A few days ago I started getting excited as my daylilies started poking through the ground. Not so much today. Here in Northern Virginia our weather has been alternating between periods of near summer-like day-time highs and periods of freezing nights. There has been so much day-time warmth that EVERYTHING has started early. It's still March yet we have flowering trees that are already past their prime (some no doubt cut short by the cold nights). My PJM Rhodo started blooming a day or so ago and I fear for its future because the forecast is for freezing nights for the next few days. Last weekend was really cold, too.

Daylilies and daffodils usually don't mind the cold but not so hydrangeas. We had one really cold spell in May last year and it really did a number on our hydrangea. Ours is just beginning to leaf out and I wonder if it's going to get blasted again.

Then there are the rodents, squirrels, probably! Something is eating my daylilies! I'm going to heap lots of mulch over them and hope that will keep the pests away, but I doubt it will. If they want food, I suspect they will find it!