This is what is in bloom now in my NJ yard. Most happy that the Camellias did not freeze in the freaky cold of a few days ago!

Garden jealousy.

I have garden jealousy too!..

"the grass is always greener" 😂..

have you heard the expression "zone envy" ?..I have it..

people have said they envy my space..I have half an acre..I admit I like it..

"the grass is always greener" 😂..

When it's 100 F. with a dew point of 78 F., I promise not to send any pics as I hope to be in the deep end of some pool, any pool, for the entire day!

Jurassic Park..I agree that heat can be uncomfortable..

some of my hellebores..a pic from each end..I'll remove the old leaves when it's warmer..

Well, I’m not home, but the Trout Lillies at Petit Jean screamed ”spring is here!”

I really like Hellebores but why are they so expensive?! I got deer and they are deer proof. The Hellebores in the pics above bloom in March, but I have others, more aggressive spreading that have greenish flowers in December. The Camellias, they USED to leave alone, until they discovered that they are perfectly edible (being in the same genus as TEA), but they cannot reach these now, too tall. Forsythia is also deer resistant.

We learned of Trout lilies when we visited Cataract Falls west of Indianapolis, Searched and founds some bulbs but they did not grow. We assumed they did better is woods environment that our flower gardens.

To answer the comment above, I would rather have a couple of below zero days with squeaky snow, than the 100 F. with a dew point of 78 F.days we have here.

I love the Sanguinaria. I’ve never been lucky enough to see it in the flesh.

They don't grow well in the UK? Or just uncommon?

Bloodroot and Trout Lilies are favorites of mine as well, but probably won't be flowering for a couple more weeks or so. Last March (2021) was significantly warmer than normal and spring flowers were ahead of schedule (see photos of crocuses below). This March (2022) was only slightly above average (this past week below average). My Arnold Promise witch-hazel this morning (4/2/22):

crocuses 3/30/22:

crocuses 3/12/21:

Re Sanguinaria. It’s not native here and not widely grown. Erythronium is more commonly grown.

Winter spring back

April 2, 2022 IL/WI Great Lakes

chamaegardener..oh no 😪..I'd be complaining..well snow is a good insulator right?..

This needs to pass. I have big plans for spring.

Spring can be a very CRUEL season, and April can be one of the cruelest, in addition to freaky, late snows, and late frosts, some areas of the country are primed for tornados. I enjoy the Autumn MUCH, MUCH more. No comparison, and I am a Summer person.

Spring?! What is that anyway? I lasts maybe two weeks here (two weeks between heating season and putting on the air)! Autumn lasts for months here.

just one nice day..snow disappears and you're back on track!..look at this freaky snowstorm..everything was leafed out..looks catastrophic..I was horrified..but it melted the same day!..4/21/21..7:56..looks like January..

you can see it's melting by 10:59..

couldn't find the pics but by the afternoon my poor bent over trees were upright..I couldn't believe it..it was freaky..hope that's a once in a lifetime thing..

found it..4/21/21..5:59..wildest weather day of my life..

Jurassic Park..I agree..fall's wonderful..spring's nervewracking..worrying about spring freezes..hail..tornadoes..it's exciting thinking that winter's "over"..but it's kind of a lie 😂..

This was the worst late freeze I've had since moving here in 2006, but, on the whole...not really bad and could have been much worse. (like the infamous April freeze of 2007 that completely killed large Asian magnolias in a collection of rarities down in NC) I did see some damage on the new growth of hydrangeas which is something I've never seen before. I am sure they won't be killed outright though.

A few days after 22F and you'd almost not know something bad had happened. The closed but swollen flowers of camellias had no problem with these temps. So the plants have already 'recovered' in the sense of performing ornamentally. Pic taken this afternoon.

You would have to look on the ground to see an anomalously high # of dead brown flowers that fell after the freeze.

A couple brief bursts of wind-driven wet snow and graupel on April Fools Day, but not enough to cover ground. Some colder-than-avg weather not a bad thing here this time of year -- keeps things from coming out too early. Got down to 16F morning of Mar 29,

I may not have time to do my own big spring thread...work RN is busier for me than it's been in years, but...I wanted to point out an observation. The flowers of Pieris, both 'Brouwer's Beauty', the NA X Asian hybrid, and the native Pieris phillyreifolia, both resisted 22F just fine. As would have most any Erica, so there's something about being an upside down cup shape flower in the Ericaceae that signals frost resistance, apparently. I wonder if the flowers of certain neotropical blueberries are about as frost resistant as the plants are.

Spring has been slow to come. I’ve been home three days and have yet to see the sun. Dark and forboding is the theme here. It’s too cold for tulips, but at least the conifers embrace the snow.

This is Pinus densiflora ’Golden Toast’

Spring is usually slow to come in the Great Lakes areas. Today's map.

You've got to love "spring" in Michigan - photo this morning (4-9-22)

At least the recent colder weather has kept my Arnold Promise blooming longer than expected. Flowers on my Cornus mas are beginning to emerge

I can relate..kit window view

4/9/22..

I've been complaining today about the current temp of 52 in my part of NJ, and just heard it's currently 43 F in Atlanta, that's cold for mid day in Atlanta in April and gotta get warm there before it ever gets warm here! This cold is pretty far south for this time of year.

and in Atlanta there's an opportunity for more damage with plants further along 🙁..

A brief but impressive sleet storm yesterday, partially covering the ground until melted later. Spicebush flowers are beginning to emerge, soon they will turn the forest understory a hazy yellow for a short time.

Cold at the Masters Golf tournament in Augusta, GA.

Beng, are you sure that was sleet and not hail? There was hail about one hour north of me at higher elevation.

I am over Spring already, now the allergies are killing me this year for some reason!

Jurassic, it's a good question -- I wondered myself. The clouds were definitely convective clouds (not over-running clouds) from very unstable air, but typically true hail forms in very tall thunderstorms and has distinct layers like an onion. I looked carefully at the little ice chunks & saw no layers (they were fairly transparent). Perhaps a better description might be graupel -- look it up for the definition.

Major snow storm in northwest US. Below is lungwort blooming w/blue flowers that gradually turn pinkish before fading. Early fodder for bees. After blooming it is a nice groundcover.

Hepatica

It's deja vu all over again. Photos earlier this evening (4/18/22)

Cornus mas

The daffodils had finally started to open before the cold and snow moved in

The Norway spruces up the road just take it in stride

Yesterday was the most miserably chilly Easter I can remember. It felt like a day in late February here. Luckily, no freeze at night though. Stuff is leafing out.

Couple more

Glory-of-the-snow 2 days ago (4/16/22)

Glory-of-the-snow today (4/18/22)

Fire Island Hosta finally pipping! April 18, 2022

Longleaf pine again w/a snow load, Apr 18, 2022. About 4" wet snow on above-ground surfaces, less on ground. Then a couple little dwarf hyacinths in snow.

Beng, to the best of your memory, is that the latest you've had that much snow? You aren't even at that much elevation IIRC...about 1000 ft?

I'm along a tiny stream at 900'. Brother in nearby Bedford, PA had 5".

There were some snow flurries in second week of May couple yrs ago (2016 or 2017), but this is the latest significant snow I remember. There was a massive snowfall event in southwest VA in, IIRC, first days of Apr 1987 from a near stationary low-pressure system -- 10" where I was at in Blacksburg & much more in the mountains to the southwest like Tazewell, VA. Greg Keefer, longtime observer in Hagerstown has some interesting comments at the below link:

https://www.i4weather.net/apr22.txt

Not enjoying this "Spring" at all so far. First there was the persistent chill and frozen Tulip Magnolia blooms, and this morning I found my basement flooded, again after 3.5 inches or rain overnight. Second time in about a month. Ordinarily, the rain wouldn't have been an issue, but it's just too wet and the ground can't take it in.

Spring is starting here, finally. It's been darn cold lately. Swollen buds on my Norway maple and new pears (Ure and Golden Spice), ohio buckeye swollen buds- it's always an early one, raspberries have small leaves, the clematis I planted lived and is starting, roses starting to grow., irises getting big. Waiting on a bunch of lilies still which I planted last year - hope they make it Good times!

I've posted pics of it before, but Camellia 'Aida' is truly a showy cultivar. Kudos to Rarefind Nursery for reintroducing it to commerce. This larger one is now at least 9' tall. I shared cuttings with McLean Nursery in Baltimore and so plants should be for sale there in a few years.

A miserable spring here, up until yesterday. March was like March. April was like March. Until yesterday, May was like March. High heating bills! My lilacs are just starting to come out. I think they are nine days behind schedule. 

I still have a few early April daffodils blooming. My late April tulips haven't even opened yet. But right now, it's 78°!

Not that different here in NJ/Zone 7b, Chicagoland. December was milder than most of our "Spring" days. May be my imagination, but I feel like the whole Spring season thing is being phased out for some reason. Soon, all here, will be venting about the unrelenting HEAT!

Agree that it has seemed like a relatively cool, dreary spring (until the last couple days), but I think because we got spoiled with an early spring last year we're making the mistake of using that as the standard for comparison. The average temperature at my location for March and April together was actually pretty close to normal (March was a couple degrees above normal and April a couple degrees below normal). And according to the Morton Arboretum's GDD report, as of May 6 their location was actually slightly above normal (91 GDD's, with the historical average being 80 GDD's, base 50). Of course, if you are closer to the lakeshore your GDD's are probably a bit lower than the Morton's.

I think this guy that I saw yesterday (5/8/22) would have to be considered confirmation that spring has definitely arrived

Interesting, arbordave. They migrate from mountainous Mexico (apparently a few winter around south Texas now), so it has already gone a very long way.

beng - that monarch would probably be a couple generations after those that overwintered in the mountains of Mexico.

Another sure sign that spring has sprung is the arrival of hummingbirds - I saw one at the quince bush last evening (sorry no photo). Photo below is the same quince this evening with a bumblebee visiting the flowers 5/10/22

Other than a very cursory layperson's understanding of the phenomena (and that mainly from reading about Mexican fir trees, not butterflies!) I thought they did fly the whole way from Mexico to northern tier states, every year...now I know better LOL.

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/migration/

Yeah, arbordave, you're right. They could've started breeding down south couple months ago. Hummingbirds here show up end of April/first of May. Usually one or more will hover in front of me while in the yard, letting me know to set out the feeder....

Davidrt, that article is wrong in saying Monarchs are the only migrating butterfly. Painted ladies migrate from central Africa to Europe and back in a similar fashion of breeding new generations along the ways. There was a NOVA episode on pubic TV about it. They have to rest in the scattered oases to cross the Sahara w/o getting dried up. Painted ladies are in the Americas, but they usually don't migrate, except a small population from Mexico to CA/Pacific NW and back.

Edit: 29F here this morning w/more frost damage to be revealed.

Beng, years ago i planted monarda in front of my dining room windows. Once the hummers discovered them, they‘d come back every year in late spring, buzzing around as if to say ’any blooms yet?’ I find it entertaining!