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It sounds poetic, doesn't it, but why is there a rose arising and starting to bloom in my garden in January? The seasons seem entirely shot here in South East England.

Having pretty things out there, like roses flowering and my fuchsias still in bloom, is all very pleasant but it is about time I worked out what crops I want to grow this year and I am wondering how the altering climate affects the wisdom on when to get things going and when to plant them out.

With temperatures they way they are the moment, I reckon I could probably get some things going right now but they would have to be protected from gusty winds and I wouldn't want to lose the labour if a cold snap does come.

How are other people adjusting to the new seasonality?

Wulf

I'm planning to try some drought hardy crops this year, a more mediterrean feel I think. The allotment has no water on so every drop had to be saved or carried and that made it a real headache. I'm also going to do planting through brown paper with chipped bard/mulching over the top. All this planning will probably result in the wettest summer for the last 10 years!

kind thoughts
Deb

We used to regularly have roses through the winter in Manchester... garden was pretty sheltered though and didn't see much frost.

Daffodils in the garden are well under way. They are a spring flower, but surely this is far too early - it's still (apparently) the middle of winter.

As I write, my next door neighbour is out cutting the grass.

yup - our grass needs cutting - altough its still too wet - and we have had primroses out since December... and roses since we came here in Sept.

spring is springing now.. with leaf buds showing all round

I also have roses noticed them yesterday thought they were odd

My roses haven't stopped yet!

What's more scary is that my mimosa is in bloom 2 months early and there are bees buzzing around it!

We had a rose blooming in the front garden over Xmas. There is a tree blossoming in the village, and Ina also has a tree in blossom in her front garden, but as I dont know what the tree is, i don't know if it is supposed to.

Down our lane there are buds starting to break out on the trees, and yesterday we had a midge swarm in the back garden.

It was slightly cooler than this last year at this time, but then in March, we were snowed in.

I have been tempted to platn as well, but March is worrying me.

The latest forecasts I saw suggest it may be getting colder later this week. We'll see...

Wulf

I spent yesterday on the backporch swing in shorts and t-shirt reading. A balmy 75 degrees and it is kinda freaky. I kept looking at the garden, wanting to put in some seed and see what would happen, but didn't want to waste the seed just in case. I usually start planting cool crops at the middle of February.

I have a friend that works in the nursery business a few states north and he said they are changing their planting zones due to the temperature changes. We are currently in zone 8 and they were a zone 5, now a zone 7.

The trees are budding, Iris, Daffodils and crocus are up but not flowering yet. This will wreak havoc on the peaches and strawberry crops if we do have a freeze. California is having fits with the weather. Looks like citrus fruits will cost a small fortune this year.

Good luck!

That's interesting to hear that you are having mild weather in the US as well.

Our bulbs are starting to come through and it hasn't really been harsh enough to kill off the annuals we planted for colour, we had gazanias flowering up until december!

Spoke too soon. Down into the 40's today, then calling for freezing rain and sleet on Thursday. There goes the peach crops! Citrus groves in California are freezing. We are usually in the low 50's in winter here, so 40's aren't so bad, but we have been up and down all "winter" here. I don't think there has been any snowfall on the east coast yet this year. Not good.

I am probably best described as timeless... because I rarely know what time it is, usually only just manage to keep tabs on which day it is, and months much too often sneak up on me - so, when it comes to seasons there's not much hope that I ever know which one it is.

That being said, folks around me kind of adjust and eventually accept that when I say "You'll need to let me know the day before" they generally are good enough to do that.

Our Aboriginals have never had a static calendar, we do have seasons but they are marked by environmental changes (earlier/later days in relation to the sun, the movement of animals, and the arrival of the rains... that kind of thing) and that kind of suits me better. My mate once bought me the Yates gardening guide which he insisted was the Aussie 'gardeners bible'. When I finally worked out what zone I was in and started doing as suggested - it was way out of whack, so I just put it on the shelf and there it has stayed.

There has been absolutely nothing consistent about the weather over the past few years here. For a long while there I knew to expect rains round my birthday - as I celebrated quite a few birthdays in the middle of cyclones for a while - but the last few years there hasn't been a drop at that time of year. When I spoke to some oooooold farming guys, they say that's normal and insist that our climate has been maintaining 7 year cycles since this area was first developed, and folks keep stuffing it up because they keep trying to find patterns in 12 month cycles. Dunno, all I do know is I have no control over that, so I just do what I can when I can and see what happens.

they do say that if no weather records were beaten - that day would be a record... or in other words.. there are always cycles and changes

Here theya re predicting a really hot sumer as it fits in with some 7 year cycle - so I guess there are always fluctuations.

still its seems the weather has been through some big changes in the last few years.. its hard to not relate them to climate change.