January showers and a stretch of warm weather bring January flowers

It may still say January on the calendar, but judging by the eye-popping bounty of early blooms around Metro Vancouver this weekend, we can all be forgiven for thinking spring hadsprung.

And if those earlydaffodils and crocusespromptyou toshare your joyon social media you might want to beprepared for some seriousblowback from the rest of the country who are experiencingextreme winter weather conditions, with no end in sight.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, theaverage temperature was a fulldegree warmer than normalso far this January, according to CBC meteorologistJohannaWagstaffeupfrom 4.1 Cto5.2which she calls"a substantial bump."

The weather lookahead for next month? "Above normal temps are likely to continue," saidWagstaffe.

So you have to wonder: Is Vancouverin January supposed to look like this?

We went to master gardener Brian Minter for some answers.

Are thingsblooming early this year?

They really are. This has been an exceptional January getting up to 11, 12, 13degrees in January with sunshine is remarkable, and it does have an effect on many plants as in pushing them to flower quite a bit earlier.

Is there a danger to early bloomingplants and flowers?

February can be notorious. The onething we worry about in the nursery industry is that a lot of the buds on the early blooming perennialsand trees and shrubs start to swell, and when you get a sudden frost with a dramatic change in temperature you're going to find some burning and some damage.

What can people do to protect their plants from a sudden frost?

There's one magical thing. There's a protective cloth called N-Sulate, and it has the cold hardiness rating of 10 C. In other words, that'll add 10 degrees to whatever you're putting it around.I mean, that is significant,and if you don't have access to thatmulching around your plants is very important.

Is there anything people should keepin mind during this warm, dry spell?

Your neighbours are going to think you've lost it but watering in January is a really good thing to doparticularly under eaves where things are very dryand in containers as well. Keep them moist.