Trees budding already

[freyja5]

We have had the warmest January on record here in the Vancouver area (it's a balmy 50F today; not the greatest for the Winter Olympics in 2 weeks), and my weeping cherry and hornbeam trees are already starting to bud.

If we end up getting a cold snap (although it's very unlikely to go below freezing at this point), what kind of damage would be done to the trees? Anything I can do for them, if it does get colder later on?

I'm kind of hoping that spring is here, so I can bust out the SBM for my lawn (: but I'll try to be patient if it gets cold again.

Thanks!

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

We've had the coldest winter in decades and the one tree I use as my 'harbinger of spring' is blooming. This is the earliest I can remember by a couple weeks.

Every tree is different. The answer is, 'it depends.' It depends on what kind of tree, how well established the roots are, how long at critical low temps, how much moisture in the soil, and possibly on the biological health of the tree and soil.

[andy10917]

This Winter has been unusual in ways here in New York. Few extremes (no sub-zero, no significant warm periods), but longer-than-normal periods of below-normal temperatures. I'd hazard a guess that precipitation is below normal. Winds have been steadier and above-normal. Absolutely NO signs of Spring.

[freyja5]

Thanks, David. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope we stay with the warm temps. The hornbeam struggled last year, so I was very excited to see buds all over it the other day. If the 50F temps continue, I think I'm going to put out my first grain fertilizer (corn meal, since I haven't picked up my SBM yet) and see what happens.

Andy, hope you guys get some spring soon! Our winter last year was one of the worst in terms of volumes of snow; this year, we had snow for about 1 day (maybe an inch or two) before it turned to rain.

[MorpheusPA]

Pretty much the same here. The last 3 days have been frigid and finally took down the lawn, but before that the weather was average to a touch warm. Since Groundhog's Day marks the change to Really Extremely Early Spring Not That You'd Notice (But At Least It Isn't Quite So Cold), we'll see what the next few weeks bring.

My crocus and some of the extremely early jonquil and tulips have sent early leaves. No big deal there, they'll wait just fine.

Most tree buds CAN be killed by a severe cold snap, but often they seem to do just fine (at least on mature, healthy trees). The tree can produce some anti-freeze to protect them. An extended cold period will get them and usually reduces blooming, but I've never seen it go to zero.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

If it makes any difference to y'all, this is an El Nino year by the definition that it was a rainy winter in Mexico. For us it means our multi year drought is broken. We got half a year's worth of rain in January. That is slightly above normal for us. We don't get rain all year long so getting it a few buckets at a time is normal.

[MorpheusPA]

And although we were normal on precipitation during December, we didn't made it in January and February looks like a bust. Thanks for stealing the East Coast's rain there, David.