False spring plantings

[ZPalms]

Anyone else going to plant in this very early warm weather? I think I'm gonna go ahead and plant one of my smaller washie that if the cold comes back I can pop a bucket over it 🤠

[aztropic]

Mid February is the start of planting season in Arizona. I am starting to up pot community potted seedlings into individual 1 gallon pots now. 

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona 

[Darold Petty]

Spring is present, now in SF.  I see daffodils daily !

[James B]

Dead of winter here in Socal. About to have the coldest storm in years next week. Going down to at least 30f on the palmy side of the yard(North and West side). The south side will probably see 28 maybe 27. 4 nights of freezing or below. This never happens in Rancho. Holding fast for potentially several of my palms planting early fall to be taken out or severely damaged. Last year was the coolest year in the 11 years I’ve live in SB county. 2023 is already by far colder. Our daily highs have been 8-10 degrees cooler than average since October. The NOAA was very wrong when they predicted a warmer and drier winter than average in Socal.

[SeanK]

NWS. Said warm and wet for the SEUS. I guess 50% isnt so bad

[Chester B]

33 minutes ago, James B said:

Our daily highs have been 8-10 degrees cooler than average since October.

Same here.  Next week right now is looking rough, its more Late Dec/Early Jan weather, not something we see in late Feb.  If the forecasts don't change records will fall.

I'm usually buying plants and working in the garden at this time of year.  All I've been doing this year is yard cleanup and removing damaged plant material.

[Arecaceus]

It's exceptionally warm here as well (exceptionally dry too). If I have had the time I would have already planted some things. I have planted things as early as the end of February before. I prefer to plant EVERYTHING between February and April to give plants the longest season possible to settle in. Usually it doesn't work out because it's very time consuming and plans might change during landscaping which causes rethinking some ideas and I end up planting up into May and June as wel. Nowadays I also like to plant very early because our springs are getting drier and hotter which puts a lot of stress on certain newly planted species. This year we are already in a drought in February. Even though storms and rain were predicted for the last 2 days we didn't get any signifcant amount of rain and I had to water my potted plants today because they were bone dry. It's also warmer than predicted with another high of 16°C. All week we had highs between 16 and 18°C with lots of sunshine. Feels like March already.

[EJPalm05]

I really want to bring my plants outside but i'm too afraid that there will be a big freeze and they will all die.

[RyManUtah]

I’ve planted dormant trees, dormant berry bushes, lettuce, carrots, onions, asparagus and potatoes. I will wait til mid March to plant any palms. The soil is way too cool. 

[Xenon]

I planted a queen a month ago, tomatoes and citrus are going in this weekend. Winter is OVER (<-- hopefully this ages well) 😆

[Silas_Sancona]

Only thing going in the ground this weekend is some Mexican Marigold / Tarragon / Sweet Mace ...whatever someone calls it ( Tagetes lucida )  Wanted to get some Basil ( Thai, African Blue.. ) in also but don't completely trust the weather will cooperate over the next 2 or 3 weeks.

By the time all the major, local plant sales start next month, weather should be good to go. 

[Gottagrowemall]

2 hours ago, James B said:

Dead of winter here in Socal. About to have the coldest storm in years next week. Going down to at least 30f on the palmy side of the yard(North and West side). The south side will probably see 28 maybe 27. 4 nights of freezing or below. This never happens in Rancho. Holding fast for potentially several of my palms planting early fall to be taken out or severely damaged. Last year was the coolest year in the 11 years I’ve live in SB county. 2023 is already by far colder. Our daily highs have been 8-10 degrees cooler than average since October. The NOAA was very wrong when they predicted a warmer and drier winter than average in Socal.

Damn I’m feeling for you man. My yard took a massive smack this winter north of Daytona beach here and we saw high 20s too. It was cold like that for 2-3 days

[aztropic]

6 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

Spring is present, now in SF.  I see daffodils daily !

Daffodils just getting ready to open in Arizona,while hyacinths are already blooming.

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona 

[Meangreen94z]

31° tonight but 88° by Tuesday north of Austin. McAllen Texas is supposed to see 95° on both Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

[Fusca]

We've had just one night go below 42°F since the Christmas week freeze (38°F).  In January I planted a Ravenea rivularis, Livistona saribus (green petiole form) and an Archontophoenix maxima.  This month I put in a couple of Sabal causiarum and a Sabal miamiensis seedling.  This weekend I plan on planting a small unknown species of Pritchardia which I hope gets established in time for the next freeze.  We're a bit chilly today (60's) but Wednesday is supposed to be in the low 90's again!

[UK_Palms]

50 minutes ago, aztropic said:

Daffodils just getting ready to open in Arizona,while hyacinths are already blooming.

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona 

 

Interesting, the AZ daffodils are no further ahead than mine here in 8b rural inland southern England. This photo was taken last weekend so they have grown quite a bit since then during this mild spell. In fact I think they are more advanced than where you are in my local playing fields. I'll take a photo tomorrow to show. You guys will pull ahead massively though in the coming weeks at your latitude, whereas it will take longer to warm up here.

[Arecaceus]

I really don't mean to show off LOL, but Daffodils opened here already in January. Not a usual thing though...

[Arecaceus]

6 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

 

Interesting, the AZ daffodils are no further ahead than mine here in 8b rural inland southern England. This photo was taken last weekend so they have grown quite a bit since then during this mild spell. In fact I think they are more advanced than where you are in my local playing fields. I'll take a photo tomorrow to show. You guys will pull ahead massively though in the coming weeks at your latitude, whereas it will take longer to warm up here.

Thought you were in 9a? Chamaerops looks good from what I can see.

[Las Palmas Norte]

4 hours ago, Chester B said:

Same here.  Next week right now is looking rough, its more Late Dec/Early Jan weather, not something we see in late Feb.  If the forecasts don't change records will fall.

I'm usually buying plants and working in the garden at this time of year.  All I've been doing this year is yard cleanup and removing damaged plant material.

I've heard similar forecasts here concerning 4 or five days next week. One night is expected to be 19°F. February - the month of uncertainty. 

[UK_Palms]

Just now, Hortulanus said:

Thought you were in 9a? Chamaerops looks good from what I can see.

Meh, I am 8b/9a. 

I have just come off an 8b winter, but most years it is 9a here.

 

3 minutes ago, Hortulanus said:

I really don't mean to show off LOL, but Daffodils opened here already in January. Not a usual thing though...

You have just had your mildest winter on record there with the warmest January temperatures EVER on record and the highest winter low minimum ever too. I'm not surprised the daffodils have opened so early! 

No doubt you can expect more of that moving forward though with climate change. We just got unlucky this winter here in the UK. Generally speaking, it is warming up big time here as well too. Next winter will likely be a LOT warmer, if not similar to what you guys have experienced.

[Arecaceus]

26 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

Meh, I am 8b/9a. 

I have just come off an 8b winter, but most years it is 9a here.

 

You have just had your mildest winter on record there with the warmest January temperatures EVER on record and the highest winter low minimum ever too. I'm not surprised the daffodils have opened so early! 

No doubt you can expect more of that moving forward though with climate change. We just got unlucky this winter here in the UK. Generally speaking, it is warming up big time here as well too. Next winter will likely be a LOT warmer, if not similar to what you guys have experienced.

Yes same here. That's mostly why I consider myself in 8b/9a. And yes I know 😂. But we had some cold spells after the one in December. Tame ones but still... To me this was quite a bad winter but also because of the amount of wet weather after and within the freezes. The warm phases have als woken up plants in the middle of winter, followed by some frosts. I have quite a lot of foliar damage.

Yes the trend is clear. I remember the winter of 2014/2015? already being extremely mild. Many flowers in January back then. The UK is affected by this as we are here but because of climate change more random and unusual things happen. The cold spell in December actually came here FROM THE UK, which is a very weird situation. Because of that I didn't have much benefit of our local climate being protected in the Cologne lowland because it's open towards the north-west. The December freeze had that southern US type of feeling because it was quite warm then the cold came for a week from the north-west and then it went up to temperatures around 20°C. 😂 Several palms were pushing leaves around New Year. Crazy stuff...

[Foxpalms]

2 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

 

Interesting, the AZ daffodils are no further ahead than mine here in 8b rural inland southern England. This photo was taken last weekend so they have grown quite a bit since then during this mild spell. In fact I think they are more advanced than where you are in my local playing fields. I'll take a photo tomorrow to show. You guys will pull ahead massively though in the coming weeks at your latitude, whereas it will take longer to warm up here.

In central London the daffodils were showing the yellow flowers last month. The ones in your photo are what they looked like in late December/early January here. I think the very mild autumn is why they were so early this year here. If the December freeze didn't happen I wouldn't have been surprised if they would have flowered in late December.

Edited February 18, 2023 by Foxpalms

[JLM]

Red maples are flowering here, which is a sure sign of spring. Am expecting a brief dip to 33F tonight, temperatures recover quickly and by next week am expecting lows in the 60's with highs in the 70's and 80's. I thought awful strong about fertilizing next week, but i think ill still hold off till March 1st

Ive also thought about planting a double pygmy date (extremely pot bound) that i bought at Lowes last week. Im conflicted though, since we are still at risk for freezing temperatures. I guess i could always protect it right?

[Billeb]

No bulbs sprouting yet for me. I’m sure it’s eminent though. 
 

I always start moving dirt around in March. Right around the corner. 
 

-dale 

[EJPalm05]

16 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

 

Interesting, the AZ daffodils are no further ahead than mine here in 8b rural inland southern England. This photo was taken last weekend so they have grown quite a bit since then during this mild spell. In fact I think they are more advanced than where you are in my local playing fields. I'll take a photo tomorrow to show. You guys will pull ahead massively though in the coming weeks at your latitude, whereas it will take longer to warm up here.

The daffodils here also look like yours! Just about to bloom!

[Arecaceus]

12 hours ago, Billeb said:

No bulbs sprouting yet for me. I’m sure it’s eminent though. 
 

I always start moving dirt around in March. Right around the corner. 
 

-dale 

But California had unseasonably cold and rainy weather this winter, right?

[Billy]

54 minutes ago, Hortulanus said:

But California had unseasonably cold and rainy weather this winter, right?

Yes we did, indeed. One of the wettest winters I've seen in 30 years. 

[Billy]

.....although we recently had a high pressure with super nice temps here at the beach so I got excited and already planted a 5g leptocheilos. My first ever teddy, I'm pretty excited. 

[96720]

There are many varieties of daffodils mine have been blooming for a week or two in Phoenix!!

[Arecaceus]

43 minutes ago, Billy said:

Yes we did, indeed. One of the wettest winters I've seen in 30 years. 

Even here the winter's been extremely wet. Many places have been, it seems...

[Arecaceus]

It's funny how in a spring thread on palmtalk everybody is posting their daffodils. 😂

[Hillizard]

My small clump of daffodils (leftover from the previous owner) are now in bloom.

I've decided to focus on putting in more cold-hardy and borderline cold hardy palms this year even if I don't have a lot of room for them... because...

-- It will take years (decades?) for them to reach full size and I might as well enjoy growing them in the interim.

-- my place will likely be under new ownership in the future and the next owner will either cut down or sell the palms to a palm broker (the desired outcome).

-- I learned this lesson when the seller of my previous house took out all the palms but one (Syagrus).

[Silas_Sancona]

No daffo- stuff here, haha...

May not be quite there yet for planting some stuff, but a good time for another cuttings trial..

Last year, i'd tried to start batches of certain Bursera  ( Awesome group of arid adapted, semi tropical trees ..for those whose idea of "desert plants" = cacti and succulents only, lol ) Anyhow.. found out it was too hard to keep them hydrated during the driest part of our summer and lost most of them..

Fast forward a couple seasons, Taking a different approach this time, using the simplest method possible, and starting them in the sun room..  Also using the same idea on some Turk's Cap ( Malvaviscus arboreus v. drummondii )  since i need more to plant elsewhere.

When ready ...err' rooted in to my satisfaction, i'll simply cut off the cup lids when i go to pot em' up.

We'll see how this works out..


El' Turk's Caps.



Bursera microphylla, standard form.



Bursera silviae ..a surprisingly hardy ...and endangered.. Bursera sp. that grows in a few, near coastal areas in S.W. Mexico ...Near Barra Copalita, southeast of Acapulco specifically. 

Some say these are tough to start from cuttings, while other folks have started them pretty easily.  We'll see..



My specimen, now roughly 6ft in height has survived 7 winters outdoors here, and two in FL..  Bought as a seedling back in 2013.

Both Bursera cutting batches are in sifted grit that is barely moist.  Little more moisture in the Malvaviscus  batch..

 

[amh]

I planted some asparagus and a new pear tree last week and will start planting potatoes next week.  I'll start my garden greens at the end of this month, but the frost sensitive plants will have to wait till April. As far as palms go, I'm trying to decide where to plant a few Sabal brazoriensis, which are hardy.

[JLM]

Update on the red maples: some are actually leafing out right now. This is insanely early for this.

[amh]

18 minutes ago, JLM said:

Update on the red maples: some are actually leafing out right now. This is insanely early for this.

The agarita, Mahonia trifoliolata, in my area is blooming a little early this year, but not too early.

[ZPalms]

Trees in my yard are starting to bud and my banana tree leaves haven't died back and straight 60s and 70s during the day and nightly lows of 50s and 60s, I'm so excited to start getting palms that I've had in pots/bags that have been waiting 2 years to plant and I can start new palms 😍

[amh]

9 minutes ago, ZPalms said:

Trees in my yard are starting to bud and my banana tree leaves haven't died back and straight 60s and 70s during the day and nightly lows of 50s and 60s, I'm so excited to start getting palms that I've had in pots/bags that have been waiting 2 years to plant and I can start new palms 😍

Just make sure that you have a way to protect everything if the temperatures go below 20F.

[EJPalm05]

17 hours ago, Billy said:

Yes we did, indeed. One of the wettest winters I've seen in 30 years. 

And coldest! For most of the world!