Community Corner

Thank Mild March Weather for Early Arrival of Flowers, Plants, Farmers Markets

Growing season is as much as five weeks ahead of schedule, with the warmest March in Illinois' history. Farmers markets in Wheaton and Geneva will open one week early.

On more than one day this March we collectively pinched ourselves and double-checked the calendar. Was it really March with temperatures in the 80s? Because of the early warm weather, plants, flowers and budding trees are weeks ahead of schedule. The warm weather has enabled farmers to get into their fields earlier than normal, the Illinois Department of Agriculture reports.

And, this bodes well for farmers markets, some of which are going to open early because they will have produce to sell. Two area markets planing early opening dates are in Wheaton and Geneva. 

Leslie Cahill is Midwest manager for Bensidoun USA , a company that manages markets across the country including the ones in Wheaton, Geneva, Western Springs, Lisle and Glen Ellyn. She told Patch that the word from some of her growers is they can be open for business early this year because of the warm winter.

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So the Wheaton French Market will open April 21 and run a week longer to Nov. 10. It is held 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays in Municipal Parking Lot 3 at Main and Liberty.

The Geneva Sunday French Market, which traditionally opens in May, will open April 22. It is held at 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays through October in downtown Geneva at the Metra train station parking lot.

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The Illinois Department of Agriculture reported March 26 that warmer temperatures and below normal precipitation throughout the state have allowed many farmers the opportunity to get into their fields earlier than normal. Forty-four percent of the oat crop has been planted, along with 1 percent of the corn crop. Many farmers were busy prepping fields for planting and performing spring nitrogen applications. Winter wheat conditions have improved and 78 percent of the crop is now rated excellent to good.

When temperatures hit 81 on March 14, it was the earliest occurrence of 80-degree temperatures in the 135 years since area weather history has been recorded, said Ed Fenelon, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, Chicago office.

March 20’s high temperature of 85 degrees combined with the low of 63 is the kind of weather that is normal for the Fourth of July, Fenelon said. The month is the warmest March in Illinois' history. The Chicago area had eight days of temperatures 80 degrees or higher.

At the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Tim Johnson, director of horticulture, said plants are four to five weeks ahead of last year. Blooms that are usually spread out over the spring season—like forsythia, redbuds, magnolias and even lilacs—are starting to occur simultaneously, in a sense condensing the spring bloom season.

“It’s a very exceptional spring season. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never seen plants acting like this,” Johnson said. 

Johnson said the carpenter bees have already become active, and they usually don’t show up until mid-May.

Freeze Would Harm Fruit Harvest

The weather outlook for this week and next is for continued mild weather. However, according to weather statistics there is still a 70 percent chance of freezing temperatures after April 12, Fenelon said.

“Were keeping a close on this, because there is a big concern with the trees leafed out and flowers up. Fruit trees and all sorts of things are starting to grow and are at risk of freezing, so we want to give as much advance notice as possible,” Fenelon said.

Gardening Clean-Up, Pruning Starts Early

Johnson said the early season is creating some havoc at the Botanic Garden.

“We have a lot of work that needs to be done and it’s compressing the time frames for doing it,” he said. For instance, certain plants need to be pruned when they are dormant and they are coming out of dormancy too quickly.

Johnson said Botanic Garden staff members are reporting that the grounds are dry and will need watering soon.

“It’s very unusual to think of watering in March,” he said.

Johnson recommends that home gardeners mulch around their plants to protect from a potential freeze and cover any special plants with a blanket in the event of freezing weather. “If there’s a freeze, there’s not much more you can do other than cross your fingers,” he said.

Home gardeners should get an early start on pruning and cutting back perennials, but should be careful not to damage new growth, Johnson said.

“When cutting back ornamental grasses, cut higher than normal,” he said. 

Dahlfors said home gardeners can get an early start with cleaning up their garden beds and even planting early season crops, like lettuce.  “Hey, just get out and enjoy it,” she said.

Is the Heat Due to Global Warming?

The historically warm weather is not directly related to global warming, Fenelon said.

“You wouldn’t associate one week in March as global warming. Global warming is a bigger trend; it’s bigger in scale, but it’s certainly happening,” Fenelon said.

However, some studies do show a greater frequency of extreme weather events associated with global warming, he said.

Does the warm March mean a hot summer? Fenelon said, statistically, a warm March has no relation to whether summer will be warmer than normal or cooler. However, there is a slightly better chance that summer will be warmer if followed by a warm winter.

The state’s climatologist Jim Angel and Richard Castro, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told WGN Radio that despite this month’s record-breaking temperatures, there’s no guarantee that this summer will be a scorcher.

Data for the summers that followed the previous 10 warmest months of March in Illinois show that temperatures during those summers were about normal, Angel said.

And while April is expected to be slightly warmer than usual, it probably will be more in line with the fickle weather that is typical of spring in northern Illinois, Castro said.

"It would be hard to have something as extreme as March,” he said. “I’d say the odds favor above normal (temperatures), but not as far above normal.”


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