Slowly but surely, Spring is coming. Down here old General Lee saw his shadow this morning and ran for his bunker but he can't stop the flowers!

Yesterday I saw the very first callery pear blooms. That's the wild version of the domesticated Bradford pear. Last year the first ones popped open Feb 4. It's amazing how consistent they are year after year.



And the wild daffs are doing their thing out in the yard despite several freezes. They don't seem to mind.

We've still got snow flurries forecast but the Winter Daphne is in full bud. I can bring the buds indoors now and have them open, slowly releasing their scent. My pink camellia is blooming now and hyacinths are poking up. Spring is on its way but slowly up here.

Punxsutawney Phil also saw his shadow, unfortunately; that means six more weeks of winter. (edit: he didn't but I didn't know that when I wrote this.) Heck, up here there's always six more weeks of winter after Feb. 2. I do see the tips of daffodils coming up, but that's a long way off. I love seeing you southerners' pictures of spring.

It's already smelling like spring here

Nan6b wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 3:53 pm Punxsutawney Phil also saw his shadow, unfortunately; that means six more weeks of winter. Heck, up here there's always six more weeks of winter after Feb. 2. I do see the tips of daffodils coming up, but that's a long way off. I love seeing you southerners' pictures of spring.

My news here said that Punksatawny Phil didn't see his shadow! There were a lot of shadows from the media light, but they said that he didn't see his shadow. They were joking about it, saying that we probably won't get 6 total weeks of winter here, given the temps we've had!

I saw that Punksatawny Phil didn't see his shadow, and forcast an early Spring, also,

In Massachusetts no matter how awful the winter the peepers would start up by March 25th every year.
Makes me think it was day length in addition to thaw that woke them up.

I got some bad intel ; Punxutawney Phil did not see his shadow. I'd really like spring to be just around the corner! (Not sure how that critter could have missed it yesterday; it was sunny here for the first time in ages.)

I think you are confusing things a bit Nan. He didn't see his shadow but that does mean an early Spring.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/weather/ ... ar-BBZzkPz

Today, it got to 63° here, and nothing in the 2 week forecast lower at night than 29°. So I uncovered my bed of greens, and left it uncovered, for now! I pulled out some, and today, I started some seeds - earlier than ever! I usually don't plant my brassicas this early, but, since it is so warm, and nothing exceptionally cold is in the 2 week forecast, so I assume it will be warmer than usual. And I am trying cauliflower again (I really haven't had great luck with them in the past), and those will be in some larger pots.

So I planted a couple of Fioretto cauliflower, and a half dozen of Pinetree's cauliflower mix, plus some Red Dragon - a red napa type cabbage. Also, some redbor kale, and some early leeks in the larger pots. The others in the smaller pots are kohlrabis and some lettuces, plus some red streaked mustard. I still have 6 small pots left, so I'll find a couple of others to put in those.

It looks like spring will be early, but I figure if it suddenly gets so cold, that these things won't make it, I'll just plant more! These are tiny and cheap seeds.