"When dandelions begin to mature seed, the danger of frost has passed

Not around here! They've been blooming, and continuing to bloom, for the last month, although the peak has passed. I still have plenty. They take a hard freeze pretty well - I never noticed any frost damage to the flowers/stems/closed flowers before the seed stage. Maybe the tips of the leaves get a bit scorched if its sub-freezing and windy. We have another freeze coming Monday night.

I thought the blooming cycle had more to do with temperature - they seem to quit here once the daytime temps are in the high 70's. And we have another, smaller flush in the fall when things cool down again.

I have another question re dandelions. I can follow the bloom up into the higher mountain meadows, with the peak bloom time well into July. Is there an upper elevation limit? I'm trying to think if I've seen them blooming in the really high tundra.

After a month of blooming, they must have set some seed, David.

The very first seed-heads that I saw (just 6 or 8) were on May 19th so you see, that is just a few days after the last frost we had. Now, they've been blowing seed all over creation for about a week. They are really past peak bloom (except where they were mowed and are rallying to the flag, yet). We came close to a frost on the 27th but not quite.

What elevation? Wow, I really don't know. It must vary with latitude.

The lowest elevation in Colorado is on the Arikaree River at 3,317 feet, Wikipedia says. That elevation is over 1,000 feet higher than my dandelions, and gardens!

As far as how high the dandelion goes . . . I'm confident that it grows with the spruce but cannot remember seeing it with the subalpine firs. But, I don't get up very high, very often . . .

Steve

We had dandy seed set in a SW-facing aspect lawn at daughter's school mid-April. We used it for a board meeting in mid-April when discussing the efficacy of a buffalograss lawn we installed.

Dan

So, you are thinking that I will have to go back to the full-on blooming of the common lilac or the leafing out of the black locust as an indicator of last frost?

The only other one I use here in the yard is the blooming of the wood hyacinths. It always seem that those open up when we are finally due to have warm weather. However, my wood hyacinths are in the shade of varying amounts wherever they are growing here. Some plants still have not quite bloomed.

What about the German iris . . . ?

Steve

Here, I'd go with the leafing out of my white oak tree, or maybe the Rose of Sharon. They're just now starting to break the buds.

In reality, I check the tea leaves, and look for when the last full moon is around the month change from may to june. This year, my tomatoes were so over-grown that there really wasn't much choice - they had to go out. Still have the peppers in pots, they'll wait another week or so.

This evening, official freeze warning, and its a big effort to cover everything in the evening when the wind dies down, and drag all the hanging petunia pots and containers of geranium back indoors.

I put out the 60+ tomato plants yesterday afternoon. Right now, there's 1 mile visibility, 42F and 8mph wind blowing the fog . . ! Feels like the Pacific is just on the other side of the fence!

The tomatoes went in "ditches" - or, I could say, "trenches" . This will be another lay them on their sides year. I don't really like to do that because they don't seem to want to straighten up later / / / / f / f / S \

Melons, peppers and eggplants are still hiding out under cover. David, will you have eggplants in containers this year?

Steve

I think the phenology depends upon place, there is no universal indicator. The white oak indicator doesn't work here either. But what works here might not work there.

Dan

I'll do just 6 containers of eggplant - I have some saved-seed variety, I don't recall the name, that gets to be, maximum, the size of a baseball, but I pick it smaller. I'll get 6 - 8 fruit from a plant, vs 1 or 2 planted in the ground.

This year, its the big peppers-in-containers experiment, and the rest of the container fleet is devoted to that. And a tentative, toe-in-the-water huge pot experiment with okra.

Here, local folk lore has it that its safe to plant when the snow is off the Sleeping Ute mountain and the north side of Mesa Verde. Tthey got a fresh coat of snow last week.

Well, we are under a freeze warning tonight. A low of 31 predicted. After 5 days (and nights) straight of 25 - 45 mph winds, the plants and I are getting a bit weary.

Came home from Grand Junction this evening, saw the forecast, and ran out in the dark to put a row cover on the stuff in the ground, and bring all the containers into the garage.

Checked NOAA's climatic normals chart, and found that there is a 90% chance of a temp of 36 degrees by May 24th for the town closest to us. So that means the odds of a frost tonight are less than 10% ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Climate normals for Colorado

We're at 28F this morning. That wind over the last few days has been brutal - thankfully the dust hasn't been that bad because of the recent moisture. But still enough to cut visibility down to

I focus on the 32F, Bonnie, but it becomes the "town closest," or to the hill above the town, to the neighborhood, to out front/under the tree . . . The frost will form on the roof of the vehicle in the driveway but there will be none on the lawn on the other side of the fence - with the same blue sky above.

We can say that the dandelion, or any plant, is simply responding to what has been happening in its immediate environment. Of course, that is not a 100% indication of what "will happen" in its environment. But, what can be valued in the phenological signs are the immediateness in space and time of plant responses.

About 30 days ago, something happened which set another something in motion for the plant. Given certain conditions, another so many days will pass and something else will occur.

I suspect that some of these environmental prompts are no more than a few weeks in the past. The plant's internal processes are set on a course that show results in a fairly short time.

The Weather Service's measurements cover a century, or so. Averaging indicates frost, or near frost, or hard frost. This year's data hasn't yet been recorded. One of the criticisms of the WS is that, often, even this decade's data hasn't been factored in.

Nevertheless, we are coming down to the greatest influence on spring warmth of all: the sun and the angle of the sunlight on our environment. The calendar is our indicator of that but I cannot ignore, the dandelion.

Steve
linked below are observations made over the previous decade by a community group in Minnesota. it is truly confined to place. i assume that the "first dandelion" is a recording of the first dandelion bloom, not the appearance of seed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Signs of Spring: Maplewood, Minnesota

Climate is generally analyzed at a 30 year time period. One years' worth of information is only going to affect the data and statistics a bit. An outlier only makes a fatter tail, not anything under the main part of the curve. That said, I think our tails are getting fatter, especially when you look at the last few years. ;o)

Dan