When is the average last frost where you are? When I lived in Portland, everyone believed that the last frost was always on Tax Day, April 15! Is this a saying anywhere else? Now I live in Northern California, where there's never any frost. Not in my corner of it, at least.
Dreaming of springtime, Crystal Bucher
First of June or so! Cheryl Londonderry, NH
Tax day winston salem nc
Dreaming of springtime here as well. Northern New York - last frost the end of May - beginning of June.
JonquilJan
The USDA has all kinds of charts with average last frost dates. Why ask?
I forget. We are getting a frost this coming morning, damn it. This is the only thing I really hate about North Florida, the frosts: too frequent. No really really hard ones this winter, but I hate them.
Mark., it's not zone 8b for nothing snipped-for-privacy@gator.net
How about the URL?
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May 15th. sed5555 in Denver, Co.
Average last frost date in my region is March 6, but I don't ever trust that as anything can happen. We safely go with March 15-20. For sure by March 30.
I think I read that here in Nashville (Zone 6b), last frost date is usually considered either 7 or 12 April. For the last couple of years, I don't remember a frost in April at all. But you never know about these things. Growing up in Memphis, we got the largest snowfall in recorded history on April 18th (I think). It was 18 inches back around '68. I'm sure Nashville got plastered as well. It was a funny thing. Just this week, we got 7 inches of snow just a hour SOUTH of here. Nashville got nary a flake.
What hurts us is the late March hard frost that we always seem to get. It occurs right at the peak of marigold bloomings. Usually screws things up good, especially since mid-March is usually quite warm. That's why I usually wait until mid-April to do my serious spring pruning.
Not all serious pruning should be done in the spring. You may know this, but some may not. Pruning shrubs and trees which bloom in spring should be pruned after blooming or you remove the flower buds. Roses can be pruned in February in the south, or mid-south. I'm not sure about higher north. I never grew roses up north.
Currently, in my garden things are blooming. Lantana is still blooming in some spots, yarrow, bluebonnets, catnip, Rosemary...etc. All of the petunias are in full spread bloom, so are the larkspur.
And why does USDA list US rainfall and temperatures in metric numbers?
I was only referring to roses. And I was specifically speaking of spring pruning, which is 99.6% of my rose pruning (with the exception of the occasional one-off pruning of dead wood or special situation pruning). The only plant I have that gets pruned after blooming in the early summer is my Sweet Briar Rose. Everything else I have is either a climber or more than once blooming. But I wouldn't prune my roses in mid-February because I'd just have to prune again in April. We have several deep frosts to go and a few light ones as well. I was just down to 29 the other night, for example. We'll get a good hard frost usually in the third or fourth week of March. And I'm in the "mid-south".
In Wisconsin the last frost is July 31. First frost, August 1.
The pertinent term is "average." It's April 15th here, but no guarantees implied. In my experience, the last frost is earlier, but it *has* been later. Doesn't mean one pops tomato plants outside on the 15th, but instead starts doing prep for planting tomatoes and thinking hopefully. The first warm weekend, the parking lot at the garden center is full, as if the temperature rises reliably and constantly from late March 'til the end of July. Yet actual weather often seems to be "unseasonable" in terms of temperature, rain, snow, etc.
Marigold bloomings in March? When do you plant your marigolds?
Farmers Almanac lists Nashville's last frost date as April 5, but my neighbors don't put their tomatoes in until April 25. I'm usually a dare devil and put them in around April 15.
It's beautiful here today. I hoed around the garlic (transplanting some of the chickweed from my neighbor's garden to mine) while he tilled. A very pleasant hour and probably more productive than my removing moss for my garden and transplanting it to the mossy front yard.
Kate
If your first planting of tomatoes doesn't freeze occasionally you aren't putting them in early enough. Push the envelope (but provide them some protection). (Also, plan on a couple different plantings of tomatoes).
[Here in MA, we've had frost as late as Memorial day and as early as the week before Labor day, so think of us while you're planting]
Oooops, I didn't mean marigolds. Sorry. Brain lockup. I meant narcissus. I don't know why I occasionally mix up the names.
Sorry!
Very cute. Wonder if there's any connection? ;) I don't know about a saying, but I used to hold out on buying new flowers until after I'd filed my taxes, which was usually at the last minute, of course! At least it kept me from filing an extension. ;) Last year my son walked me through filing them online at taxbrain.com, and it was so easy that I went back to the site this year and have already finished my 2003's. Now I have to wait another month before I can even think about planting, grrrr! Maybe procrastination was better after all.
Deena
~remove 'queen' to email me~ I'm actually just a pr>
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