Not sure what your definition of 'crazy' is. We've had wide temperature swings, a few times, as high as near 60df during the day. But it's been cool enough at night to keep everything dormant and that's the key. It's the hard late frosts/freezes, after things wake up that do the damage.

Continental climate I believe is the name for it?

Wide temp extremes are common in late winter & spring, at least in much of the US & Canada. We often forget how often it had happened during the previous year. Just last late April my area had a severe freeze (temp in mid-teens) that did severe damage to tree buds that were only barely expanded. I show a pic of snow event in west MD on Apr 18, 2022.

just make sure your newly planted ones are hydrated.

ron

I have a newly planted shrub on a stick Pinus strobus 'Green Twist' that foolish me wiggled too much when I heard a loud snap (probably a root) and now, about 1/3 of the canopy is yellowing on one side :-(

That triggers my garden sorrows in all these flash freezes in this spring-like weather, but all the other tender conifers have not yet shown any concrete signs of distress :-)

The shrub on a stick was expensive, though, $270 :-(

Black bears are waking up in Ontario https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/ontario-government-advises-caution-as-bears-come-out-of-hibernation-early-due-to-mild-winter/ar-BB1jqUJq

Spring is past sprung here (NJ/zone 7b) , yeah, there is a two day cool down but Spring is advancing fast this year.

These Camellia japonica have been blooming since December.

Back to winter weather here. Snow showers and highs not getting out of the 30s F.

We're on a roller coaster of forecast temperatures too. Even some single digits.

Our sun angle is more than double the height (44d) of what it was in dec (20.2) so things tend to warm up fast after these Yukon polar air events. ;-)

Looks like our March blizzards are right on time.

I won't complain, any moisture we get helps alleviate our dry conditions.

OT: The 'Link' button does not work for me. Clicking the 'Link' button pops up the 'Insert Link' window to enter the 'Text to Display' and the 'Web Address (URL)'. If I then click the 'Insert' button, the entire draft comment disappears ... poof ... no comment is posted. I use the Edge browser that comes with Windows.

Is it me or this site? Does the 'Link' button work for you?

(The workaround is typing the 'Text to Display' and 'Web Address (URL' directly in the comment, but the URL then shows up in the posted comment, which URL can be pretty looong at times)

FWIW: The 'Link' button works for me.

Windows 11 PC using Microsoft Edge.

Wow, 41 North, I'm impressed you've had *japonicas* blooming that long. Here they started last month; OTOH, sasanqua and various fall blooming hybrids have been going since December in some cases. I actually made some crosses of things that are rarely blooming together.

I understand not wanting to give specifics but would you say you on the lower 3rd, middle 3rd, or upper 3rd of the NJ coast?

Yeah, that's truly amazing. Even much less is already amazing IMHO, what a difference a couple of plant hardiness zones make!

My last spring frost date (with a 33% probability of light frost after that date) is historically around mid May. Local nurseries are importing new stock starting around the beginning of May. You have to be careful with that new stock as they mostly come from warmer plant hardiness zones, you can't only rely on nominal plant hardiness if you start a plant in the ground.

Farmers around me don't plant corn or soybeans until after mid-May, because they know from experience that a damaging frost can occur even that late.

David, I am in the immediate NYC/NJ megalopolis (so decent, heat island), but north easternmost NJ, they are also on the south side of the house and I get TONS of winter sun, which can bronze them if really cold, but this winter was not. I just bought another Camellia from a big chain supermarket. Picked up a 5 gallon, semi-double flowering, mid-pink Camellia. My biggest issue here is not the cold, it is DEER! Urban heat island can add a zone, and a lot of spring trees are showing color now. David, how far inland are you from the Atlantic?

41 North, I am in Cecil County, Maryland (but not from there, I would hasten to say!) not right on the water, but close enough to it for it have a slight moderating influence. De facto, we are practically in the same climate, which I would say starts in my area and goes up to coastal LI. I'd call it the "mid-Atlantic coastal climate", and I'm at the southern end of it, along with, probably, Cape May NJ. This is the area where you can grow rhododendrons easily. There are gardens fairly far 'inland' with HUGE camellias - hardier ones of course - like a well known one south of Trenton, NJ, along the Delaware. But go even 20 miles inland, sometimes, and especially at higher elevation, you won't see the same plants. Leyland Cypresses were actually damaged in the Polar Vortex winters in colder parts of Lancaster County, PA. That would be unheard of anywhere around here, except maybe a once in a hundred year winter like 1985.

Likewise go about 1 hour south of me, even along the coast like in Annapolis Maryland, and you will notice fewer and fewer rhododendrons - and not ironclads growing in full sun as you see around here. Go all the way to SE VA, you won't see any at all. But down there, especially these days, you will see plenty of Trachycarpus palms, and even large Butias and huge Agave americana! That represents the full transitions to what I'd call the "Upper South Coastal Climate".

North of the LI sound you get into the "Southern New England coastal climate", which is colder in winter but milder in summer of course. They can start to grow the more heat sensitive cohort of rhododendrons.

It's too bad a more well thought out plant zone mapping system was never really made for the east coast, like Sunset's zones for the west. (yes, I know they made a half hearted version for the rest of the country) The annual minimum temperature only tells a part of the story. As alluded to recently in another thread, Cryptomerias are fine for the "zone 7" coastal mid-Atlantic climate, but apparently not a good idea for the "Mississippi Valley inland upper South" zone 7 from TN over to AR, where they were recently killed or injured by a sudden freeze.

I would also add that I would create another climate zone I'd call the "Mid-Atlantic interior coastal plains" which is surprisingly different!

If you've in the dead middle of Southern or Central NJ, in the "Pine Barrens", or the dead middle of the Delmarva Peninsula, or even in Emporia, Virginia below the fall line over to Edenton, NC...you're in a FLAT area and not near the water - guess what? You've been shockingly below 0F in the past 10 years! Often around -8F! Even in rural northeastern North Carolina! I myself saw the dead trunk of a large, formerly 15' tall Trachycarpus* in Emporia a few years ago...and that freak freeze wasn't even during the polar vortex winters, it was after them. Point is if you aren't close enough to the water, AND you're in a very rural, flat area, there is no heat island to help you AND there's nowhere for cold air to drain during radiational freezes! I don't have this problem, luckily, because I'm on a hill that is fairly steep in parts, so cold air can drain. (alas, I don't have a view of the Bay from my property limits, but I'm a short walk away from having a view) So while I have not been below 0F since 2005, go 30 miles SSE of me, and there are gardens that saw -9F during the PV winters!

For whatever reason, these kind of freezes seem to have the most impact in the lower mid-Atlantic/upper South latitudes: up in the NYC area, the areas that are vast and flat are close enough to urbanization and the coast to not be so different than anywhere else. Or maybe the Watchung Mountains of NNJ creates constant eddies that move air even on the stillest of nights. (but, I'm not really sure, I haven't studied freezes up there to look for such dramatic differences) Further south, I think other aspects of the climatology don't favor radiational freezes being quite so bad. I spotted a huge Washingtonia x filibusta in a flat as hell part of South Carolina...many miles inland and well, well away from any water. It would NEVER have made it anywhere near Northeastern NC!

* - clarification: there was a string of 'generally mild enough winters' for this Trachy to establish and get a fairly large trunk; but then Emporia hit something like -8F in one of the harsh radiational freeze events that seem to bedevil these vast, flat parts of the coastal south. OTOH, anywhere within probably 3-5 miles of the Ches Bay or Atlantic Ocean stayed much, much, warmer, so the palms in Virginia Beach, or even Williamsburg VA, were fine!

Davidrt, you're correct about hillsides -- that's why orchards are located on hillside and not bottomlands. When/where I was in VA at 2700 ft on a ridge-slope, although high-temps were cool of course, I had rather remarkably long frost-free periods compared to the nearby areas (often well over 200 days), often not having an autumn frost until early Nov or even later.

The Canadian government forecasts wildfires just as bad as last year's. I myself only had a few smokey days, i.e. not that bad. Hope I will be just as lucky this year, also best wishes to folks south of the border.

Ontario, I doubt there will be the number of fires this year, unless some nut starts them deliberately like was done last summer. The guy who did it was charged and convicted of starting dozens of them. Funny tho, the press hardly paid attention to it because he was a dedicated anything-for-mother-earth eco-loon.

41North, no offense, but do your own homework.

"41North, no offense, but do your own homework."

If your argument is all the 2023 fires in CANADA were caused by ONE MAN, then, it incumbent on YOU to post the news/data, not ME! Not that complicated, no offense!

https://globalnews.ca/news/10414136/2024-wildfires-canada-preparing-for-the-worst/

Getting back to climate maps for a moment, I was aware of the Sunset ones for the rest of the country. I haven't studied them for some years, but when I did way back one, my thought was it was a good start but probably not as precise as the original western ones. They seem to agree as they are only 'officially' making ones for the west again. https://sunsetplantcollection.com/climate-zones/

"but probably not as precise as the original western ones."

How are Western ones more precise? I have an older Sunset gardening book for the nation. Textual material related to each zone communicated, lowest average minimum, average maximums and heat zone (factored in), precipitation, humidity, growing season length, soil compositional, cloud coverage, fog, soil pH..., indicator plant species, etc. I still have that book. Certainly, better than a number from 3-10 that lumps Long Island with Little Rock, Arkansas. Maybe we mostly use a number system from 3-10 to market and sell plants, and people would be incredibly confused by dozens upon dozens of gardening zones, imagine reading those gardening labels!