Post by alexintx on Feb 27, 2020 10:02:06 GMT -5
The rapidly heating global climate has delivered us an alarmingly warm Feb here in the southeastern US, causing many of our plants to begin growth or bud out up to two weeks earlier than normal. That places many plants at risk when a late cold snap arrives, and indeed it did. Recent overnight lows in the upper 20s nuked a couple of my more advanced flava blooms (and my blueberries).
Even though I’m only on the southwestern margin of the southeast, it’s been true here, too. We haven’t had a super warm February here (we’ve been almost exactly average), but this winter has been crazy mild. My house has had only 4 freezes, plus 2 patchy ones at almost exactly 32 (including this morning). My ultimate winter low has only been 29.6°F! Most winters, we get a dozen freezes, of which about 5 are hard freezes (below 28°), with a couple nights in the low 20s. The ultimate low in a normal winter is somewhere around 23°.
A normal winter here averages 53°F. This winter, the average has been 56.1° — which makes this tied for the 9th warmest ever. This winter will mean 5 of the 10 warmest winters have had since winter 1999-2000. Only one of the coldest 10 winters have happened since 1985 (that was the 2009-10 winter). Records here go back to 1897.
I keep my Sarracenia in the spot that keeps them dormant longest, so mine are just barely starting to wake up. The late cold snap this morning is mostly OK because only a handful have done anything. If I had them anywhere else around my house, they probably would’ve woken up about two weeks ago. Even this slow wake up right now is a couple weeks earlier than normal.
It’s all the wild plants I’m worried more about — we’ve got all sorts of things in bloom right now. While they’re cold hardy when not in bloom, the blooms are tender.