What signs of Spring do you see in your part of the North?
Most of the snow has gone at least temporarily here.
Can see some plants now. Sweet William, Heleborus, Pinks.
It was okay for while, then yesterday it snowed lightly, then rained lightly (the roads were murderous) then the sun came out and melted it all, then we got his with a sleet blizzard with wind plastering the ice and snow against our windows. Interesting weather to say the least. But definitely of the spring variety - at least for us.
No signs of spring here yet but that's to be expected at 5800 feet elevation here in Idaho. It's at least another month for me. I have been drooling over seed and plant catalogs and have ordered enough seeds and plants that I'll probably have to enlarge flowerbeds or add new ones.
running low to mid 20's here at night and up to mid 40's and low 50's during the day. So stuff is melting like mad but ground remains frozen. The azaleas are showing budding leaves though. Not sure about that. You would think that tree peonies would do the same. Except my little azalea has been there for two or three years so maybe it has extensive roots. The apple tree looks like it wants to bud leaves also. The Arabis is green of course and it actually has some tiny buds and one or two open blooms. it is my earliest one to flower here. Aubrieta comes along next. No sign of spring bulbs yet (crocus).
I have started some plants in the greenhouse (garage) that I got from a nursery in Tennessee. They are plants that do well here in our botanical garden so I thought I would give them a try. Strange that I could only find some of them in TN. They send bare root with some growth. Also have my begonias in dirt. The meconopsis came out of the fridge along with the Shirley poppy seeds. Shirley's germinated and are busy growing under light. The meconopsis could take forever to germinate. I keep them spritzed and hope. I have a gazillion poppy seeds gathered from last year that I should be WS and out before we are truly out of winter cold snap. Been saving egg cartons to try this year. that way I can just pop the seedlings out of the egg carton in one glump and then thin as they grow in the ground. Also loads of plastic fruit, salad, etc containers with tops. Mostly just to germinate in. Also want to start some cold weather vegies like spinach, Pak Choi, lettuce in the garage.
Another sign of spring: The Home Depot hardware store has "expired" Christmas Cactus plants on sale for $1.50 (I bought one that had new flower buds forming on the scars where the original blooms had died off ). At the moment, I'm digging-out from a 12" snowfall, so I can't see the garden - it's somewhere under the white stuff.
Name: Margaret Near Kamloops, BC, Canada (Zone 3a)
We had about 4 inches of snow on Tuesday, then it warmed up, Wednesday we had a couple of brief showers so a lot of the snow melted, sunny today and about 42F so lots of melting, mostly just the piles left now. I am hoping to get the crabapple trees pruned soon, that's usually my first big spring job and my least favorite.
We get up to the low 50's every so often, and 40's are not unusual but it keeps dipping down to the upper teens or mid 20's at night. Our recent dup is still laying around turning to ice. Makes walking in the back yard treaturous. sp?
Oh, violas?? Johnny Jump UPs?? They are really tough little guys. About at the same level as chickweed. I really want to get the preen going early. Although that darn chickweed is coming through green even now. It is from last year but if it doesn't die the preen won't do me any good.
There's a massive melt going on here! With mild temperatures over the past couple of days, 12" of snow has disappeared into the ground and the streams. My pond runneth over. Honeybees are out looking for that elusive first flower and picking up anything that looks like pollen, such as dust from the corn on the bird table. The birds think it is spring. Red-winged blackbirds arrived yesterday, and this morning DH spotted wood ducks and hooded mergansers on the open water in the middle of the pond (most of the pond is still iced-over).