Blossom & the climate

[Stephen]

Here:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60220661
Maybe we can get some things planted earlier although the report only covers hardy plants.

[oldherbaceous]

The trouble is, even with hardy plants, if they start growing early, then it does the same as last year with all the very late frosts, it does a huge amount of damage!

[Westi]

I was pretty concerned with so many of my plants not stopping flowering the end of last year, in fact my marigolds are still flowering. My concern was the plants would exhaust themselves reducing the display this year so I just treated them like normal & cut down the roses & the new dahlia's normal time. (Took every flower & bud for vase displays). I left the established dahlia's do what they wanted as I knew they had huge tubers as it was this year to split them. I also got caught out with a really late frost which is really unusual down here & it nipped so many plants that just could not recover so I was well behind as I hoped they would survive. I know now not to bother limping them along & to just re-sow.

I think it is difficult to assign everything to global warming when comparing dates in the past as in some places pollution was even worse than now. I also think some people think the temp will just go up each year, but there will be fluctuations year to year with just the mean temp over a decade or so to register any increase.

[robo]

I think we are in for a shock there is still time for a proper winter spell just because we are having a mild spell means nothing

[Primrose]

Much as I dislike the cold weather season I,ve read that global warming and shorter winters will put our tree population under a great deal of strain, especially the bigger more mature trees because they need an adequate length of dormancy and rest for their survival in the same way that we need adequate periods of ret/sleep too. I suspect that this also helps slow down inherent diseases which occur in tree populations.

It,s must be very disheartening for fruit growers to see their trees festooned with blossom which is subsequently killed by frost which is as bad as not having sufficient insects to pollinate the flowers, whixh of course is also becoming a major issue too.