Ugh.......

[WillsC]

Peaches blooming, blueberries are leafing out and buds are swelling fast.........going to be a long 2 months till our frost free date March 1. Decided to add a second pump to the irrigation system and last thing I needed was another project.

[Sarahkt]

The price you pay for 84 degrees F at Christmas.

[drew51]

At last an advantage to be further north! It never warmed up enough here for anything to break dormancy. Fruit production will be low next year for the Southern and western areas. Winter has arrived here now, so no further threat of early dormancy break here.

[strudeldog]

I may never taste my Southern HB and I will pay more attention to avoid low chilling requirements. This is Emerald but my SweetCrisp is blooming to

[pppldj]

Are your rabbiteyes blooming?

[strudeldog]

No rabbiteyes blooming that I have noticed.

[pppldj]

Most of mine are. Titan is only variety not. Not as heavy of bloom as your Southern hb.

[jmaler]

Same here in south central Texas. Some inground whips broke bud with 1 inch leaves. I wrapped with heave frost cloth and then covered with empty MG Garden Soil bags hoping for the best until after spring frost.

[WillsC]

The best way to protect them is overhead water running constantly all night. Don't shut it off until the ice melts off. With no or little wind you can protect them down to about 20 degrees.

[Sunshinefig]

What about the plums? So sad to see little plums hanging on the tree in December! Many of the BB plants have small blueberries already. Peaches bloomed about three weeks ago. Total confusion in the plant world.

[Blueboy1977]

Guess I'm pretty much in the same boat. Emerald is about to bust open and some of the fall bull canes on sweetcrisp are flowering. Can't really remember sweetcrisp flowering this early in the year in the past. Tropic snow peach is starting to show some flowers as well. Seems to be the norm the last few years. Glad mine are in pots and mobile. It's going to freeze here before the years up, just hope it doesn't dip past 28! Good luck to everyone!!!!

[WillsC]

I can protect the BB but the problem is the best pollinators will not be around for 4-6 weeks so I am worried more about incomplete pollination than I am freezing. The peaches and plums are on their own. If though they get blasted yet again this year I am ripping most of them out.

[penandpike]

Sorry for you guys. We too had very warm fall. But not as warm as yours. Winter hit us 3 days ago.

[Gina]

It was extremely warm here this year - hotter than I remember. Even got AC! Then this past week we got some cold (for us). At least my BBs got some winter chill, slight though it was. It got down to 38 one night, and about 40 a couple others.

BBs have been blooming for a while. I think every variety has at least some flowers now. Fortunately the honey bees seem to have found them, and on Christmas day I sat in the BB enclosure and watched and listened to them working away. Also had one bumble bee, and one hummingbird pollinating. Fruit is setting. Currently I am seeing more pollinators that I did last spring. ??? But we have a week of rain predicted (thankfully), so I hope they don't all forget where my BBs live.

[Sarahkt]

Same here, all my blueberries have at least some flowers on them, with the exception of baby tissue culture plants and some recently purchased Sweetcrisps that arrived dormant (THANKS!!).

At least everything else looks dormant.

[m5allen]

Dang, I must be lucky...being in Tampa, FL, I have probably been warmer than anyone, but I don't have flowering yet. My Emeralds are loaded with buds, but they have not opened. Strange. But on the flipside, I don't see many flower buds on most of my other varieties.

We are finally getting a nice stretch of normal, cool weather, so hopefully this brings some good chill hours and holds off flowering. This has been one wacky year of weather.

[Kelby]

Tough break. Some of the Yoshino (ornamental) cherries were blooming here, but everyone else stayed asleep.