How Has The Recent Cold Affected Early Spring Growth?

[damianslaw]

Thought I'd start this thread as I am interested in hearing peoples views and observations on how the recent cold has affected the early spring growth that occured in January.

Here it hasn't been very noticeable as we had no daffs etc in bloom early in January. However, I suspect for those in the south it will have had a much more marked affect.

Overall compared to the last three years everything is still in a very advanced spring state - I'm expecting very early spring blossom this year.

[Andy Bown]

This week I noticed many flowering and budding daffodils fully bent over as a result of the harsh frosts.

In our garden the many crocusses have suffered badly, however now the snow has thawed I can see that growth of tulip and daffodil leaves doesn't

seem to have been affected.

[Alex95]

The NE blooms very late anyway so I haven't really noticed anything due to the cold spell.

[johnholmes]

the snowdrops are now re appearing from the snow and appear to have no flowers on, they had before the snow and frost

[Polar Maritime]

Same as JH here.

[gottolovethisweather]

I'm a real anorak when it comes to this sort of thing and you can find lots of data on my blog.

http://naturestimeline.wordpress.com/

Kind Regards

gottolovethisweather

[Aaron]

Nothing here is growing at all, not even during the mild December - so I'm guessing the recent cold will not affect spring growth in anyway

[mountain shadow]

Spring has already sprung here. Grass needing cut again, Daffs and Crocuses already starting to bloom.

[weathergeek]

I took photos of the recent snowfall over blossomed trees and crocuses Must admit, as happy as I was when I saw cold/snowy weather on the cards, I did really worry about how it would effect plants and wildlife....I really hope its not to their detriment.

H x

[Guest]

No sign of anything yet in my garden and during the course of a milder winter the daffs are usually starting to show their shoots about now.

The frogs can't get in the pool yet to do their annual naughties - they can't get through the ice, so I would say that things are a little behind, possibly by about 3 weeks or so but things may catch up as the ground warms.

[johnholmes]

well now the snow has cleared off the main clump of snowdrops they have come back into flower!

[knocker]

Well it hasn't done my Lilies any good. A couple of weeks ago these two plants were a mass of green leaves about 18 inches high. In a sorry state now.

[Peter H]

Since we didn't have any cold, growth hasn't been affected whatsoever.

Grass still needs cut but it's far to damp to do anything.,

Don't ever remember it this long in the middle of February.

[johnholmes]

Since we didn't have any cold, growth hasn't been affected whatsoever.

Grass still needs cut but it's far to damp to do anything.,

Don't ever remember it this long in the middle of February.

never mind, think positively you will have a head start for spring flowers etc?

[greybing]

This week I noticed many flowering and budding daffodils fully bent over as a result of the harsh frosts.

In our garden the many crocusses have suffered badly, however now the snow has thawed I can see that growth of tulip and daffodil leaves doesn't

seem to have been affected.

I have noticed the usual frost damage to plants you would expect but though there was early growth in spring plants they seem largly un-affected other than the halt in growth.I am no horticulturest but I have observed Daffodils ,even in flower,survive very cold weather[well below freezing.I assumed this was an adaptation [possibly].When I have observed this it has been above -10.I checked the Daffodils in previous cold spells closely and despite being seemingly frozen ,literally ,they were un-affected. Edited February 13, 2012 by greybing

[Terminal Moraine]

I have noticed the usual frost damage to plants you would expect but though there was early growth in spring plants they seem largly un-affected other than the halt in growth.I am no horticulturest but I have observed Daffodils ,even in flower,survive very cold weather[well below freezing.I assumed this was an adaptation [possibly].When I have observed this it has been above -10.I checked the Daffodils in previous cold spells closely and despite being seemingly frozen ,literally ,they were un-affected.

Yes, Daffodils, and Narcissi generally, contain a natural anti-freeze in their cells which prevents the cell walls being destroyed in very cold weather. I've seen Daffodils in full flower, lying completely flat after an overnight min' around -6c, resurrect themselves as if nothing had happened by the same afternoon when the temperature had risen well above freezing.

With regard to the current Spring growth; in this area it's mostly bulbs which were ahead of themselves and, apart from a few flowering Crocus which look a bit the worse for wear after being buried by snow for the last 9 days, everything else has just stopped growing and is marking time until the weather turns mild again.

There are a few plants which had continued flowering throughout the winter until the recent cold spell but which now look in a sorry state but these are not Spring growth related, more a continuation of last Autumn's growth.

[4wd]

It quite annoys me how often people/media assume winter flowering cherries are actually the spring flowering type forced into bloom by freak warm weather.

They put out flowers through most of the of the winter, if it's mild and dry the individual blooms last longer, creating a more eye-catching display.

A tough looking plant that will have suffered is the Bergenia sometimes called 'Elephants Ears'

The (usually pink) flower stems are easily damaged by frost if they spring up too early.

This often happend at their normal flowering time in March/April

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergenia

[BlueHedgehog074]

Noticed a bit of a slow down in the shoots of the daffodils when the cold spell laid its foot here, with some looking as though they didn't hardly grow at all (although admittedly, didn't really pay too much attention to this, so could be wrong but does looks as though some slow down happened). Also had to take some of the Fuschias we had planted in pots outside into the portable greenhouse as the leaves were rapdily going brown, which was probably due to the frost and snow.