Greetings,

Do any others feel like you're WAAAY behind this season because of the weather? It has been so cold with cutting winds that I keep postponing getting the Milorganite and Alfalfa pellets down.... maybe today. Also, orders need to start going out in a little over two weeks. The soil is still very cold and some dormants are only out of the ground about an inch. The plants have a lot of catching up to do in a short time. Hate to send out small plants, but it may boil down to that or postpone shipping and hate to do that to people in the deep south.
About the only thing it's been fit to do this week is a few "weed patrols" with my trowel. I use Treflan in the fall and spring but the only thing that seems to work with those dratted wild onions is to dig them out by hand with a trowel.Has anyone had good luck with getting rid of the wild onions any other way? They are so obnoxious.

To make matters worse, it has apparently been so cold that not much else is growing either. The deer have been nibbling a few plants, I noticed yesterday. Grrr!! Had to spray another application of liquid fence around the perimeter last night.

I feel better now. Venting is good...... remind me of whining about the cold when it's 100 degrees outside this summer and I'm whining about live-heading in the humidity. Weather - a gardeners' best friend and worst enemy. ...... At least the garden is mulched already or I really would be going nuts.

This was the garden last week:



This was the garden on Easter Sunday - the early daffodils are apparently down for the count after the late snow!



It's hard to know what is a normal season this year since 2012 was so accelerated. This was the garden in 2012 on March 24th. The tulips won't be open here for at least another week or two this year!

YIKES! OK, I'll stop complaining because my scapes are taking so long to develop! I cannot even imagine snow this late in the spring! By the way, Julie, I've recently discovered your blog and am enjoying going back through it immensely. What a great photographer you are! And I absolutely love your gardens, too! What a treat!!!

Julie, what a beautiful garden you have! We are behind in our garden here in NW Ga. (Zone 7) because of the cold March that we have had. Our average temperature in March was colder than our average temperature in January of this year. The good part of this is that it slowed the spring weed growth, and we were able to get most of the weeds pulled before going to seed. We have the fertilizers down, but the pinestraw is not down yet. It is here waiting to be spread. The two daylily beds that I had planned to dig all the daylilies up and amend the soil before the new daylilies started coming got done this week instead of in March. This afternoon I will be planting new daylilies in the last of these two beds which should hold 72 daylilies. We have had a few really nice days with temperatures in the upper 60's and low 70's which are making the daylily foliage really grow. I want to get the pinestraw down before the foliage grows too much, but new daylilies MUST get planted. Tomorrow we are to have rain and highs in the upper 40's, but then the temperatures will go back up. March is the most unpredictable month of all. I am thankful that we did not have a repeat of last year when our March was more like April or early May followed by a cool April. If I am confused by what is "normal", what must the plants be "thinking"?

Julie, your way ahead of me. My witch hazels are still blooming, hellebores and crocus too. Daffodil foliage is up, but just the tiny species one is starting to bloom.

I started a bit of clean up yesterday. It is in the 30's here today - but going out in a bit to do some more clean up.

I found some preen in the garage yesterday. I like Snapshot but I don't think I'll be able to afford it anymore now that I no longer work.

I'm trying to figure out if it is to early to plant sugar pod peas, or to late to put pansy seed in.

Julie I sure wish I could come down there to VA and see your gardens. They are so beautiful in your photos!

--Juli

We are way behind last year here but I prefer it that way. Last year it got too warm too quick and the daylilies bloomed out too fast. We have had a lot of cold the last few days with a chilling cold wind too.

I think it's a "back to normal" year for early spring. The temps last year were unusually high in many states with dormants up in February here in 7A. Still 78 days until summer.

Our normal for today is 71. It's 45, cold and raining. We are going to warm up this weekend but we've had nearly 30 days way below normal this year.

My daylilies are atleast a month behind last year. Like everyone said, last year was a record for warmth here. It was warm but still it was cool enough that I had fantastic seed pod setting. I just hope this year isn't like it was in 2011. That year it was cold like this, then we had maybe 3 weeks of what I call warm weather while the daylilies grew and set scapes. Then about the time the blooms started, it got up to 95 degrees and pretty much stayed that way or hotter all during bloom season. I set about 10% of my crosses that year. So, I sure hope we don't have a repeat of 2011.

Spring is really late here too and both yesterday and today were cold. We had a warmer spell last week and supposed to warm up again in a few days. I can't wait.

Things seem behind here as well. It was 21 this morning according to the weather reports I checked. I spent the day driving from New York back to South Bend and there was snow flying in Pennsylvania!!!

I live in this zone as well and its been awful...not only cold but here in Tn we are underwater....which is good for my daylilies but messy for everything else...It iced last week over half an inch and today its 73! this crazy weather! It has burnt all of my star magnolias and quince bushes....waaaaaaaa! LOL at least my Kwanzaan peach trees had the good sense to wait to bloom...most of my daylilies are still dormant...id say i wont peak bloom this year till the middle of june.

Oh and a side note...anyone seen any hummers yet?

Thanks for the reminder about the hummers. To be honest, although I've always heard that they move north with the azalea bloom ( and my early azalea is just opening) this hadn't crossed my mind with snow on the ground just this past Friday AM. But we're supposed to have nice weather this entire week - HOORAY!!!! It's about time. Daffodils are now going strong and a few more days of warm weather ought to push the tulips into bloom. Maybe bloom season will be on a normal schedule with peak around July 1st......