Poor frozen Daffodil. Why didn’t I pick them all yesterday? Winter has come calling once again, bringing just enough frozen stuff to make things dangerous. Around here, it doesn’t take much!
These Almond Tree blossoms won’t be here much longer. Temperatures around 20F have likely led to their demise and they’ll all shrivel up and drop off in the days to come. The small tree was almost in full bloom. It produced a crop of about six nuts last year for the same reason — early warm spells that produced early blooms.
Birds of various shapes, sizes and species were out at the crack of dawn today, picking their way through the yard, looking for seed left over from yesterday. They got more today as the feeders were quickly filled, food was tossed about for the ground feeders and the last of the suet was placed in strategic locations. We’re expecting another round of icy precipitation to come through later in the week so a new batch of suet will be whipped up sometime today.
This may be today’s high. Quite a difference from the warm weather we had the latter part of last week.
The Transmutational Garden 
The recent early warm spells triggered so many flowers only to have them succumb to late cold damage. You at least made everything look gorgeous for now. We’ll have to wait and see how everything plays out longer run. We got a little less cold and no measurable precipitation. We need rain!
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Our precipitation ended up measuring less than a tenth of an inch. It just melted and made the ground slushy, nothing went into the lakes. The Daffodils straightened up and look brilliant today — I don’t know if they managed to survive or if there’ll be a delayed reaction! Two nights of 19F wasn’t good for anything!
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It always heartbreaking to watch a late freeze once the garden has started to bloom. Hopefully, as you say, this week’s freeze will be the last one
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Hopefully! But not likely. 😦
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Oh, so frustrating to have your crop of almonds killed before they are even out of bud. This is a pattern that has been happening here as well to our peaches and apples. It scares the heck out of me. This is our food we talking about!
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I wondered about the peach crop in this area, as many times the trees will bud out and then we’ll get some really hard freezes. There have been years that the growers have burned piles of tires in the orchards for heat to try to save them. But apparently they haven’t yet budded out. It won’t be long, though.
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Shame about the almond tree blossom. Winter often has a sting in it’s tail so to speak which makes me wary of planting or sowing outside yet awhile. xx
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So true. I have a number of bulbs that I’m supposed to plant between mid-February and mid-March (so says the instructions). I’ve been leery thus far. I don’t plan on planting them only to have them freeze or turn to mush!
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Sad about your almond blossom. Let’ s hope this is the last of the winter.
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It would be nice, but I won’t hold my breath!
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It’s so frustrating for the gardener and tragic for the wildlife and plants when warm temperatures and longer days trigger budding, only to be nipped with a really hard freeze. I’m wondering how the peach farmers will fare here in Central Texas, though our temps aren’t nearly what yours are. Stay warm–may the botanical force be with you. 🙂
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Thanks! The peaches in this area aren’t budding yet, but it won’t be long.
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