December is now on track to break several records for temperatures and lack of snow. But with all things concerning Mother Nature, there can be good and bad news.
The good news is that warm temperatures are helping local greenhouse growers recover from high heating costs run up by weeks of extremely frigid winter weather during the first months of 2015.
"We are just kind of loving it," said Harry Lockwood, an 85-year-old greenhouse grower from Hamburg who is using the mild weather to finish reconstructing greenhouses destroyed by the Snowvember storm.
"Nut and bolts and things like that with no gloves... it has just been great!" added Lockwood.
Just around the corner at Ronald Draudt & Sons Farm, Craig Draudt said the warm temperatures are saving the farm thousands of dollars and will help even-out the high costs of winter earlier this year.
Easter and Spring plants are already starting to come up inside the greenhouses, but some outdoor plants are also blooming - causing a lot of concern to gardeners and homeowners.
"We have been getting calls. Lilacs are blooming, tulips, daffodils are coming up and cherries are blooming. So, really the advice we have is there is nothing we can do about it," said Marcia Totaro, business manager for Lockwood's.
Totaro added that most early blooming plants will still probably survive winter when it finally comes, but some may not bloom again in springtime.
"Tulips and daffodils will probably rebloom in the spring. Lilacs and flowering trees probably won't rebloom but it won't kill the trees," said Totaro.
In some cases, people will just have to wait until Spring to see what happens. "Some years you have good years, other years, you have things like this that are going to be challenges," explained Totaro.
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