cold temps delaying perennials

[Steve Bakken]

Just wondering if anyone else is having this problem. Several of the perennials in the wife's flower garden havent shown any signs of life yet. The hardy ones like the daylilies and irises are going strong but stuff like the russian sage and the campanula (canterbury bells) are doing zilch. Are we that delayed or should I plan on going shopping for some new plants. When we got pounded with that 7 inches of rain last August some of the plants actually lost all of their leaves from being so waterlogged. They came back, but I'm wondering if there wasn't enough energy left in the root to regenerate this spring.

[LwnmwnMan2]

From what I've seen in my properties, we're about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks behind a "normal" season.

Yesterday we mowed a Senior high for the first time this season, and about 40% of it still could have been skipped for another week.

If you look around, there's still a fair amount of trees that are still just showing VERY small buds.

I've got some places that want me to replace bushes, but I've told them that I'm holding off until at least June 1 before I we make any decisions on which ones are dead, and which ones are just being slow to go.

[Abrams]

All my stuff is way behind give it another week.

[Dotch]

Hey Steve! Good to see you on here again. Been meaning to stop in and visit with your Dad but have been on a whirlwind tour this spring seems like. Our stuff is S-L-O-W too. Not sure exactly where you're living now but I know our iris, tulips, tiger lillies, day lillies, horseradish, hackberries, spruce, etc., are all way behind. Just this morning I noticed the first of the wild plums starting to bloom on the road cut east of the house. That's usually a mid to late April event in SC MN. Checking the GDU accumulation for May thus far at the SROC and the few accumulated in April (base 50) and soil temperatures they keep record of, it's no wonder things look the way they do.

http://sroc.cfans.umn.edu/research/soils/climate/daily.html

Like these guys said, wouldn't give up just yet.