My Brunnera is not completely up as large as it should be but it's blooming already. Tonight, though, we are to go down to 26. My plant is next to the house, in a protected area so it should be all right. We did cover the Maiden's Blush lilac that is already starting to bloom. I hope it will make it without cold damage. Linda

I went for a walk here this Sunday. Temperatures were in the 60s. I saw several Mourning Cloaks and Question Marks. The Question Marks were fighting over territory. Sandy, nice photo! It reminded me to bring a camera out this weekend. However, my shots are very far away. Geni, a Cloudless Sulphur, cool. We are seeing a lot of those here in Southwest Ohio. They are supposed to be strays here but they are definately breeding and we see them consistently through the end of summer. Supposedly they migrate in fall as well. Keep looking, spring is definately on it's way here! Elisabeth

I have a feeling you are not going to have any dahlias this year. Your dahlias should be starting to bud, even bloom by now. I would certainly contact Swan Island so that you can get advice and a guarantee of good bulbs for next year. Did you verify that the tubers you got had eyes on them? Personally, I have had the worst luck buying tubers from mail order companies. I have been growing dahlias for about 10 years, and the best ones I get are the ones I buy from Home Depot and Lowes. I have bought from some of the best rated dahlia suppliers, and they do not grow well. I planted 14 tubers this year, and none are in bloom and at least half of them are too small at this stage to grow enough to produce blooms. And the cool spring and early summer certainly did not help.

Dorothy, I'm about at the same place you are in terms of planting cool-season veggies. I hope to get everything exc. broc and taters in the ground today and tomorrow (with the assistance of my 2-year-old GD, so that slows me down a bit). My broccoli seedlings are about at the same stage as yours, and I hope to get my potato bed soil ready tomorrow and plant next week after the forecasted stormy period of Sun-Mon passes. (It won't bother me if the rain misses us.) Megan, The latest OSU-recommended planting dates for most cool-season crops is March 10th. Of course, you can plant later, but the later you plant beyond the recommended dates, the greater the chance your crops won't produce as well as those planted on-time. Potatoes do pretty well as long as they go into the ground in March, and broccoli does the same. Direct-sowing peas is tricky. Peas grow best in cool soil and cool air temperatures, but germinate best in warm soil. That's why some of us start our peas indoors using various methods to get faster germination than we would outdoors, and then transplant them out quickly so they can grow in the cooler conditions they prefer. Look at Tom Clothier's chart on soil temperature's effect on seed germination that I've linked below. For peas, you'll see that it takes peas 36 days to germinate at a soil temperature of 41 degrees, 14 days at a soil temperature of 50 degrees, and only 8 days at a soil temperature of 68 degrees. Right now, according to the OK Mesonet soil temperature charts, the 3-day average soil temps for most of Oklahoma are in the upper 30s through upper 40s, so peas direct-sown now will germinate fairly slowly. So, if you direct sow, expect germination to be slow. Because our spring weather air temperatures can get too hot fairly early, peas need to be sown as early as possible to get a good harvest. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's Germination/Temperature Chart