Posted on 04/14/2008 5:58:01 AM PDT by stan_sipple
MARION – All of this cold weather is freezing the start of the gardening season. Now, outdoor fans are eager for a warm-up.
"I'm 71-years-old and I've never seen spring come this late," Robert Ciesleck said.
Ciesleck and his family look forward to gardening together every spring. This year, they're not sure when they're going to be able to get their hands dirty.
"When it starts getting into mid-March and April, then things should change fast, but not this year," he said.
On a typical Sunday afternoon, the Culver’s greenhouse would be packed with people, but the recent cold temperatures scared away a lot of customers.
"All the plants are right here. All you can do is come and look for now. I'd hate to take any home quite yet, but it's getting really tempting,” customer Rhonda Kaczinski said.
Cold temperatures aren't the only problem. This winter's snow and ice storms drenched the soil and left it soggy.
"If you can pick up a handful of soil and still wring moisture out of it, it's too wet to plant," Culver’s employee Sherri Baldonado said.
Even though it might be too cold for flowers to take root, Culver's employees recommend buying plants now and storing them in a warm place like a garage.
"I have a saying for people -- If you see it and you like it, take it now, because it may be gone the next time you come back," Baldonado said.
Ciesleck and his family eventually found a few plants they like, and they plan to visit the greenhouse again soon.
Even if we do get some warmer weather, a spring frost is still possible all the way until mid-May. Culver's employees try to warn all of their customers about that possibility.
OMG - global warming..no global cooling..no global changing...no global warming...and so it goes.
And don’t forget to buy your GE lightbulbs - the mercury laden killers mandated by the feds.
GLOBAL WARMING?
Store the plants in Al Gore’s garage.
He's in Iowa and I am in central Illinois.Not much difference in the climate, maybe he's forgetting the hard freeze we had on the 10th. of May that year.
“That year” - 3 years ago.
Paging AlGore. Someone actually needs your hot air.
I remember a certain April 15th snow storm in central Iowa in the early 70s. I was 100 miles out, on a motorcycle.
There's a reason why they always tell you not to plant annuals or tomatoes till after memorial day up here and it's not global warming related.........
He hasn't paid attention to much in the last 71 years. I tell folks every year that there will be a freeze around tax day but they never believe me and yet every year it freezes.
Yep. Hoping the snow’s over with so I can plant the tobacco.
I don’t know about the cold but its been the DAm&^D windiest year I can remember!
Why can’t the weather just stay the same everyday. It’s all mans fault.
Ping ... to Weekly Gardening Thread
Things are coming up slowly here in Indiana. It will be late for planting this year.
Of course, it could just be Hillary and Obama have brought the “coldness” with them to our state.
Is it too cold to plant because there might be a frost, or are a few nights of cold temperature bad for young plants even if it does not freeze?
We got down to the upper 20’s last night here in IL.
Damned Globull Warming...
Scott’s Miracle Gro said this morning that sales are off due to spring planting season not arriving on time.
I remember a major snowstorm in New Jersey around this time of year in the early 1980s. I was in elementary school at the time, and our Easter break that year started one or two days early because school was closed.
Note the actual quote from the greenhouse person:
“Even if we do get some warmer weather, a spring frost is still possible all the way until mid-May. Culver’s employees try to warn all of their customers about that possibility.”
The story is complete bull. A TV reporter with no story so he or she makes something up about spring arriving late.
We had snow covering the ground yesterday up here near Green Bay.
I am guessing the poor guy is senile. I remember two feet of snow in mid-April back in the early-mid 1990s.
Oh yeah, the weather is not the climate. But the amazing number of idiots on both side of the climate change debate don't understand that.
No thnaks, I take my mercury in fish.
Without Brett F.... there’s going to be more cold weather in Green Bay.
Here in east central Illinois our honeybees use the main dandelion bloom for their spring population buildup. The typical main bloom is about the first week in April. Have not seen a one dandelion yet. Supposed to be 70 later in the week though.
Well they are here in Southwestern IL (about 85 miles south of St. Lou)
The damn henbit is everywhere to! (really bad this year)
Help, help! The sky is falling! Quick, the government will fix it...
sw
Get with the program!
It's a "Global Climate Crisistm" That's why you need to buy indulgences..I mean "carbon offset credits".
CAN we make a RULE on Free Republic....tell us WHAT STATE we’re talking about!!! Too many places having the same problems.....and I have no idea where Marion is....even went to the source and couldn’t see it.
Just talked to a pal in Appleton. Complained about snow...
I am in Southern Alabama. We might get down to 32 degrees tonight and have frost. Very, very unusual to be this cold this far along in the year in the DEEP South, almost Gulf Coast place I live in.
Now, that doesn’t mean it can’t get that cold here in April, just not very often. Still, it puts a damper on all the hysteria about global warming. Our normal last frost date is February 27th. The chances of a frost this late is arouund 1-5%.
National Geographic issue that had “cowboy” Robert Redford on the cover, I remember it well. Of course the sky was falling and we were going to die from a nuke reactor meltdown
i listed topic as iowa discussion
It’s a “Global Climate Crisistm” That’s why you need to buy indulgences..I mean “carbon offset credits”.
indulgences....Yup-—it is like the The Temple of GCC. And we all are forced to pay dues to this cult whether we want to or not.
What is up with all of this henbit? It is competing with the wild violets all over my front yard.
AH....I just figured it out - at the bottom....thanks.
Appears henbit loves cool weather.
Gardening Ping!!!!!!!!
Which is usually followed by global warming; weez on the fastrak now babee!
It was 95 at my house yesterday - San Diego suburbs. I’m dreading summer. The older I get, the more I don’t like the heat.
It probably inspired this:
“Amazon.com
What’s most inspiring about Earth in the Balance is who wrote it. It’s a big deal, after all, that a sitting senator was willing to write, “We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization.” And that’s not all. In his 1992 book, Al Gore also wrote:
I have become very impatient with my own tendency to put a finger to the political winds and proceed cautiously.... [E]very time I pause to consider whether I have gone too far out on a limb, I look at the new facts [on the environment crisis] that continue to pour in from around the world and conclude that I have not gone far enough.... [T]he time has long since come to take more political risks—and endure more political criticism—by proposing tougher, more effective solutions and fighting hard for their enactments.”
Well we have had so much freezing rain and rain this year in SW IL that is doing really well here. The wet crop fields are loaded with henbit because the farmers have not been able to get into the fields to till it in and plant their crops.
The purple flowered fields look pretty but the stuff is taking over this spring.
The best thing is to pull it up or till it in before it goes to seed.
“t’s a “Global Climate Crisistm” That’s why you need to buy indulgences..I mean “carbon offset credits”.”
LQTM (laughing quietly to myself)
Last April, we got a really deep freeze, in the teens for four or five days. I’ve been more cautious/patient this year, expecting this could happen again. I’ve planted a few cold hardy things, but am waiting on quite a few things. It’s gotten in the low 30’s the last couple nights, though thankfully not so cold as last year.
One of the local apple orchards went out of business last year after a warm February and late April deep freeze. Hopefully the same does not happen to others this year with the more mild freeze.
That's a great idea all those huge bails of money and blank carbon credits make fantastic insulation.
Things may be warming up soon. According to the daily sun watch site (http://solarcycle24.com/) a solar cycle 24 sun spot may have been noted today.
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