Here in Zone 6 Kansas, we have not had winter yet, so I'm very nervous about all this springlike weather--several yellow forsythia in bloom so I started pruning my roses--which are putting out new red leaves faster than I can get to the pruning! Lots of yellow daffodils, regular size and minis, contrasting with glowing purple crocuses, dark purple hyacinths, and medium lavender-blue flowers on a groundcover vine (which I can't remember the name of). Got a ton of leaves out there yet, more than usual for some reason. Each day I go out and rake up 1-2 large trashbags of leaves--and there are still more leaves left to rake! Like I said, all this is making me nervous. We are usually getting ready to face our last snowstorm in a week or so--but everything is springlike for the forseeable future. Even in April we can sometimes get hard freezes overnight--very hard on the roses--by April, my roses may be blooming (they don't usually bloom til May), so I'm very worried about late spring overnight freezes after this prolonged springlike weather. Other than that, I'm enjoying the spring--lots of green and red stuff poking up their noses all over the back yard--iris, tulips, peonies, clematis! Oh yes, how did I forget my pansies--planted them last fall. They usually last over the winter and thus become some of the earlier bloomers in my spring gardens--I favor the purples and blues, to contrast with all the early spring yellows in the garden. Kate

Still awaiting our first frost here. I have fuchsias, chrysanthemums (no name) and Clematis 'Sodertalje' and roses blooming here in my microscopic garden and the nasturtiums are still going on the allotment. And the winter bloomers are overlapping with the end of summer. Winter jasmine, Iris unguicularis, Viburnum tinus, Lonicera fragrantissima, Mahonia, Daphne odora, Ericas etc Plus the bulbs are beginning to show. And my red geraniums in the front window box have taken on a new lease of life for some reason.

hehehe....as one of many sorta "wise" ones, all I suggest, if you can't guarantee a cool spot for them, perhaps they have other plans than mid-December blooms!! Once they do go dormant you are looking at 8 weeks of cool and then another 4 weeks of growth, so if they went dormant today they wouldn't bloom until late January. As I told my class a couple of weeks ago, the only way to nearly guarantee holiday blooms is to start with fresh bulbs that have been prechilled and are ready to bloom. Right now, if they are actively growing, I'd withhold water, not cut green leaves...but you could try the advice in a recent post about uprooting....(with roots and leaves intact), waiting a few days, replanting, etc. Read that post...it might not work, but you could be the one to make us believers!! Unfortunately, the weather doesn't always cooperate!! Imaging how much fun we have with this here in SE Texas!! It's 78 this morning at 06:00!! :-/ Kristi

I have some snowdrops and daffodils against a southern exposure on my garage that I planted there on purpose to produce exactly this effect - third January in a row now with blooming flowers, they usually start the last week of December. The early cold and then a warmup like we had this year always gets them going. The earlier bulbs will survive no problem. Especially if they get covered with snow before the next cold snap. If not, you might lose some of the early blooms, but the bulb survives. I think spring bulbs bloom longer in cold weather anyway. If we get an early 80F (like late March or April), that seems to exhaust the bulbs even more than a cold snap. Besides, they give you something to look at outside this time of year!