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I'm often asked, when we have mild winters like this one, what effect it has on the plants. Well, there's some good news, and some not so good news. Basically, from this point on we are just crossing our fingers we don't have a cold snap. First the good news- we'll see flowers earlier! Here in SW Michigan, you'll notice that daffodils and tulips are already poking through the ground, that spring blooming witchhazels are in flower in protected areas, the grass is greening up already and some cool weather plants have even clung to a few last buds. Semi-cold hardy shrubs, like butterfly bush and blue beard are holding bud much higher in their branches than previous years. I even have rosemary shrubs still going strong! Now for the bad news. With each passing day, plants' cold hardiness decreases. This means that any cold snaps we have going forward will damage the developing buds. Some of this damage may not be visible until later in the spring, when flowers fail to develop fully, shoot tips wither away, or plants fail to leaf out altogether. Often, people forget all about the cold damage by the time the symptoms show up and become concerned about insect or disease damage- so bookmark this post for future reference! For a more indepth description of degree days, where we are statisically and a bit more all around technical information, check out Dr. Cregg's article in the MSU Extension News here.  Unknown tulip with grape hyacinth underplanted. Let's keep our fingers crossed, and hope for Spring, shall we?!
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