When temperatures were reaching into the 50s in January, it caused celebration for all but two groups: skiers and flowering plants.

Skiers complained about the unusually warm temperatures, but they could ski elsewhere. For the flowering plants, though, it was a matter of life and death.

During a warm spell, plants fool themselves into budding earlier than they should, said David J. Beattie, assistant professor of ornamental horticulture. When the normal winter freeze returns, it can kill the whole plant or plant parts.

Plants need a certain number of hours in a dormant state to change their physiology before they can begin growing again, said Beattie. This amount of time varies among plants, but the temperature must remain below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

"By the time February or March rolls around the plant really wants to grow," he said.

Plants respond to the environment, so when the temperature rises, the buds start to swell. Beattie said this process is called dehardening, where the buds lose some of their ability to withstand the cold temperatures. The danger is if the buds swell early, they may be exposed to the freezing temperatures they can no longer withstand.

Beattie said he did not think the warm spells early this winter had caused any significant harm. Steven Dubois of the College Gardens Nursery agreed, saying the mild winter has not forced any of their buds out.

The unususally warm winter has also not been a problem for the Way Fruit Farm, according to part-owner Brooks Way.

"The reason it didn't hurt us was that the ground temperature didn't get high enough; the frost had not come out yet," he said.

The warm spell in January was beginning to concern Way because of his peach trees, which react quickly to warming trends.

"We came within a few degrees of serious problems," he said.

Although he is confident the peach trees were not affected this year, he was not so lucky in 1982. Due to similar early warm spells, the farm's 12 acres of peach trees yielded only five peaches.

Though spring is near, the flowering plants are not out of the woods yet. Beattie said an unusually warm March or April followed by a late freeze could be trouble.

"We can still get frost in May up here," he said.