I've always heard of "Dogwood Winter", "Blackberry Winter" and I think there's one other. Anyone knows which comes first? The old timers named them when we get a cold snap after it's been warm. Thanks.

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), April 03, 2002

Answers

Hi Annie. You know just today while at work the guys were outside for lunch and they were commenting on how warm it was outside. I looked at the thermometer and it read 64 degrees. Then when work ended everyone was saying how cold it was and I said, "what do you exspect, it is the end of winter."So my guess is the third name is, "End of winter." how's that for smarts? LOL

I will be sending you an e-mail soon about the new goat babies and other things happeneing up here in New Hampshire. Also, you really have to make it to Boston sometime if at all possible, it is great there. George a.k.a Thumper LOL

-- george nh (rcoopwalpole@aol.com), April 03, 2002.

Hi Annie. I just sent you an e-mail but I am unsure if it went through or not, having problems with this computor,or aol :-( Let me know if you got it ok. If it didn't go through then exspect an e-mail within the next day or two. Talk to you later. George

-- george nh (rcoopwalpole@aol.com), April 03, 2002.

Okay, I haven't heard of either one. What are they? (since we don't have dogwoods around here, I suppose it's not surprising.) I've heard of Strawberry Spring. Sudden warm spell when the snow is still deep on the ground and everything turns to fog.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), April 04, 2002.

Hey George, got the e-mail! It's working fine.

mmmmmmm, now I'm wondering if the "winters" are just a SE Ky. or Southern thing. In the Spring when it woud warm up, and would be warm for a spell, we would always have a short cold snap (just a day or two). She would always remark what "winter" it was. Maybe it was when the particular plants were blooming? I wonder if the old time gardeners used this as a barometer on when to plant things?

I did ask my mom and she can't remember which comes first and if there were any others. And since she didn't garden, I don't know if these applied to gardening or not. Funny, when you hear something all your life, you never think much of it and you also think that everyone in the world hears the same things! :)

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), April 04, 2002.

Blackberry winter, I've heard of; it must be one of the fairly late ones, 'cause Granny always said we couldn't take our undershirts off for the winter til after Blackberry winter - and we were always suffocating in them by then! Something about when they bloomed??

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), April 04, 2002.

Well, I called my oldest sister and asked her, and she said there are 3 "winters". Redbud, Dogwood and Blackberry. The oldtimers called these cold spells this because they seemed to always happen when these particular plants were blooming. Still haven't found out if or how this might have affected their planting, though.

Thunder, oops George :), think I'll add another one to my list and call it "End of Winter" winter. Maybe when the azaleas bloom? :) Miss Polly, if I remember correctly, your kin folk were from Ky., so it must be a Ky. thang. :) Your grandma must have been like my mom and was afraid we'd catch pnemonia in May! My mom also called it pnemonia weather, on top of it being blackberry winter. Sheesh!

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), April 04, 2002.

I've always heard Blackberry winter----good to know the other two. In England they call a spell like that "Blackthorn winter."

-- Jeff (lorianandjeff@aol.com), April 14, 2002.

Hey, I found this message board searching for "Blackberry Winter" because that's the name of a jazz standard I've been learning on the piano. Judging by the lyrics, with lines like "what became of May?", it seems like Blackberry winter is a cold spell in very late Spring, that "only lasts a few days." Anyway, it's beautiful song, check it out.

Michael, Brooklyn.

-- Michael Muench (indigo23@indigo23.com), April 28, 2002.

Greetings!

I live in Tennessee....and just today visiting a fellow's wife at the local hospital, we were discussing the various winters. They come, according to him, in the order in which the following bloom.....well, except that britches don't bloom! An old timer had just recently informed my friend of the 4th one!

Dogwood winter Strawberry winter Blackberry winter Woolen britches winter!

Have a Blessed Day! James Bell

-- James Bell (familymiracles@aol.com), May 04, 2002.

Hi James, thanks for the info. The blackberries are blooming and we have had a cold spell, so it must be the one we're in now. I sure hope the woolen britches winter isn't any colder! :) brrrrr.

Welcome from another Tennessean! I live in East Tenn., Sevier Co., are you anywhere close?

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), May 04, 2002.

Miss Annie, our blackberries are blooming and we've got a cold front moving in! I'm going to mark it on my calendar so I know when it'll be safe to get shed of my woolies next spring.

Gotta go rummage through those boxes of winter clothes that I put away last week; to find a sweater to wear to work tonight..

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 09, 2002.

http://kyclim.wku.edu/factsheets/folklore_sea/ here is what I have always heard.

-- gary hawkeye (hawkigw@wku.edu), May 13, 2002.

Thanks Gary, that's just what I was looking for. Seems the old timers weren't so dumb after all! They didn't need weathermen. :)

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), May 14, 2002.

Blackberry winter is this week(today is May 20) in Montgomery County Maryland. Where I walk my dogs there are blackberry bushes in bloom and the last two nights there's been frost warnings, after a delightfully warm April and the first twq weeks in May.

HD

-- H. D. Johns (hdj1@erols.com), May 20, 2002.