Weather Warning for the rest of February.

13 years ago

The Weather forecast for the rest of February beginning Saturday in the Midwest is above average temperatures. The jet stream is moving North bringing warmer air. Temps are forecast in upper 30s to low and mid 40s and warmer as one travels South. Oklahoma City, where temps hit a record minus 31 is forcast into the 70s.

After the bad cold snowy winter we've had many will post asking if it's OK to begin pruning. Others will prune then post and ask if it's OK.

Please don't run out and start pruning. Wait until the normal time in your area. The warmer temps may even cause early blooming of Forthysia, the bell weather for the start of pruning. This occured a few years ago in my area in early March. Many people pruned, then lost the early growth when temps returned to normal and "late" but normal freezes occurred.

I resisted and had normal spring growth and bloom.

If the rose buds begin to swell and start to leaf out, it's OK to wait. It doesn't hurt anything to prune off new growth if you wait until the normal pruning time in your area. Your roses will still grow and bloom at their normal time.

Early pruning and loss of any resulting growth due to that by a late freeze can cause a later bloom.

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Comments (6)

veilchen
13 years ago
Hope the warm weather stretches this way too!
michaelg
13 years ago
Great post by Karl. I agree completely--it's best to prune by the calendar after determining the date for your area, not by temperatures. I used to keep notes on the dates of the last rose-damaging freeze (around 27 F). It's fine to prune about two weeks before the average date of this event. If it's warm the first week in March, that doesn't affect the date of the last freeze in early April, or whenever that usually happens in your area.

Long ago my rose mentor told me to prune around April 1. With climate change, I've moved that back into late March. Here the forsythia bloom is usually a little too early for rose pruning, and sometimes way too soon. Our springs are more prolonged and uncertain than those in the Midwest.
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Terry Crawford
13 years ago
I'll be lucky to see bare ground by the end of March with as much snow that needs to melt away...
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
13 years ago
While we here are hoping (as always) for rain...
bethnorcal9
13 years ago
Cracks me up. As soon as the weather gets warm, everybody and their brother comes in to Ace buying fertilizer, seeds, weed killers, etc. We've had unusually warm weather here the last several weeks. It's more like March or April temps. Everybody loves it, and they tend to forget... Winter ain't over yet!! Always happens here. We get a warm spell and then a few weeks later, it could snow! Ya just gotta sit it out, enjoy the warmth for a bit and leave the dang plants alone til spring REALLY gets here! It's funny... even with this warmer weather, I still haven't felt that wonderful "Spring Fever" feeling yet. I guess I just know the cold temps are not ready to go completely away yet!
karl_bapst_rosenut
Original Author
13 years ago
terryjean,
Let us know when the snow's melted. I suspect it'll be much sooner than the end of March.