More signs of early spring

12 years ago

Either that or a lot of my trees and plants are listening to the wrong weather man. I spent over 7 hours burning tumble weeds yesterday. Have another 2 hours to do. Of course every strong wind will blow in more. Hopefully the biggest movement is over. Can't believe with how dry we have been the number of tumble weeds I've had. The second worse in the 18 years I've lived here. While burning noticed my Lilac bushes were leafing out. Looks like the cold nights have already nipped some of them. My Silver Maple which is usually late is getting close. And my peach trees will bloom soon only to be nipped I'm sure. The large flock of geese moved out last Tuesday morning heading north. A few ducks remained for a few days but they are gone also now. My lilies and tulips are up and will bloom soon. Again a few weeks ahead of normal. I hope these signs are legit and not false hope. Jay

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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
12 years ago
Jay, Is it not the most bizarre winter ever? For you to have that kind of early awakening of plants that far north is astonishing.

Trees, shrubs and groundcovers here are either flowering, pollinating, budding, leafing out, etc. There's so much pollen in the air that everyone's allergies are going nuts. We have various small wildflowers in bloom now, maybe 6 or 8 kinds, and lots of insects out and about. It looks so much more like early to mid-March than mid-February. We have as many birds here now as we usually do in April and they are happy birds---eating, flying, singing, chirping, etc.---not huddled together in cedar trees shivering because it is so cold.

I hope all these early signs of spring don't get slammed by an intense late cold front. Do I think the cold weather is completely over? Absolutely not, but I hope the worst of it is.

Yesterday we were down in Denton, TX, and I saw a few Bradford or Aristocrat pears in bloom, and a couple of fruit trees. There's lots of small fenceline trees between there and here that are just beginning to leaf out too. Tim and I were looking at our plum trees this morning and urging them not to jump the gun and bloom too early, but they were ignoring us. They are so ready to bloom...and the blackberries are putting out new growth.

We've had flocks of ducks and geese flying through for weeks, headed north. The skunks have been out for weeks and weeks, which is not one of my favorite signs of spring, and of course the coyotes are out in great profusion as well.

This is the wettest La Nina I can remember. We've had a little over 7" of rain at our house since the new year started. Usually in a La Nina we have a really dry winter here, but this year we have mud and puddles of water standing everywhere.

I am trying to start seeds on a reasonable schedule that makes sense to me given our past winters, but the early warm-up makes me feel like I am falling behind, even though I really don't think I am.

Dawn
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elkwc
Original Author
12 years ago
Dawn,
The main reason I've been able to fight the urge to really start planting seeds is I've had so many other things to do. I burned tumble weeds again yesterday when I needed to be shredding leaves and working the garden. My feet hurt so bad after all the walking it took any urge to plant last night out of me. Heading out to go pick up 15-20 bags of Ball potting mix at one of my favorite greenhouses. Talk to one of the owners this morning and they are in full swing over there. Sure I'll have a good visit while there. The rest of the items I ordered for the lean to arrived. All seem to be of good quality. Several of the items were made by Dayton. I'm trying to figure out how and where to mount the fan. I will pick up anything I need to mount if if I figure out how is the best way. It is cooler here today with a med breeze. Was real foggy not far east and north of us so I decided not to go to an auction. I don't take the chances I used too.

I would say here most things are in mid March form. I caught a skunk last Saturday which is real early for them to be out. The henbit is really growing. Need to spray it and a pre emergence or I will be covered up in weeds after all of the tumble weeds. While burning yesterday I trimmed the asparagus. I expect to start seeing sprouts in 2 weeks from the signs I saw yesterday and that is very early for here. Saw some other things germinating and growing under the tumble weeds when I removed them. Imagine they had a cold night now that they are bare. I still expect a cool/cold blast or two but all the signs tell me that any extreme/extended periods are past. Doesn't mean we won't get a warm blizzard. We usually get our biggest snows/blizzards when it is warmer. When the temps are at or just below freezing. At least now the snow shouldn't stay around long. But don't see any extreme lows ahead. Still one night of mid-low 20's can set a garden back big time. But feel this maybe the year to gamble a little. I was around a few witty old men when I was young. One would always say he read the tea leaves and they said such and such about the winter and spring ahead. Not to be outdone the other would say he had read his fig leaves and they said something else. I'm basing the above from reading my leaves, animals and a feeling in my bones. Jay
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Diane, Like almost all fast-growing trees, Silver Maples tend to be weak-wooded and prone to disease. It also has surface roots that worsen over the years as the tree grows ever larger. The surface roots won't be a huge issue unless the tree is near enough to the house, a patio or a sidewalk to lift the concrete and cause damage. Although it is not my favorite tree, I don't especially dislike it. We kept the one in Fort Worth because its shade was the only shade we had on the west side of our house and I felt like the kitchen would have been unbearably hot on summer afternoons without it. I couldn't get anything much to grow in the soil under it because those big surface roots took up most of the space and apparently greedily sucked up the water too. Even normally rampant ground cover type plants couldn't compete with it and survive under it. So, whether to remove it or not is, to me, a personal thing based on whether you like the look of it, whether it gives you any trouble, or whether you'd just like to replace it with a better-quality tree now as opposed to 5 or 10 years from now when it develops pest or disease issues. Also, if it is anywhere near a planting bed of any type, when it sheds its seeds, they tend to pop up everywhere and have to be pulled out. I think if it were in my yard near the house and it was not essential for shading the house, I'd take it out and replace it with a high-quality tree. Fort Worth organic gardening guru Howard Garrett, aka The Dirt Doctor, is very blunt and tells it like it is. I've linked the description of the Silver Maple from his website because it makes me laugh every time I read it. He doesn't sugarcoat things, and when people would call in to his radio show with problems with silver maples, as you might imagine, he'd tell them to get rid of the tree and replace it with a better one. As you'll notice, he disses the mimosa in his answer, and I absolutely love mimosa and planted one here years ago for the hummingbirds, so I don't always agree with The Dirt Doctor. However, my mimosa is near my garden so I can watch the hummers visit its flowers, and it is not in a prominent place in the landscape. I wouldn't have put it up close to the house because, like almost all fast-growing trees, it too is weak-wooded and prone to insect problems. That doesn't make me love it any less, it just makes me keep it more in an out-of-the-way location. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Silver Maple Tree Info From Howard Garrett's Website
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Moni, I love those first pictures; plants can be so sculptural. Down in Bowlegs, where the dandylions and purple henbit have been blooming since the last of Feburary, the hyacinths, species tulips, early daffodils, forsythia, and quince have come and gone. The heather is about to finish blooming, while the Dianthus, Darwin tulips and deep purple "Cemetary" Iris are blooming in full force, with muscari sprinkled about. Both the old fashioned purple and the Confederate violets are flush with blooms. The purple looks especially nice with the new growth on the blue spruce sedum where the two have set up shop together. The "Burning Heart" tulips planted late last year (December!) have been stealing the show in the front beds with absolutely *huge* flowers that just laughed at all the rough weather. Strawberries are beginning to color up, and the rabbiteye blueberries are covered in blooms and if the number of blooms is anything,it looks like the red mulberry tree is going to have a bumper crop. (My Grandson adores mulberries) The lilac and clove currants are lending their perfume to the air and so many plants with fragrant leaves are up that I probably spend half my garden time just wandering around touching and smelling. :^) The race was on between the Old Blush, the Green Rose and yellow Lady Banks as to which would bloom first, but the Lady won by a whisker. The leaf buds on the crepe myrtles are beginning to unfurl, and there are hopeful buds on the peonies. Merryheart, like you, my peonies have yet to bloom, but the foliage sure looks nice. Dawn, I wish I had some kind of water feature in the yard to grow water lillies in; what a lovely flower. Still, the majority of the Iris haven't even sent up buds yet, and neither have the long rows of Twin Sisters daffodils, so it looks like there's still plenty of spring left to enjoy. :^)
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Your photos make me so happy Jackie. Spring was starting to arrive at my house, but it has been suspended in time. It has been getting up to about 70 during the day and wonderfully sunny, but extremely chilly at dawn. Just up the road Mt. Diablo has been dusted by snow. It's a beautiful combination of cool, crisp, clean air in the morning and sun during the day, but it has halted spring in its tracks from when we were having night temperatures more in the 40s. I'm hoping for more signs of spring soon because it soothes me when I feel overwhelmed with everything, which I have been feeling lately. There is something very relaxing about seeing the life of spring arrive. It allows me to slow down and take notice, enjoying the present. Feelings of being overwhelmed seem to melt with the frost. Even though spring brings more to do. Logically it doesn't make sense to feel less overwhelmed I guess, but that is what seeing spring arrive does for me. Nothing really new to report here. Maybe I should go take another look before I leave for a late day of work though. If I have time and find anything new I will try to post some photos for others who may be feeling the same way as me and who need to see some signs of spring.
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7

elkwc
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More signs of early spring

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Okiedawn OK Zone 7

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elkwc
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