We had a week and a half of 80F or near 80F weather and are headed back there by the weekend. I and seeing a lot of fig plants beginning to break dormancy, and this weekend will probably really wake them up.

Sorry to hear about the snow and ice coming to the east coast.

Jon that sure is great winter is over already?
Just not used to hearing that in January but if thats the case and figs are starting to break dormancy all i can say is great and please send some of that weather westward and a little north.
An old song comes to mind

California Dreaming

My mistake i  meant east, it was late when i posted that !

Fresh coat of snow/ice here this morning.

Monday is Groundhog Day.  Let's see what Pux has to say.

I wish it was Spring around here!
 
25* right now, Ice everywhere!

Cheer up, Cecil; Martin and I will have to wait a little longer than you will for spring.
However, I don't envy the ice you have - I'll take snow over ice any day.
Pux will say 6 more weeks of winter, I'm guessing.

Hi heirloom,
 
I feel better now (misery loves company)
 
And I know you are right about Spring getting here quicker than at your place and Martins!  I use to run to Hastings quite regularly, even been known to travel all around Martins territory also! And YES I'll take snow over ice anytime too.

>>> Winter Is Over
Did it (winter) ever start in balmy SD?
If not, what did it do to your figs?
Were you able to prune/produce (dormant) cuttings?
How about UCD, are they experiencing the same weird weather?
If so, it may explain why recently they seem to ship their cuttings later and later.
As for myself, I just finished shoveling some 4" back-breaking heavy-wet snow...

gorgi,

We had about 2 weeks of quite cold (for us) weather in early January, which brought dormancy for most trees. So I took cuttings (and still have some more to take), and the cold waas followed by the nice warm weather, which got everything excited. I am sure we will have some more cooler weather, yet, but the trees have committed to Spring.

Northeast sounds like it will get quite ugly, again. Housing is a lot cheaper here than it was, so it is a good time to move.

If you are like me, and you don't quite trust good old Pux, you can look up your frost/freeze data here:
http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim20supp1/freezefrostpage.html
Just select your state from the menu (scroll thru to find your state) and it will open up a pdf for your state.  Find the nearest city/station and there you go. 
So spring is May 6 for me, statistically speaking (10% chance of a 32 F freeze).  Guess I have a little longer to wait.  Like 14 weeks.  Or 98 days....ughhh...it sounds like a long time when I think about 98 days.

Thanks Heirloom,
 for me 10% chance May 16th sounds pretty close as a rule of thumb we usually do not plant any vegtables until after mothers days (May 10th this year) when the danger of frost has past, if i calculated right thats about 102 days from now (OUCH)
Either way though my tree's will have budded by then if memory serves me correct i never really kept track before though, all i know is i will be wheeling them in and out of garage onto the driveway for air circulation and sun until danger of too cold passes, so all in all less than a hundred days for darn sure i will be doing this!
Gorgi, i know what you mean about snow another several inches fell on us also and thats on top of what we have which is quite a bit to melt come nicer weather darn it!

Most of my trees went dormant the 2nd week in Jan. After only 2-3 weeks they are breaking dormancy. I have one tree with 2" of growth and 3 huge leaves.
I also have a few trees that never went dormant.

I received 2 Alma cuttings from UCD last year. Both have the same amt of growth and are next to each other on the BBQ table. One went dormant, one still has all its leaves. Go figure!

So is this short dormancy period going to adversely affect fruit production?

We are expecting 77F Friday.

Sue

Not that i believe in this stuff but for conversation the groundhog saw his shadow. Its been getting warmer in my area a little we have been reaching into the 20s lately for the daily high. Winter is still here for us though for a while.

Although both my front/back lawns are still covered with snow; recently,
on a bright/cold day,  I just heard a couple of (red) Cardinal male birds singing (thereby claiming their territory and/or senerating females)
for breeding - a sure sign for the soon to come spring...

ALSO! A hungry (wild) bee just flew inside my small GH. Hope she
finds some nourishment from the few flowers available...

We had a nice little break yesterday with the temp up to 65, but I'm afraid it's back to reality this week (snow in the forecast).  I heard a Mourning Dove, and saw several Robins yesterday, but I think they spend the winter here.

 George, I went out on our front porch this morning and heard some Cardinals
making a strange noise, it sounded like it was coming from Tampa, [wink,wink] at first I didn't recognize the sound, then a light bulb went off in my nearly empty head...I NEVER heard a flock of Cardinals cry before........

Uh, glad to hear about the weather in SoCal John.
Here is what we dealt with last week!
You guessed it: those piles of hay in the lower left are a couple of my winterized figs!
HOOP HOUSE in April, here we come!

On the other hand, I just heard on the news that many Florida iguanas
are literally falling off the trees! Iguanas, being a cold-blooded reptile,
rely on local sunshine/warmth for their metabolism. But with the current
cold spell, they could not hack it. They are NOT dead - just stiff and immoble.

Ciao,  We are going to have temps in the 50's well into next week with lows in the upper 30's.  Feels like I can breathe again!!!!  I plan on doing some yard work and washing windows.  This has been the hardest winter I think I have had in a long time with the cold Ice and snow.  I hope that Punxy phil was wrong, I have a feeling he may have been.  Ciao Ciao 
My Two larger figs that are inside in pots  have decided to wake up.  My smaller cuttings rooted this fall and also inside are all leafed out and full and growing well. I have been putting them into a sunny window to gradually harden them off.  All the figs are doing great.  I only have one, the Peters honey ( big )that has signs of RKN.  I will do some pruning on its roots this week and give it a hot hot bath for a few minutes.  Also was told to put Sugar into the mix after  I discard the dirt and and repot him up in a new pot.  Did anyone ever hear this method? 

Well, finally starting to see more signs of spring around here:  geese flying north, robins begging for any food they can find, and a few tulips pushing their first green buds out of the ground in protected areas.  The temperatures are starting to sneak into the 40s more often too, for daytime highs.  But we're still in the teens and 20s at night. 

Gr Grr and more Grrr,
my favorite meteoroligist just stated we are going to get between 4 and 9 inches of snow starting tonight depending how far noth or south of the city you live.
Believe me it looks nice during Christmas but now this snowfall were having this year is getting old quickly.

Forecast is for 50 degree temps thru next wed or thursday and taken snowblower and garden tractor and put in shed, hopefully will not need snowblower anymore. By doing this it enables me to bring the garage stored figs to near the overhead door as weather breaks a little more i can then easily wheel them in and out onto driveway for a head start they now have bedsheets off them now for some light and have been root pruned. 
We have flashflood watch now for the weekend with thunderstorms and periods of heavy rain.
Later next week around thursday or friday we are expected to get some Canadian colder air visit us so it will be in the 30s for a spell but this trend is happening far less now.
Its getting better little by little and having less cloudy dreary days.

I'm with you Martin. It hit 65 degrees today. It took everything I had to stop myself from getting out there, pushing the snow out of the way and starting to prepare the planting beds for spring. I've been peeking at the potted figs I have in the shed looking for signs of green!

Well, with highs in the mid 70's early this week, and the crane migration in full swing, I know it is springtime now.  Here is an interesting link: 

Crane Migration