Short stems / weather impacts?

All,

I was asked to post this to DaffNet:

Another wonderfully squirrely weather year in the far South

Dead of winter was really warm, ended by a hard cold snap; also drought was ended by heavy rains in the fall

This year, many flowers are running 2-4 wks early

The ones blooming earliest opened on incredibly short stems

Those running closer to on-time (still early) are on regular length stems

The assumption is the warm weather triggered the early blooming (esp after the rains ending the drought) – what ends up happening to make the stems soooooo short?

Also, when does a cold snap need to happen to bring out the really vibrant colors – in the deep south Orange is rather a joke; it was expected with the warm weather the colors would be poor, but instead they’re good… Can anyone speak to when the cold needs to happen to get the colorant to form within the flower’s life cycle/formation timeline?

-s