While it was nice having an early spring last year, it had a large downside. When the temperature dipped again, and we got that nasty frost, many plants got hit with it, particularly the apple trees and others of that sort. My Butterfly Bush looked like it was pretty much toast (recently planted there), but even though it had only one or two small green leaves on it (the rest had shrivelled and died), it ended up recovering and grew a nice size.
Hopefully this spring has the warm weather come up gradually, without having that frost hit the plants again.