Signs of Spring in No Cal - as our Meditteranean climate is dry from April/May to Nov, our "wet season" Spring usually starts in Nov/Dec. This year we had the dryest Nov/Dec in recorded history here, but the rains came a little in Jan, and a LOT so far in Feb. Blooming are helebores, camelias, all fruit trees, all acacia trees (hills are solid yellow with them - luckily for me I am not alergic to the flowers, which are no petals, but 100% yellow pollen clusters), Japanese quince, daffodils (but smushed a bit by the rain), hyacinths, some early Iris, crocuses, and of course a few roses - not Spring bloom yet, just blooms on those roses that never stop blooming here like tea-noisettes. Oh, my banksie lutea is starting to bloom way up at the top of the house where it is in sunlight. Other 90% of the plant should start in 2-3 weeks. Rest of the roses are in bud - I can't wait until next month, when they should get serious about starting to bloom.

Jackie

What a wonderful time of year when you feel the first stirrings of spring. No color yet on the daffodils but the earliest ones have buds. I just know this will be a great year for roses.

Ann, I am always amazed how different our climates are, even though we are both zone 6b. We are probably at least 3 weeks or even more behind. Long time still before even protected daffodils will start showing color or maples will show stem growth, or there will be a faint red color at the top of the forest. Every year you post something like that in spring, for example that your early yellows start blooming, or that your forsitias are blooming and each time I notice that we are several weeks behind. No wonder some tender roses (noisettes, etc) survive better for you. I bet your fall season is also later.
Olga

Olga,
In total agreement. I grew up in Culpeper Virginia, and when I'd go home from college here, it was still winter there and that's inland from the Bay and upland as well from your place. (When I was in college in Blacksburg, Blacksburg stayed winter a lot longer than in the Virginia Piedmont.)
This past fall, we entered winter (according to the roses) in early November after drought until mid October. I had essentially no fall growth to be nipped by winter, and that's what I'm seeing in the roses so far. Not that much to take away.
The most damage I've had to remove in spring (excluding the late Easter bad freeze) was when we had an inch of rain every week all year long. Nothing hardened off that year.
This year, if a rose was established in the ground, it seems to have survived drought.
Which is why this spring feels as if it's going to be special (because fall certainly wasn't our best fall. I've had blooms until late November some years and frosted buds into earliest December.)
OT, it has been easy to see which weeds are natives- they made it through last summer so very, very well. Best year I've had for Pokeweed and for horse nettle.

Ha! Daffs. won't be showing here for probably another month!

(Having grown up in the Phila. area, where in protected spots the snow crocus can be blooming now, I HATE THIS TIME OF YEAR BECAUSE SPRING IS MY FAVORITE SEASON AND IT TAKES SO LONG TO GET HERE!

The price I pay for summers that are mostly fairly tolerable, if humid.)

Here at my house in Culpeper County, Virginia, my daffodils are barely out of the ground. I rescued some which were blooming around a destruction area not far from my house. (What was once McDevitt farm if you remember where that is, Ann.)

{{gwi:36082}}

It was 12 degrees when I went to work this morning and 52 degrees when I came home. The smell of spring is not in the air. Maybe it is because of the horse and llama manure I recently brought to my house. My chow mix dog has massive amounts of tufts of hair sticking out all over even though she was just brushed a few days ago. The maple tree where I walk my dogs is budding out. The power company delivered my wood chips a few weeks ago. The hellebore are starting to recover from the bitter cold winter and I do have some iris and crocus blooming.

{{gwi:229973}}

I hope spring wins the tug of war...soon

Kathy

I babysat near the McDevitt farm. And neighbors had a second house near there as well.

Have you ever checked the two main cemeteries in Culpeper for roses? The older part on Sperryville Pike is the one I'm wondering most about because it used to have lots of shrubs, etc.
From what I remember the Masonic one opposite the oldest highschool didn't have that much shrubbery.

Got crocus blooming and daffies showing color.

-Greta, Portland, OR

We have a few blooms on 'Ramona,' and about twenty blossoms on Banksiae normalis. Mutablilis is blooming, too, but it's one of those that rarely stops for us.

We have all of the other bloom that Jackie mentioned. Springs seems a bit early this year.
Anita

My outdoor hunting cat is still fat and fluffy. The very first snow crocus and some violets are in bloom, and some of the roses are putting out red shoots, which I hope they're not going to lose: many of the Teas and Chinas got their new growth frosted a week or two ago. February has been mostly dry and sunny, which has given the sodden ground time to dry out. It feels like it's going to be winter until rain comes; well, there's rain in the weekly forecast, and I'm crossing my fingers! We could still get snow in the first half of March, but--we're getting closer.

Melissa

Winter is still here in my yard. I'm really hoping spring will take its time this year. I think I worked too hard in my yard last year, and I'm certainly enjoying the break. I think these very cold nights are keeping things moving at a slow pace. The longer daylight, however, is getting my greenhouse plants moving quicker...the best of both worlds I guess.

Robert

Robert,
I have to agree with you about more cold nights. Usually, I can dig during most of the winter. I do a lot of transplanting in February. Not this year, ground frozen since December. I seems like its been down to at least the low 20's every night. Maybe this consistency will kill the midge!

I've seen a few daffodils blooming this week and the maples are putting out red new growth. Those miserable weed/tree Bradford pears are starting to bloom. One of the bonuses of tolerating and surviving the hot/humid summers here has always been the milder winters but this year has been a doozy for freezing temps in the teens and 20's day after day and week after week. Add howling winds to those temps and there's a good bit of damage in my garden. A couple of established, years old roses have died to the ground. Mostly HT's and shrubs. Oddly enough, the Teas seem to be fine. I think the cold has even damaged my camellia! The side that is near the house looks fine but the half that is more exposed has crispy/browning leaves. What an odd winter this has been.

Carol

Sometimes in California it's hard to decide when spring has come, even in here in the colder north. My roses are showing red new growth, daffodils and fruit trees, magnolias,daphne, ceanothus are blooming. Does anyone grow Witch Hazel? I have the most beautiful orange Witch Hazel. It's been blooming for more than a month.

Hah-here I am in the supposedly mild PNW looking out on fresh snow. It will mostly melt today though I expect. Pamela, I do have a Witch Hazel. Mine is yellow. It is considered winter blooming here. I love that little tree. The only thing I have in bloom other wise are the true Hazels..nothing to admire but they smell of honey..perhaps it is all the bees on the warmer days. I always think of spring in England-such a wonderful growy smell. The only place close is spring in the Appalachians.

patricia

Usually my first signs of spring are the swelling red buds of the majestic American Elm on our lane. I noticed it about a week ago. And today I saw my first crocus in bloom. We had some bluebirds overwinter here and I put up new houses and predetor-proofed some old ones. Some of the daffs have just begun to show color and the hellebores have been blooming, or trying to, for about two weeks now. The temperature swings have confused them a bit.

I admit the temperature swings have confused me a bit too! Just when I start an outside project I'm back indoors working on a house project. It's OK because I enjoy this time of year so much I can't complain.

Spring is here! Camellias, azaleas, cyclomen, daphne, primroses, spirea, candytuft, tulips, chinese fringe flowers and some fruit trees are in bloom. Some roses show buds (a bit early it seems) and the lawn is greening up. It is great because by February even here spring seems long overdue...
Masha

I forgot to mention the daphne - it is planted all over my neighborhood, and when I went for a walk yesterday I could smell it all along the street - even if there was only one plant per block!

Also forgot (probably trying to forget...) the ubiquitous yellow oxalis! Every vacant lot is covered with its bright yellow, and in some gardens (like mine) it is blooming in neglected corners - very pretty, really, although I had to pull it out of an Iris bed the other day - you couldn't see any Iris leaves, although they were 1-12 inches high under the oxalis foliage.

Also birds - we were visited yesterday by a huge flock of hundreds of cedar waxwings, going after the berries on some very large privet trees. The gold finches are bringing their fledglilngs to the bird feeder - they are so cute - they just sit on the bottom perches, waiting for someone to feed them.

jackie

It's 91 degrees right now, more like summer. The roses are all leafed out except for some of my gallicas. The daffodils are doing their thing. But the high tomorrow is only supposed to be in the 50's, talk about temp. swings.

asian ladybugs in the house ... still waiting for the crane flies...

Hi Pamela!

I have a couple witchhazels, I think they're just about done blooming. The native hazelnut is blooming now (weird little blooms), and my snow crocus are in full bloom, with the big crocus starting to bloom. Daffodils are mostly in full bloom, though the late ones are just now coming out of the ground. Hellebores are in full bloom, purple-leaf plums are just about in full bloom, white-flowered plums are just past peak, and Clematis armandii is starting to bloom. No roses whatsoever here. Also, some species tulips I got are starting to show color. I bought a bunch of fritillaries, and they're popping up, and loaded with buds! I just love them, even if they do smell funny.

I looked on the winter chilling website put out by UC Davis (thanks Paula, that was a helpful link a few years ago!), and noticed that winters here have steadily gotten more chill, 63% in the last 6 years (from about 800 hours to 1400 hours now). I think it's true, some of the fancy tulips are coming up with buds for their 3rd year, usually a sign of good winter chill.

Some magnolias are just barely coming out here, whereas in town they're in full bloom or past it.

--Ron

In Sonoma County CA, roses are pushing out new leaves like mad. Fortuniana, in its sadly overcroweded spot, seems to have several hundred flower buds. Marie Pavie, which I'm happy to see is also evergreen (at least this year!) already has two little flowering buds & a container plant has one. My flowering quince is already almost done except for the eccentric late flowers - I've never known why they dawdle when every one else seems to get all their quince flowers at the same time. The vineyards have shown their wild mustard flowers between the rows for several weeks & I've seen lupine along the highway further North. Now, if only we get all of our rain this year, so I don't have to work out a grey water system that doesn't involve toting buckets of water every day!

I don't know..it feels weird this year here. Some things are pushing too hard with the mild winter we've had. Daffodils are in full bloom, star magnolia, too. Some camellias blooming, hydrangeas setting bud. I saw spirea blooming in the valley below..too early. Makes me nervous for the roses that have had a decent wintering. Usually, this brings on a bad, late cold snap, like Easter a few years back.

Ann, the cemeteries here in Culpeper are pretty sterile - a few boxwood and azaleas is about all they have. There is a cemetery in Warrenton which I visited last fall which appeared to have many different plants. I was actually surprised to find recent burials (this decade) with roses, daylilies, and iris plantings. It seems nearly all modern cemeteries are, for lack of a better word, lifeless. I would love to share some of these daffodil bulbs with you. If you are interested, send me your address and I will ship them off to you. Or if you decide to head east for any of the Mid-Atlantic tours being arranged, I will give them to you in person.

I just ordered a witch hazel for spring delivery. I look forward to it being a harbinger of spring. I did see an odd sign of spring yesterday when I returned from my walk, I found a tick crawling up my sock. I have never experienced ticks this early.

Anybody else anxiously awaiting the sounds of the peepers?

Kathy

Hi Ann,

The okame cherries are in full bloom, the daffodils are blooming. Oddly, the iberis is not blooming and neither are the early dwarf iris. The roses are leafing out and we are past bud break. No snow at all this year, but maybe tonight or so they say. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Jean

Kathy,

I heard a chorus of spring peepers Friday evening. It was lovely. I have gotten ticks nearly year round. Yuck!