Signs of Spring ?

[Dave Brown]

I have a single solitary yellow crocus bud. I'm sure I must have had worse winters, but not that I can remember. Wandered around the garden at lunchtime.... plenty of signs of winter but none of spring

[redsquirrel]

i wandered round ours after work Dave,and all things considered,it doesnt look nearly as bad as i expected. i do have a bucket of tulips poking up,these are to brighten up the hosta tub i grow in the hope all the snails munch there

[Leigh]

I guess you must be in the Tipner area then? I'm surprised you say it got to -6C where you are, as it dropped just below that up in Horndean where my Mum lives & I only dropped to -2.5C here in central Southsea Maybe you have a dodgy thermometer as your garden looks small & sheltered like mine...

Nearly Nathan, Stamshaw pretty exposed here no houses at the back of me just a few trees and bushes,the garden backs onto the 275 sliproad that goes down to Rudmore roundabout, and across to the ferry port, the pictures are pretty decieving.
The temps are pretty accurate i use a wireless weather station (Bought from Maplins) showed -6.4 at one stage
Anyway noticed my Golden Hop was poking new shoots up when i was out again yesterday And what a result for Pompey sorry Ade

[Adrian]

Hey no problem, the heads here are held high

[bobbyd44]

on an IQ repeat the other week one of the questions was on spring and according to my memory it apparently takes 8 weeks for it to travel up the country!!!

[eddie]

No sign of spring here....No bulbs making little green leafs yet.....

[metalhammer]

Signs of spring?,Yes the dying of palms,have 3 casualties here now,2 Phoenix canariensis_CIDP's that look like they've had it this year & a large Butia yatay that has leaves that are rapidly going brown.

Fortunately I have a large Jubaea to replace the dead yatay & another Phoenix canariensis_CIDP on the way to replace the dead ones.Had I known how bloody cold it was going to be,I would've never ordered another Phoenix canariensis_CIDP.Guess I'll have to go in for protection in the big freeze of 2010/11.




metalhammer.

[Nick]

We hope 2010/11 is not a bad winter, we are hoping for a milder winter this year

[metalhammer]

I'm afraid winter has just gone back to the norm of 30-40years ago.We all got suckered in the 90's & early 2000's.





metalhammer.

[bobbyd44]

been on an inspection and i doo have a couple of bulb shoots coming through here and there

[simon]

I forgot to mention, I have noticed bluebells coming up here.

[Nathan]

I guess you must be in the Tipner area then? I'm surprised you say it got to -6C where you are, as it dropped just below that up in Horndean where my Mum lives & I only dropped to -2.5C here in central Southsea Maybe you have a dodgy thermometer as your garden looks small & sheltered like mine...

Nearly Nathan, Stamshaw pretty exposed here no houses at the back of me just a few trees and bushes,the garden backs onto the 275 sliproad that goes down to Rudmore roundabout, and across to the ferry port, the pictures are pretty decieving.
The temps are pretty accurate i use a wireless weather station (Bought from Maplins) showed -6.4 at one stage
Anyway noticed my Golden Hop was poking new shoots up when i was out again yesterday And what a result for Pompey sorry Ade

Ah, I guess your low temps must be because you are on the edge of the island then, you probably don't benefit as much from the "urban heat effect" as areas further inland & towards town... Are your Musa basjoo stems still standing? As unprotected at -6.4C they should be mush & would have collapsed, the stems can only take around -4C/-5C unprotected before they collapse, that should give you an indication if your temps are accurate or not...

[metalhammer]

I had some stems survive a -8.5c air frost last year & -6c air frost again this year.




metalhammer.

[Leigh]

The bigger Basjoo's are still upright and feel firm (no worst than last year), the smaller pup's are mush and the two that flowered are mush but i expected that, all the nanas are planted next to fences so do get some protection apart from that i just pull down the old leaves and let them hang around the stems over winter.

Other than that keeping fingers crossed

[stephenprudence]

The stem here probably will fall in Spring but it's still upright but it still looks a mess because the outer layers were peels away from freeze-thaw, the bottom is solid so it'll grow back! Nothing to worry about.