Same thing here. Zillions of buds and lots of color showing but only a few open and it has been this way for two weeks. We had some cold nights a week ago that stopped them in their tracks so now the ground needs to warm up just a bit more and voila...an explosion. In the past the first flush usually peaked here about June 10 and this year it will be at least two weeks early so not to complain.

Congrats on the new babies, they look good. I had one seedling whose seed leaves were fused along one side. They continued to grow into a cup shape for quite a while but no other leaves ever appeared and it finally died. Even though it takes a long time for a plumeria seedling to reach blooming size the plants grow fairly quickly. I have plants that I started last May that are now almost 2' tall with a 1" diameter stem. At least they aren't nearly as slow as a clivia from seed. Now that's a slowwww plant. Karyn

Debra, both of those seedlings are wonderful! It's so good that they increase well too. I'm up for color posts. Except for cleanup of the garden (which for us is a monumental task), we are done moving daylilies for the season. Bob got up most of the landscape fabric yesterday, tilled the areas, and now we need to sow winter rye there. I predicted we wouldn't get many seeds this year, but, boy, was I wrong. We harvested over 3000 seeds this year. That's not our highest number, but I have really cut down on the number of pollinations we do. Of course, we have started working with dips and they are so much more fertile than the tets. Nancy

My witch hazels typically wait almost two seasons before they show flowering happiness or disgust with their growing conditions. The growth often jumps ahead or is stunted depending on how the plant is treated, but the flowers seem to lag another year, so I suspect you'll see a better show next year if the plant has been happy. I moved one last year and growth in the spring was stunted, but the bush set many flower buds for this year regardless. I'm expecting it to grow normally now, but barely flower at all next year. A droughty summer can also show up as a sparse blooming year two years later. This is my experience for the hybrids btw, I don't know if the native sorts do the same. Actually they're pretty slow in general when it comes to reproducing. The seeds take about a year to ripen and then a year and a half to two years to sprout once the seed pods explode and release the seeds.