Many of my tulips are already blooming.
My cannas are all poking their heads up through the ground.
The lilies are coming up.

And best of all, the extended forecast looks very promising. I'm going to do some planting this weekend.

Oh, goody, another signs of spring thread. I love hearing what other people have blooming. Dawn and I had a thread going a few weeks ago. My crocus have all finished up, and my early daffs--the old fashioned small yellow single that my Granny gave me and King Alfred, a large single yellow that looks just like it and the lovely white and pale yellow Ice Follies-are all past their prime, but the double yellow and the white Thalia with their twin drooping flowers and the white petaled one with the short orange trumpet are in full bloom. So are the hyacinths.

The forsythia, old fashioned spirea and quince are all blooming and the snowball and lilac buds are visible. The Jane magnolia is showing color (the freeze didn't get it) as are the flowering almonds.

The bloodroot is mostly gone by as is the round loved hepatica, but the rue anemone and wild blue violets are blooming, as is the yellow corydalis. ANd the tradescantia, woodland phlox and spotted waterleaf as well as the mayapple and toadwort plants are all up.

The buds on the rebud trees are beginning to show color and some of the dogwood buds are just ever slightly open.

ANd in the garden the daylilies are up far enough to entice a deer to jump the fence and eat three of them off. I protected the pea and broccoli plants with bloodmeal and human hair and so far they have escaped.

In the orchard the almond, plum and pear are all in bloom and the peach is just showing color. The almond and plum were blooming last week and we did get a freeze Monday morn--1/4 in of ice in the pail worth, so fairly cold. So time will tell if they survived. I want fruit this year, especially cherries. I love them even if they are pie cherries. A sprinkling of woodashes under the tree sweetens them enough that I eat quarts of them fresh each year that they don't freeze. Well happy spring to all Dorothy

I'm glad spring has reached more parts of the state.

All of our fruit trees and ornamental blooming trees have finished blooming, except for the redbuds, which have been in bloom for about a week now. All the daffodils, tulips and hyacinths have finished blooming here as well.

Our cannas are up 6" to 8" out of the ground. The larkspur will bloom any day now, and the 'Jane' magnolia started blooming last week. The poppy plants are pretty large, but no blooms yet.

The roses have buds that should open soon. Since we received substantial rainfall the last month or so, the pastures are greening up really nicely. Still, the bluebonets and other wildflowers that germinate in the fall are making a poor showing as the fall was very, very dry. I understand that the bluebonnet season in Texas is expected to be pretty poor (in comparison to most years)for the same reason.

Our garden centers have had way too many warm-season annuals for sale for several weeks now, and the local Home Depot in Gainesville, TX (just across the Red River from us) left all sorts of plants outside, apparently uncovered, the other night and many of them froze. NOW, it is warm enough to plant those things, though.

We are still sleeping with the windows open and the chorus of frogs singing is quite lovely, but soon it will become "too loud" and we'll close the windows at bedtime.

The water lilies have massive amounts of new leaves, but no buds yet. They usually start blooming in April.

My chaste tree has buds, but seems in no hurry to leaf out.

Four o'clock seedlings are emerging everywhere.

Wasps and yellow jackets are now out in great abundance, but I haven't seen many dragonflies yet.

One datura (I think it is Lemon Twist) has a couple of leaves open, but the other daturas are still dormant. Some of the hollyhocks and malva 'Zebrina' are a couple of feet tall, but no buds or blossoms yet. The same is true of verbena bonariensis.

Many of the trees are leafing out and I love that light spring green color of the foliage.

Some of our neighbors have already seen rattlesnakes out and about....one saw three in one afternoon...but I haven't seen any yet.

I love spring weather. I'd love to have a prolonged, mild spring before summer's brutal heat arrives. And, yes, we still have a chance of a late frost here. Our 10-day forecast doesn't show nighttime low temps going any lower than the mid-40s, so I am beginning to plant some warm-season things (but not more than I could cover up if frost threatens).

Dawn

It was so nice here in Pittsburg County today. After work this evening, I worked for several hours in my beds pulling bermuda and henbit (arrrghhh!) and doing some planting.

I noticed my peonies are already about 8 inches tall. My balloon flowers are are coming up. I don't think they came up this early last year. A couple of my hostas as well as my lobelia cardinalis are peeking out of the soil too.

Atwoods had a lot of good prices today. Their small 4" perennial plants were $1.99. I picked up several to try out. Their 3 pks of annuals were 59 cents. I stocked up on harlequin dahlias and profusion orange zinnias. I bought some of these from Atwoods last year, and they were my best bloomers last year, hands down!

I also bought some gallon pots of Maiden Grass. I've always wanted to add some to my landscape, and Atwoods had it at $5.99 a container today. I picked up a couple and put them out. There's a chance they may die this being put out so early, but at that price, I didn't mind taking a chance.

It was 88 degrees hre today, and I stayed out so long that I have a light sunburn. Guess I need to buy some sunscreen. The cold front is almost here, though, so it won't be 88 degrees tomorrow.

Dawn

Yes, here, too in Northeast OK, Thursday afternoon was up to 87 degrees F. for the daily high. Then, just prior to sunset the winds picked up and temps dropped to the high 60 degree F range, but it felt colder. I spent this Thursday afternoon outside removing some siding off the area of our snall rent house where the electric service is attached. It took me 4 hours to get all that off because I really did not know how it was supposed to be done, and did not know what the best tools were that I should be using for the job. At least I managed not to electricate myself.

Even though I was only wearing a cotton tee shirt with my jeans, while doing that work, the sun and air temps felt pretty hot; at the time, all I could think about was how I wish I was home to water my Arborvitae 'Emerald,' which had taken on a dry look. I first noticed it when pulling out of my drive to go to the rent house. This evergreen is growing near a young multi trunked paperbark maple tree, and both of them seem to need supplimental watering more quickly than anything else in my yard. At least in the later morning hours, today, temps will only be in the high 40s. I was too tired to water the tree when I got home, so hopfully by then will not be too late for this tree to be watered.

Hiacinths are still going strong, albeit also beginning to lean due to the high winds we had Thursday. We missed out on the rains that blew through Southeast of us. Even though I did not want the turbulent storms that occured there, it certainly would have been nice if my poor tree had gotten some rain; especially since I will not be able to do that for it until I late this morning.

Thursday, I did notice a lot more of our area trees showing their early leaf out green. Even my Shumard oaks appear to be on the verge of producing their green leaves.

Hope we get by till April 15 without any freezing temp episodes. Counting down; only 18 days left after today.

Well reading all the above posted replys and typing out my response, has helped me to wind down from the previous busy day. Now it should be easier for me to get some sleep before the wee morning hours turn into another busy day.

Katrina,

What a lovely warm day y'all had way up there in northeastern Oklahoma. The cold front didn't arrive here until late last night. This morning, it was 52 degree when I checked the outside thermometer, 16 degrees cooler than at the same time yesterday.

I am glad that you didn't electrocute yourself working on the rent house. Are your Arborvitae "Emerald" and your paperbark maple drying out more quickly because they are newer and have less well-established roots or are they in an area that does not hold moisture as well? I have noticed that, with the higher-than-average temperatures and strong southerly winds we've had lately, everything dries out more quickly than you'd expect.

My DS was on his way from Marietta to Durant last night and called to warn me he could see a "huge storm" with a lot of lightning off to the north. He thought he'd let me know so I could bring in the flats of plants sitting on the porch. Well, that storm never arrived (and I was grateful it didn't make it this far south when I heard that a tornado was spotted near Muskogee). The weather seems a little wild this year.

It seems as though we have had a very "quick" spring here in southern Oklahoma, going from winter to spring in the blink of an eye. Almost all of our trees are showing green, except the pecans, which are always "late" in comparison to the others.

Our extended forecast shows two fairly cool nights next week. If the temperature drops just a couple of degrees below what is forecast (and in our low-lying microclimate, it usually does), we could have a light frost here. So, I am having to behave myself and not do a lot of planting yet, which is frustrating when the weather is gorgeous like it was yesterday.

I hope you were able to get a good night's sleep.

Dawn

Good morning Dawn,

Doesn't the cooler weather feel nice this morning. I know what you mean about it being hard to hold back on planting warm season items this early in the year. These days, most of the lower temps seem mild like they would be perfect for such plantings, and the higher end temps that are happening every now and then, seem to remind of the potential for the 95 degree F. and above temps to easily return too early.

It was only almost four spring times ago, when I planted 13 Loblolly trees and 12 Foster #4 Holly along the back farmer's fenceline of a vacant residential lot we had recently purchased back then. I did this planting in 85 degree temps. But for the first two days of the very next week the daily high temps rose to 102 degrees F. Even though I transported water to the then newly planted trees almost daily at that time, many of them still died. Events like that heightens my awareness of the need for getting the spring plantings in the ground soon enough for them to establish a good root system.

With temps like we have been seeing this week, planting bare root and warm season items seem perfect right now. Still, it is all too easy to remember last spring's second week in April, days of overnight freezes when during one of those days the temps dropping to 27 degrees F.

In the last few years it seems the Northeast OK weather patterns have generally set up in a manner, which makes Spring time planting much less preferable than early Fall planting times.

Fall is also most likely a much safer planting time for trees and shrubs in southern OK, Especially if the spring season has advanced so fast, and is giving indications that the Summer heat up is not too far away. At least that is what I think of when reading the reports on the items your area is already seeing leafed out and blooming.

Of course you indicated your area is in a lower microclimate, so your fast heat up extreme potentials might be a lot less problematic compared to the frosts, which can so easily settle into such low elevated mircroclimate areas.

My Arborvitae 'Emerald' which is suffering was planted late last spring, at the same time another one was planted on the opposite end of my front yard. That other one has grown twice as fast and currently is very green.

The soil in the northwest corner of our lot, where the A E is suffering, has less deep soil moisture; so when the tree stresses from too dry of soil, it has a tougher time handling wind stressers. Both these evergreen trees receive full midday and afternoon Sun. but I think the one growing on the Southwest corner might also get some morning shade, whereas the one on the other end of our lot does not.

Shrub roses and some Tea roses I planted, at the same time, just South of the suffering A E died very quickly. Where as the same kind of roses I planted just south of the other A E, which is doing well, have survived and are establishing nicely.

I started a slow sprinkler for my suffering A E and Paperbark Maple, and when looking at the ground was surprised to see that the soil appeared to still have some moisture. So I am not really certain why in that corner of the yard every thing I have planted there seems to have such a hard time surviving. Maybe it is a simple matter of my needing to be more timely when I water that area, or maybe there are other subsurface factors, which I am not aware of, at play in this area of the yard,

It is chilly and windy n Rogers county today.
I walked in my flower bed and my hostas are rising. One of my peony plants is peaking through the soil and all of my rose bushes have lots of leaves. My hyacinth and easter lillys have bloomed and are lovely.On the other hand, my tulips and iris's have not bloomed and one of my evergreen trees that was planted on the south side of my yard is looking pale. The others are lush and green. I planted it in the fall of 07. I am worried that if I water it daily, slugs will move in and I am out of slug b gone and money. If anyone has any hen n chicks they would like to rid themselves of I could use them. I am trying to start a hen n chick bed in my back yard. Any tips for growing these succulents would be much appreciated.

Katrina,

Oh, how well I remember how hard all of us worked to cover up and protect our plants last April. I am sincerely hoping we don't go through that again! I am enjoying today's cooler weather. Yesterday was really a case of it being too hot too soon.

I agree that the spring weather patterns seem particularly non-conducive to spring planting these last few years. Here in southern Oklahoma, we stay mostly moderately warm in the autumn....often until December or even January. Thus, I try to time the planting of trees and shrubs to fall in the October through February time frame, and the closer to October the better.

I wonder what is going on with the piece of your property where the plants struggle more. Perhaps there is a layer of rock underneath the top soil? I guess perhaps wind exposure could also harm the plants, but since they have struggled last year, I still think it is something about the soil--its drainage or lack of such or something else. How puzzling!

Kimberly,

It sounds like spring is there! What kind of tree is the evergreen? It shouldn't need daily watering. Maybe if you describe the tree, how it was planted, etc., we all can put our heads together and figure out why it is struggling.

I posted an answer for you about hens and chicks on another thread.

Dawn