A hard winter

[Rusty]

This winter was the worst in 35 years according to the local weather guy. I believe him. While my fruit trees are blossoming, they are only putting out a few on each branch. In previous years the blossoms would be so heavy you could not see the branches. Not this year. Even the ornamental pears look sad.

Sigh. At least the trees didn't die.

Plus I think I lost my grape vines--again! These were my second try and I did pick varieties that were good clear to zone 5. But the wood looks like it is dead.

How did your areas do?


Rusty

 

[vfem]

Don't lose faith in your grapes. Mine look dead as dead, and my neighbor's do too. I know their is life in them... just hold on!

We've had the worst winter in over 20 years, so I know how you feel.

I'm about to shut my computer down though, we're getting tornado warnings right now, and it sounds horrible out. I know my peach tree and tulips are getting beaten to death right now. I am yet to have a year where the wind hasn't destroyed my tulips before I could enjoy them.

 

[4grandbabies]

I am in zone 5 so its early for mine to show life, but like everyone else, ours always looked dead, seemed like forever before those buds started showing. .. sadly they were part of the things we had to leave behind with last springs move. I hope to check on the home place this week. Maybe I can transplant the tulips, if we can dig deep enough to move them with out much disturbance.. hope I can find the horseradish, honeysuckle, and and maybe take grape vine cuttings if its not too late. I feel sure it wont be.

 

[Greenthumb18]

Yes i agree, its been a hard winter for us all. But i'm sure Spring will reward us all with great weather and lots of flowers and growth on all plants, don't lose faith. You have to be a little patient. Sometimes it takes awhile for grapes to "wake up" from a very cold winter, i'm sure the buds will start popping up with new growth once again.
But if you want to see if your grape vine is alive without disturbing it too much, do what i like to call a scratch-test.
Carefully take your thumb to scratch the outer bark of the vine to reveal the inside part of the vine. If its white or green that means the vine is alive but if its brown or black then thats dead wood. Just keep scratching the bark until you see either green/white or brown/black.

Hope this helps!!

 

[Rusty]

Carefully take your thumb to scratch the outer bark of the vine to reveal the inside part of the vine. If its white or green that means the vine is alive but if its brown or black then thats dead wood. Just keep scratching the bark until you see either green/white or brown/black.

Yep. This is what I did--way down close to ground level--and it is brown. But I am gonna wait awhile anyhow before I declare them gone.




Rusty

 

[Greenthumb18]

Yep. This is what I did--way down close to ground level--and it is brown. But I am gonna wait awhile anyhow before I declare them gone.




Rusty

Yeah wait a little longer before you can say their dead. You could always replant if you have to.
But i do hope the grape vine starts to bud with new growth for you .

 

[digitS']

Again, "where are our western Washington gardeners on this subject?"

Okay, we didn't have any recording breaking here but it was nearly 8F above normal in January, about 5.5 above normal in February, and only 1.9 above normal so far this month.

No, it wasn't a hard winter in my neck of the woods. But, it's looking more and more like a normal spring. I just hope I didn't get too far ahead of myself with seed starting. And, I'm sorry that some of you had a tough time. It is mostly about what we are expecting and sometimes our perennials take a beating.

Steve

 

[patandchickens]

What Steve said.

We had the mildest winter in living memory. Temperatures quite a lot warmer than normal (both on average and in terms of the lowest lows) and very little snow, while never actually LOSING snow cover at all during the winter (which is convenient, and a peculiar combination!).

It is going to be REAL bad for mosquitoes and voles and moles this year, but other than that, woo hoo up *here*

Best of luck to those who the winter we SHOULD have had here,

Pat

 

[lesa]

It was a strange winter indeed. We almost lost our bragging rights! I was surprised to see green foliage on some ferns- they usually die back completely! Nature definitely took it easy on us, in upstate NY this year!

 

[ducks4you]

Rusty, you should try bending the twigs on your grape vine, to see if it's really dead. If they are pliable--"Wick" as Dickin in The Secret Garden, would say, just give them a little more time to start leafing out. Mine won't leaf out until the middle of April, after the last frost for us.