We went straight from winter to summer with very little spring. Very annoying, but we have had a little bit of seasonal weather.

kay

In SoCal, we have been very fortunate and this Spring has been relatively wet and mild, not hot so far. Nothing has fried and the irises and roses are lasting forever.
Renee

We had a very warm March also. April is more in line of were it should have been. Still, everything is early this year. I am saying two weeks early going by the fact that the azealeas are starting to bloom now. It is always at the begining of May. Except for this year.

Yes, not much spring here in Georgia either. One week we had the heater on and the next week we turned on the air conditioning. Seems like straight from winter to summer and the plants seem to be way ahead in flowering this year.

Usually the Azaleas are blooming by Easter around here, but this year they are just now in full bloom. We were cold in March and warmer than normal for April, but it has made for a beautiful Spring. I always get antsy about getting the garden planted, it's sooooo hard to wait.

I live in the Ozarks so I know better than to plant warm weather things here! We had way too hot and then a cool down to our normal April weather of 45° most nights and 70's°daytime. Our last frost can be as late as May 10th.

Spring is early here too and very welcome after the serious floods of March here in Massachusetts.

I couldn't figure out the title of this thread--Straw Pole. I thought it was some ethnic custom like a May pole. Finally figured out that I think it is straw poll (not pole), as in an informal, preliminary vote. Hope you don't mind my mentioning it for anyone else who was confused.

YES! No snow here either in March. I usually figure to hold off on planting dahlias until the lilacs bloom (usually mid - late May). They're already blooming!! I've got buds on the iris, I've been watering...I'm just afraid we are going to have April in May since we are clearly having May now.

This is the second year in a row that we've had an early spring. It hasn't been as warm though March and April as it was last year, but last year it then remained June weather throughout the summer. We didn't get a single tomato to ripen last year. The cabbage were exceptionally huge though. My flower garden loved the cooler temps. Things bloomed and grew like they have never done before. So far this month, though things are early the temps have remained in the 60's. Our normal frost free date is May 31st and I have seen it snow on that date. I waited last year but this year I've gone ahead and put my vegetables in a nursery bed and I'm prepared should the weather take a dive back to normal temps for this time of year. The forecast for the remainder of the month says rain everyday with temps in the mid to high 60's. So for this season it looks like April showers will bring May flowers and I'm loving that!

MeMo

lol. Ginny - it was late, what can I say. Maybe the Straw 'Pole' will be the May pole we can all dance around, when the flowers all start blooming.
MeMo - our summer was like that too. Warm dry April always make me nervous, but this April seems about right for rain, but still warm.
In the meantime, last night was a wake-up call from Mother Nature. the door of the plant room blew open, and I had to put the furnace back on this am. Brrrrrrr. The poor plants that I put out must be shivering, but this seem to have survived!!

Nancy.

We're a good couple weeks early here in NH. We only had a dusting of snow in my area this March. The peonies are already up as high as they would be in the first week of May. Crazy stuff has been going on like all of the following blooming together: bloodroot, daffodils, tulips, lenten rose, epimedium and trillium. I never have all of these in bloom at once. I'll take it! What a nice treat to have spring come early!

P.S. I was also thrown of by "straw pole". Thought maybe it was some cool, new garden thingamajig that I'd never heard of before!! LOL!!!

LOL!...I'm going, hmmm, wonder what grows on a straw pole.

We could start something new!!! lol. On my way to work, there is a Straw Deer - have you seen the (rein)deer that they make at Christmas with cedar logs?? I should take a pic...I bet you could train beans/peas/sweet peas/morning glories up it! Hey, this could work - must put camera in work bag - lol.

Nancy.

This is my second year of my new flowerbed. It's on the north side of the house which was completely shaded during the winter, sometimes a solid sheet of ice on the beds for days at a time. I just knew my plants would die!

In the spring/summer the bed gets full sun. And the perrenials I put in last year are so big I'm stunned! We're having seasonal weather too.

No complaints! Except for the big storms coming tonight and I'm hoping I staked my Cosmos okay.

I went looking back through last year's pictures. It's hard to say that we're ahead of schedule. Last year was my planting year. I put in a lot of perennials and early bloomers. This year, they're finally blooming. Growing from seed meant waiting a year, but things are looking up. The roses are right on schedule. The daffodils seem to be lasting longer considering we had a week of 90+ weather and no rain to speak of for over 2 weeks now. Maybe 3. I lost track. I water a little, but only the new seedlings. Returning plants are being slow about putting out new foliage except for the drought tolerant ones.