winter hardy roses so I can get an idea of how big they get here.

I also have been notified that my New Hampshire hostas have shipped and I should receive them by tomorrow!!! Huh.....what da......??? Don’t they know it could still snow here??? Aaaarrrggg!

What hostas are you getting? I'm thinking of adding some but am not familiar with the various forms and varieties.

I think djacobz is a hitchiker from the hosta forum. Probably saw this discussion on the homepage.

If you are interested in hostas, I would check out a few of the vendors' websites and just kind of see what your eye is drawn to. Djacobz was referring to NH Hostas (https://www.nhhostas.com/). There are a few other online vendors as well. Another one with some fun pics is https://landofthegiantshostafarm.com/ or http://www.sunsethostafarm.com/.

Proven Winners has some nice ones as well.

There are quite a few varieties offered locally as well at big-box stores or O'Toole's has always had a pretty good selection.

I recommend starting with one that is a good grower here. Guacamole is a rigorous grower.

Also in the hosta forum, there are threads each year where people post pictures. The threads are by alphabet then by other characteristics. But you can browse through some of the alphabet ones and oogle over pictures. I know I do!

Man, some of the pictures in this thread need trigger warnings...

Thanks, guys...

Hey, Laura, Zach and any other northern Coloradans, frost advisory tonight for the northeast quadrant of the state! 32 to 35 degrees for the overnight low. Bring in those veggie seedlings and cover the pretties with something sturdy and heavy in this wind! My tulips and daffs finally started blooming last week. I may cut a few for a bouquet inside, just in case.

Hey Barb, yup, we have had frost every night this week so far, freezing-ish fog Monday morning. Yuck. My tender plants haven't even been outside at all yet. Well, except for one day I put the tomatoes outside in the morning in a shady spot, went inside for a conference call, *may* have forgotten about them for a couple hours and by the time I had remembered them they were in full midday sun. They were NOT happy with me. Lots of sun burned leaves....

My peas are happy though. Got about 50-60% germination, so not great, but, I did 40 row feet of them so even with that kind of germination we should have a decent amount of peas.

It is May 11th and we just had sleet. A little bit only, but still sleet.

The thermometer in my work truck hasn’t yet hit 40 today. Springtime in Colorado strikes again.

Belated thanks for the frost advisory, treebarb! Cold clear moonlit nights really iced us over up here. Much of the last week was spent covering and uncovering plants, and taking stuff in and out from the porch. It's my Spring Workout, apparently!

Last night was better (the cloud cover thankfully kept us just above freezing.) Now we're just getting cold rain, which was much needed. We just discovered that our sprinker line got broken by some guys laying Internet cable in the front yard a few weeks ago; the grass was getting awfully crispy.

Despite my best intentions, none of last year's raspberry canes survived the winter, but green shoots are coming up so at least I'll hopefully get some berries this fall. The roses are looking a bit scraggly; I'm debating whether or not to prune them now, or wait a bit when they have a little more energy.

Also: does anyone else have a honey locust tree that's super late to leaf out? I'm a little concerned that none of the locusts on our street have even budded. Very ominous.....

My locusts are just starting to put out buds Laura. The New Mexico locusts at work are also only barely starting to show signs of life.

I've got one budding Honey Locust tree and one not yet budding but a little bit of green sprouts on the major branches and on a few select tips. The one not is our huge one that we use for courtyard shade. The difference between them is the one not had alot of dead leaves still on it. Our neighbor's looks even worse and has alot more dead leaves still on it.

The only trees that have leaves here are crab apples and chokecherry (if that’s even considered a tree). Honey locust haven’t even thought about waking up here yet ha, ha

Same here, fruit trees leafing, nothing else yet. I think there's going to be some damage showing up when they do leaf out. Plan on being patient with the trees, give them a chance to leaf out through subordinate buds if the terminal buds got zapped. Water if it's dry.

Is anyone else looking at the temps for next week and thinking, hmmm, maybe I could start planting out tomatoes, peppers and eggplant? Mine have yet to spend a night out, it was 37 degrees here last night. Those night time temps are really going to be coming up, low 50's over the weekend, but back to the mid 40's by mid week. I think I'll start leaving them out overnight this weekend. I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but it looks like it won't be long!

We've had ours (Jerry's) out but have been covering at night. Trying to decide to run the sprinklers today. Last we watered was last Thurs./Fri. and then counted on the rain on Mon. which didn't really happen. But now it says maybe Thur./Fri. Might compromise and run the drip zone but not the lawn sprinklers.

In terms of planting out my peppers etc, I am looking at the 21st or 22nd now. I don't want to put them out in 85+ degrees the first day. Those days should warm the soil nicely, though.

Looks like a second consecutive terrible year for the grape harvest. Those nights of 11 and 13 degrees seem to have done in the fruiting buds.

My tomatoes spent last night outside, mostly because of my extreme laziness coupled with the fact that I went back to my normal work schedule last week and coming off of 6-8 weeks of only having to get up early and do a solid 9-hours straight at work once a week is kicking my @$$. It only got to the low 40's and was 44 when I woke up this morning at 5:00.

50 degree night-time temps are our average for height of summer (July and August) so I have always felt that if I ever wanted to get tomatoes planted, I would have to settle for the 40's. I won't plant them until next weekend at the earliest though. Partially because I don't trust it and partially because I don't have bed made for them yet.

Eggplant and basil have yet to go outside, but it may be time to start putting them out during the day.

treebarb, I've started leaving out tomatoes a couple nights ago. Another week might be the earliest I start transplanting. Peppers, basil and eggplants are staying under the lights for now. Will start getting out some flowers and onions this week. I've also been getting some seeds in the ground such as beans, cucumbers, watermelon, okra all under cloches.

Jerry, I'm not sure how my grape plants are doing as the Aurora garden hasn't had a lot of attention since the virus situation. In the past they've rebounded from freezes.

Hi gjcore,

I expect that this year will be same as last year - primary fruiting buds were almost all killed and secondary/tertiary buds grew great but almost no fruit.

Vines are not dead for sure.

The Himrod I just started last year looks better - it buds out later than the Somerset.

Pruned all of my roses at the end of April and fed them with an organic rose food at the same time. As usual. Now waiting for those consistent 50 degree nights to really get the growth going! Come on Bloom Smiles!