YAY! Signs of spring somewhere! All very welcome to see. I wish I could smell that honeysuckle. We have tons of snow here....just shoveled out from the last 2 snowstorms and are now expecting another round tomorrow. It will be a long wait for some of us til we see signs of life in our gardens so we appreciate your pictures and hope you will show us more! Thanks, Avedon! Celeste

Wow that's cool Verena, snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) are a tender perennial, so I guess yours had a nice easy winter and are ready to get going again. If they last through spring freeze/thaw, they should flower for you again no problem - I wouldn't rely on seeing them back every year though. I was really surprised to see my thyme (Thymus vulgaris as far as I know) still alive in its pot on my deck this spring - I didn't think it would overwinter around here especially in a pot. This was the easiest winter I can remember, for warm temps combined with heavy snow cover... we must have had about a zone 6 winter I think. My Rosa gallica versicolour has emerged from the snow, with only tiny tip freeze where it poked out of its burlap... looks promising! But the offical report of the OBRHD will not be until May ;0)

Mike, I hope they're right. I still don't feel like the cold nights are really over yet. Last year, I felt they were over this early, and they were...but this year I'm just not feelin' it. Reed, Would I trust 39 degrees as my forecast low and would I go ahead and put plants in the ground with that forecast several days out there in the forecast? No way. I regularly see frost or even freeze damage on tomato plants even though our low temperature stayed above freezing. There are technical reasons for why this happens, but it is not all that rare. A particular set of circumstances has to come together for it to happen, but based on my experiences here, I'd say it happens at our house fairly often. Keep in mind that we are talking about your forecast temperature, but your plants will have to deal with the actual temperature that is recorded. Forecasts can be wrong. Official temperatures are recorded 5' above the ground, but plants grow in the ground and the foliage is above the ground but below that 5' level. Since cold air sinks, your temperature at ground level where the plants are can be significantly cooler than your official low temperature. I assume when they forecast a low temperature, the forecast is for 5' above ground since that is the level at which the NWS records actual temperatures. Also, objects cool off faster than air does and their temperatures can drop lower than the air temperature, so plants can have frost form on them even when the air temperature stays above freezing. At our house, which I know is in a low-lying microclimate, we often have plant damage even when our own thermometer just a few yards away from the plants (posted 5' above ground) records overnight low temperatures between 33 and 38 degrees. So, I've learned to wait until it feels safe to me to transplant tomatoes, and I don't feel like it is safe if my forecast lows still are in the 30s or even the very low 40s. I try not to let one warm week trick me into going ahead and transplanting....but if a pattern change holds for 2 whole weeks, in my head I declare winter over and go ahead and start transplanting if my 7-day forecast looks good after 2 weeks of nice weather. I also know that the temperature forecasts change from day to day, so just because your forecast has a 39 for a night next week, that doesn't mean the forecast might not drop lower before that night gets here. I have low confidence in NWS temperature forecasts. Last week our point forecast for our specific part of our county was 29, and we went to 23 degrees and had a hard frost. That's pretty common. It is part of the reason I base planting decisions more on recent observed temperatures and trends than on forecast temperatures. Dawn

Well, I've seen geese the past few days... but today I hit the triple-header (comes from being able to work with a window for a change, perhaps): snowdrops are blooming away, the grackles are here, and my first robin in a very long time made an appearance and broke into song. Unfortunately, the snow melt revealed I've got moles or voles in my front bed, home to columbine, astilbe, crocus, tulips, hyacinths, coral bells, and some jacob's ladder. ARGH!