Cleared out a south facing garden patch of underperforming Irises and hardy Hibiscus (bequeathed to my Crawford County-dwelling brother) the 1st week in November and replaced them with ~ 250 Narcissus/Jonquil/Daffodil, Hyacinth, & Tulip bulbs.

Saw the first two (2) Daffodils (?) poking their heads up through the soil ~ 11:30 a.m. CST; went out ~ 3 1/2 hours later and there were 7-8 more.

Also heard the inimitable caterwauling, and visual confirmation, of a Sand Hill Crane along Odana Hills Pond.

Here Comes The SUN!

The Gotch

Meteorological Spring began yesterday so your bulbs naturally understood this. Sandhill Cranes, I haven’t heard them in a few days, what’s the flight time from 29.0591° N?

"what’s the flight time from 29.0591° N?"

Depends on prevailing winds, connecting flights, and if they have to deal with liquored-up passengers...

The Gotch

i am in a different world it seems.
28 inches of snow on the ground.
only thing poking up is the height of the snow banks.
BUT, it is getting sunnier outside.


keith

Overhead the geese are honking their way north, buds are beginning to get chubby on shrubs and trees, there is no frost in the ground and we have had several days in the mid seventiesF this week. We are on the way up nort to watch our 12 year old granddaughter play in the Minnesota girls hockey regional finals where they still are in the middle of winter. After getting back home the flower beds covered with straw for the winter will get cleared off. Spring is on the way but we most likely will have at least one more snowstorm at 40.3977793. Historically at the Iowa State Girls basketball tourney there is a blizzard and that is coming up this week.

Lots of snow geese around here right now, working their way back north. My garlic went in late and as of Sunday it was not up yet, 40.4N here. By next week, I expect.

You people and your talk of spring...well, on second thought, I guess I should let you all have a bit of latitude, ahem.

The ground is still frozen but the snow and ice are melting. It's so nice to see the ground again. I heard my first flock of geese flying last night. My daffodils are still asleep but I don't think it will be long before they wake up.

84 degrees here yesterday. I've never seen it this warm in early March. The crocus and daffodils are up. The male cardinals are in full song. Back to winter next week. We are still in a pattern of an unbelievably warm week followed by a normal winter one.

"My garlic went in late and as of Sunday it was not up yet, 40.4N here."

My Dear Brother (just below you in Newark, DE) got his in late as well, yet saw his first shoots last Friday.

"The ground is still frozen but the snow and ice are melting. It's so nice to see the ground again."

Pulled my first weed yesterday, the still frozen soil refused to release the second.

From the ashes of despair, hope spr...welp, you's get the picture.

The Gotch

Spring is popping here. The "saucer" magnolias (M. soulangeana) are in bloom and the Brqdford pears are starting. Their wild cousins, callery pears, have been blooming for about 10 days already. Daffies are up and blooming and I saw the first couple yellow Carolina Jasmine flowers. Some years the wisteria hanging in the trees around here blooms the same time as the Caroilina Jasmine and that's a beautiful combination. I didn't think to check for wisteria buds. The early azaleas (Snow, Coral Bell etc) aren't far away.

The temperature is supposed to shoot up into the 60's tomorrow. While it will be great for a nice walk and to air out the house, it is far too early for this. I hope that we cool back down and stay there for awhile longer. I don't want to lose the cherry crop again by having the trees blossom only to have the flowers freeze in a normal cold spell.

"I hope that we cool back down and stay there for awhile longer."

You's won't be disappointed with the 10 Day forecast then; expected low Sunday morning (EDIT: Next Sunday/March 12th) 8°F/-13.3°C.

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/Ma ... dde8900b90

Remember ten (10) years ago? Set a LOT of records that March...and beyond for that matter; our Daffodils & Tulips were in full bloom by now.

The Gotch

Saucer magnolias just getting going here and that’s late. Redbuds are late, just now starting their blooming. Haven’t seen any of the main Azaleas even think about getting started yet. My parent’s carolina Jessamine is late, has yet to bloom. Everything is behind two or three weeks here as far as I can tell. Water snakes are usually out by now sunning, but I haven’t seen a single one. No sign of the Largemouth bass spawn yet either.

Heard some snow geese north bound just yesterday evening.

"Heard some snow geese north bound just yesterday evening."

Good news! We'll keep a light on...

The Gotch

MissS wrote: ↑Fri Mar 04, 2022 1:20 pm The temperature is supposed to shoot up into the 60's tomorrow. While it will be great for a nice walk and to air out the house, it is far too early for this. I hope that we cool back down and stay there for awhile longer. I don't want to lose the cherry crop again by having the trees blossom only to have the flowers freeze in a normal cold spell.

That happened last year, and really damaged the apple crop locally. My neighbor's mature apple tree had nothing, for the first time. My two trees had one apple each, and the new pear - while full of blooms - only produced one fruit too. So I too don't really want to see an extended early warm spell trick the fruit trees into blooming early.

"That happened last year, and really damaged the apple crop locally."

If you's don't mind me asking, which County/TWSP do you call home?

Anywho, last year there was a Memorial Day weekend freeze...LATE for here.

Not sure who to blame, but ~1/4 of the tomato starts had (ahem) already been planted and there were a couple of nights when they had to be covered up with five gallon buckets and five quart ice cream pails. Lesson learned? You's can never have too many of THOSE around!

Two years ago we had a Mother's Day freeze. After much ado about something, it became painfully clear that getting a tarp up-n-around our already blossoming ~12 foot/3.7 meter July Elberta Peach Tree wasn't going to happen.

I ended up training a large fan on it, aimed strategically upward, all night; no visible damage to those delicate blooms, but the crop was horrible notwithstanding.

OTOH, the Meteor Cherry Tree did not receive similar attention; for reasons which escape me, it emerged unscathed.

The Gotch

MissS wrote: ↑Fri Mar 04, 2022 1:20 pmI don't want to lose the cherry crop again by having the trees blossom only to have the flowers freeze in a normal cold spell.

You may remember a few years ago this happened to a lot of the California olive crop when it was very warm in February and the trees blossomed, followed by a March freeze that killed the entire crop in some areas. I remember reading at the time (perhaps at Olive Oil Times) something from one of the UC ag centers that the problem was only going to get worse, as the average temps were going up faster than the last frost date was receding.

EDIT: I may have those months wrong above, the point was it was warm in the winter and the trees blossomed earlier than normal.

Setec Astronomy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 05, 2022 4:32 am

MissS wrote: ↑Fri Mar 04, 2022 1:20 pmI don't want to lose the cherry crop again by having the trees blossom only to have the flowers freeze in a normal cold spell.

You may remember a few years ago this happened to a lot of the California olive crop when it was very warm in February and the trees blossomed, followed by a March freeze that killed the entire crop in some areas. I remember reading at the time (perhaps at Olive Oil Times) something from one of the UC ag centers that the problem was only going to get worse, as the average temps were going up faster than the last frost date was receding.

EDIT: I may have those months wrong above, the point was it was warm in the winter and the trees blossomed earlier than normal.

Yes these early warm-ups and then freezes and frosts really do play havoc with our crops. Food is scarce enough and prices are soaring that we really do not need any major crop failures this year. Let's just say that I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things even out quickly and get back to a more normal weather pattern.

Not sure who to blame, but ~1/4 of the tomato starts had (ahem) already been planted and there were a couple of nights when they had to be covered up with five gallon buckets and five quart ice cream pails. Lesson learned? You's can never have too many of THOSE around!

I was doing the same thing, having put 14 tomato plants & 18 peppers in during the early warmup. I almost ran out of 5 gal buckets, had to dump a few out that were being used for storage. Fortunately the peppers only needed ice cream pails... and because my job often had cake & ice cream fund raisers (and gave me all the empty pails) I had plenty of those.