Crazy, crazy weather! Someone told me that here in PA this is the warmest December we've had since 1998. I had planted dutch Iris bulbs awhile back and nice, tall green tips are coming up through the leaf mulch. I also heard that in Scranton, a valley city, daffodils are blooming! I'm not crazy about the usually long, cold, snowy winters, but this is nuts!

1998 was at that time the most severe El Nino in history. This years so far is worse.

Dutch Iris do have a tendency to send up leaves in the late Fall.

Yes, here in NY we also have dandelion and spring flowers/bulbs growing, some trees have bloomed or have new leaves! We should have snow or cold freezing weather but people here are still mowing the lawns and some birds halted migration.

If you ask me, it's down right scary. Azaleas are blooming everywhere. They are not due here until March or April. We had only 3 cold nights of 36 or so and the days have been up in the 80's. Not normal for this area and time of year.

The coreopsis thinks it spring and have come blooming.

Our average first frost date is November 15. I moved all my tenders into the guest house then. It's been hot ever since.

What's scary is......with it being so unseasonably warm, what's to come for the rest of winter?

On a good note, my roses love it. I have cut roses every day.

Oh yeah, also, my camellias are blooming with no frost to freeze the buds off.

I can't believe it's so warm where everyone else is! I haven't experienced any odd weather, just tons of cold rain which is normal for Oregon. I guess it's more rain than last year, but I have no complaints!

Welcome to All Things Plants, Caroline ( @JuniperVenus ) !

I've been happy to have weird-in-a-good-way weather here this year

I saw Forsythia blooming a few days ago BUT Winter has hit here with a fury. Daily highs in lower to mid 20s and lows 5 - 9. Poor plants are really gonna be stressed. I am glad that I got everything needing it mulched real well.

Weedwhacker said:Welcome to All Things Plants, Caroline ( @JuniperVenus ) !

I've been happy to have weird-in-a-good-way weather here this year

Thank you!

That's very good. I'm not displeased by my weather, Oregon's awesome.

More difficult for me to acclimate than plants .. week ago 71 , in 20's now ,
Wind chill ? I do not want to talk about it .
way to cold
Of course here January is suppose to be the coldest month .couple days early . not a problem . I remember five and six month cold winters ,

jimard8 said: More difficult for me to acclimate than plants .. week ago 71 , in 20's now ,
Wind chill ? I do not want to talk about it .
way to cold
Of course here January is suppose to be the coldest month .couple days early . not a problem . I remember five and six month cold winters ,

Well, not much else can be expected of Winter. Kansas weather was awful, I dealt with it all my life, but now Oregon gives me a well earned break.

JuniperVenus Oregon is on of four or five states now I have never been to , I would like to see the Evergreen Rain forest , etc ,
My imagination runs wild I always wonder about nature , it's diversity , it's differences ,

Down here, nothing has gone dormant. We've only had a couple of cold fronts make it this far south, so things like my southern highbush blueberries didn't even lose their leaves yet. One of them is blooming now, and this concerns me a bit. If we do get cold, well I guess the flowers will blast, but if we don't I keep wondering if it will kill the plants to not have a winter rest.

However . . . since there's nothing we can do about the weather, I must admit I'm enjoying a lot of things about it. The beaches are great and the Gulf water is still warm enough to swim a bit. My tomatoes and peppers are still blooming and bearing and I haven't had to cover them up. There are still lots of butterflies around. Even the black snakes haven't hibernated yet, and they are generally gone by now. We're having a lovely fall/spring.

jimard8 said:JuniperVenus Oregon is on of four or five states now I have never been to , I would like to see the Evergreen Rain forest , etc ,
My imagination runs wild I always wonder about nature , it's diversity , it's differences ,

Oregon is beautiful. The trees are huge and covered in moss, and there are tons of mountains. The beach is usually very rainy and cold, though, but I still love it.

The grass is green again, since usually it dies in Summer and comes back during Fall and Winter. Though despite how green it is no flowers are blooming or anything. My chickens loathe this rainy weather but the geese and ducks love it, and so do the plants.

I'm originally from BC, so very familiar with your cold, grey and rainy Pac NW winters. Not for my arthritic joints, any more. I only visit up there in the summertime now. It's a wonderful relief from the oppressive heat down here in summer. And so very beautiful.

Our usual winter weather is very similar to Pac NW summer, only with shorter days. This winter? Not so much.

Up til a few days ago, I had butterfly bushes (Buddleias) sprouting new leaves (a week ago it was 62). Lots of them.

But we plummeted into single digit lows and highs ~ 23 - 27.

Our Spring Peeper frogs, Pseudacris crucifer, are singing and mating. I fear for the new generation of babies when it does finally get cold here. My Japanese Magnolias have bloomed and put on new buds, the camellia has bloomed, and so has a gardenia. My garden is as confused as the frogs.

http://animals.nationalgeograp...

The Magnolia tree is blooming in my DD's front yard. Pretty yellow Dandelions along the roadside. Very unusual winter so far.

All our pastures are green and growing - winter grasses and summer grasses together!

It's green in Iowa, we had earthworms crossing the road like it was spring, the country ditches are holding water, the creeks haven't frozen over yet, we also had a dandelion, and big surprise... my husband brought me a chickweed bloom last week :o)

It did snow, but the grass stained the snow a greenish yellow where DH ran the snowblower over it. We've never seen that before!