Blooming in January

Last year this tree bloomed in Late February.  This year January 10.   It looks like a couple week long warm spell before the cold may come back.  

Wow, that is early. I have some varieties of plums and peaches that bloom crazy early some years during hot streaks, and I haven't checked on those trees in the last few days. Looks like we're going to get a warm streak here too. The blossoms seem to get tougher as the trees have gotten older, so maybe they'll make it, and hopefully Spring will come early.

Dennis Bangham wrote:Last year this tree bloomed in Late February.  This year January 10.   It looks like a couple week long warm spell before the cold may come back.  

Here in SW Virginia we have had warmish and downright warm weather for weeks now, Monday I think is expected to be 67 for a high! All my peaches have buds and I see the red maples are budding as well.

I planted two acres of winter wheat this fall, it looks good. However, I was hoping it would be one of the only survivors of winter so it can grow in force before the weeds in spring. Alas, I now wonder what will happen as I am seeing dandelions and chickweeds all over the fields. Hopefully we have a few deep freezes in between. The bees are also eating through their honey stores like nuts since they are breaking cluster every few days it would seem but no sufficient pollen outside.

Not good :(

Lots of stuff budding out and/or blooming here, also. Haven't seen buds on the fruit trees (yet), but the roses haven't stopped blooming all winter, and several of the oak trees haven't finished dropping leaves. Lots of perennials in the flower beds have started to push new foliage.
It's like they knew when the winter solstice was, and decided that meant it was time to get going. Unfortunately, the next 6 weeks are historically the time when we get coldest & have a few nights of hard freezes, so we'll see if it happens this year, and if the plants can handle it. 😕

My plan is to use Christmas lights and frost cloth on the smaller younger trees.  I have a pergola for my fuzzy kiwi and I have wrapped the top and south sides with shade cloth 85%.  I am hopping the shade will slow down the waking up since these fuzzy kiwi like full sun.  
At least I started buying low chill hour plants several years ago at the recommendation of a lady at a local nursery.

Dennis Bangham wrote:My plan is to use Christmas lights and frost cloth on the smaller younger trees.  I have a pergola for my fuzzy kiwi and I have wrapped the top and south sides with shade cloth 85%.  I am hopping the shade will slow down the waking up since these fuzzy kiwi like full sun.  
At least I started buying low chill hour plants several years ago at the recommendation of a lady at a local nursery.

I bought a few boxes of Christmas lights on clearance a few weeks ago, so that's an option if it gets too cold.

I'm in Z8a, but the boundary from a/b is just about 25-30 miles from here, so it varies, each winter, on how many hard freezes we get. I suppose this could end up being more of a "b" winter, with warmer temps; but there's no telling.