"starman" wrote in message
...
Here in northern Ohio, all of the the trees in this area still haven't
budded, and the ones that did have stunted, shriveled, discolored and
frostbitten leaves.

Temperatures the past month or so have been way below average, and the
area
was hit by a snowstorm just last week. Is it safe to say that the trees
are
dead for this season?

My sister lives in Lake County. According to her, the trees are normal for
this time of year. That is, they are blooming and leafing out as expected.
I have noticed a lot of tip die-back on shrubs and younger trees here in SW
Ohio. I spend part of the week pruning dead branches as part of my general
spring clean-up effort. The weather has been unusually cold here - about
10F lower than normal. We are under a frost advisory for tonight and
tomorrow night. I often have my annual planted by this time, but I wouldn't
consider doing so for the next two weeks after looking at the extended
forecast.

If anything is responsible for damaging plant material this year, I think it
would be sudden onset of cold weather around Christmas followed by a couple
of weeks of unseasonably warm weather in January, followed by a sudden,
extended cold snap.