Good news, Dan!
I haven't checked on the crocus since the big freeze. Over the weekend I was checking trees and noticed my Granny Smith apple tree is getting fuzzy tips on the buds. NNNOOOOooooooo!!!!! Sniff. Ok, I'm better now. I probably don't have green apples in my future this fall.
The good news is all the deciduous tree branches I checked are flexible, so hopefully no major damage. Some of my evergreens look pretty dessicated. I'll be spending some time watering this long upcoming weekend.
Blasted wind!
Barb

None of my Croaks have crocused either, Dan!

Well I finally had a chance to do a good look-see in my backyard today to see how everything's doing since the most recent COLD spell. Didn't have enough snow to qualify as "protection" this last time around, so everything was on its own! Of my spring bulbs, they're ALL up to some extent by now, and they're all fine! I really wasn't too worried about them--as long as it's just the foliage, but the flowers have a cold limit and definitely wouldn't survive below zero, but until they bud/bloom, they'll be ok. The snow crocus have been up since Thanksgiving, but still just foliage, they're up to 4" high by now, which is kind of curious, because they don't normally get any taller than that even with the flowers, and there's no sign of buds yet! The regular crocus are up now too, but only about an inch high. The daffodils in various places range from 1" to about 3" high, and the hyacinths are just showing--an inch or less. I'm back to hoping it doesn't stay warm long enough for them to start budding, and then get a repeat stretch of sub-zero!

Some of my perennials that had started to grow, like the Pulsatilla/pasque flower, have had the new leaves frozen, but they're cold weather plants and will come back just fine. Same thing happened to the Geum and the spike veronica, but they're established and should come back just fine too. I think I may have messed up a little bit with the Iberis/candy tuft! I had trimmed it back to a neat little round plant before the really cold weather hit, and it was looking really good--it's evergreen--but the most recent cold snap without snow really toasted it! Last week I decided I didn't like the brown, crispy foliage on the "outside layer," and it was pretty and green "inside," so I trimmed all the crispy stuff off! ERROR! Now the next layer is crispy! Oops! No more trimming! Will just have to deal with the Crispies till it gets warm for real!

I think the real problem is that it was sooo warm for so long, a lot of things never really went "properly" dormant, and then when the cold hit without warning---OUCH! A lot of my other evergreen and semi-evergreen things are really sad looking by now too. So far I don't think I'm gonna actually lose anything, but I guess that depends on what happens for the rest of this weird and whacky winter!

Skybird

Speaking of FLOWERS!!!

When I was out in the yard today I discovered my first little snow crocus is blooming! When I looked them over closely the other day, I didn't find anything that I could identify as a bud forming, so I was pretty surprised.

BUT, the REAL surprise was when I went back to last year's pictures to see when they had started blooming, and it was FEBRUARY 6th! I thought it was more like early March when they started! Guess they're not too early after all!

In my pics from last year the daffodils started by the 9th of March, and I'll be surprised if that happens this year---they just don't seem that far along to me---but we'll see!

I'm really glad to have a flower to herald the arrival of the new growing season!

Skybird

You crack me up, Skybird!

I'm glad everyone's stuff didn't freeze, crackle and break off. We had it so cold that it got down to -27f or -30f (the reports around town are not exact). For the first time we've been up here, my car wouldn't start. I couldn't even get it to come out of first gear it was so frozen. It was -24f in the morning and I had to take the bus all the way to school, then work. I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin' is all.

My friends in Steamboat had it down so cold that on the warm up afterwords it was still -28f and they had to send their kids to school. Funny, the Boulder schools closed because it was below zero. Really!!?

Anyway, I'm glad we're under snow, maybe the temps didn't affect my plants.

The more recent freeze had us at -22f in the morning but the car started. I kind of found that hard to believe because it was so much warmer down in Boulder but everyone agreed, -22. Well, one friend said -18 but still, cold!

I'm loving the winter and the snowshoeing but, man, I am so tired of waiting for my garden to become exposed. I want to play in the dirt!!

Oh, that was a darn funny title to the post, Dan!!

Happy winter,

Jennifer