When we got our first real rain in 13 months 4 weeks ago, I was astonished at how the garden reacted - not really how it reacted, but how fast. Within 3 days bulbs were coming up, bushes and trees were starting to bloom or leaf out, the weeds were sprouting, etc.

I think the plants know the difference between rain and irrigating, and are programed to take advantage of rain when it has been missing. Whole place just exploded. It has been raining off & on ever since, and everything is gorgeous.

Jackie

Since it was too wet to do too much in the garden I found other projects, weeding and potting up.

Enjoyed sitting by the lavender watching the bees working (Goodwin creek), Darcey Bussell is full of blooms, not sure why this Austin is not more popular but it should be.

But the highlight of the day was the tiny common Yellowthroat who was singing happily as she cleaned the potted up roses from my propagation box she was hunting aphids

Love hearing the spring stories⦠Kippy, your day sounds heavenly. Lesley

The rain is gone, but it's foggy and cool, perfect weather for planting two bands of Wild Edric. I'll have four altogether and hope that this rose is as wonderful in my hot garden as I'm expecting it to be. The leaves so far are absolutely pristine. The first flower opened on one planted some time ago, and it has a beautiful wild rose fragrance. Unfortunately a snail or slug snacked on the bloom, somewhat compromising its appearance.

In looking at my new Austin catalog a final time before passing it on, I noticed that Wild Edric is absent. It's a fairly new rose and is available here so that's rather puzzling.

Ingrid

After anticipating almost no water this summer and dying plants I am beyond euphoric. It will be a beautiful spring.

I completely agree. The garden does indeed know the difference between irrigation and rainfall. It likes rainfall better.

Ingrid,

Wild Edric is indeed missing from DA US web site. It is still listed in DA European sites and catalog. Was it ever listed in DA US site or catalog?
Usually this is a sign that the rose has been officially withdrawn from a market. It was introduced in the UK in 2005.
Nik

I spent today planting out my (enormous) sweet peas.....in March! They usually sit in the coldframe till the end of April but they were bursting out of the pots. Have already done most of the pruning and am struggling to get my head around bizarre combinations of fuschias and daffodils! On cutting back the penstemons, I could barely credit the foot tall tulips foliage and fat alliums. 2 more weeks then it is time to start the tomatoes! It is definitely happening.

Well, the sun is finally peering out and will I hope gather strength in the next days. I'm with Suzy about the jumbled-together character of this spring. I've already finished pruning my warm climate roses, though I left some alone that were already setting buds; and now I'm repotting, a task I usually get around to in April and June. I sure hope Suzy's prediction of dire pest infestations (in another thread) turn out to be wrong--let's say the pests' pests show up in armies too--though I've been pulling ticks off the dog all winter and have seen the stray mosquito.
Hellebores and daphne continue in handsome bloom, and the early bulb and woodland flower season is in full swing. Snow and Dutch crocuses, early daffodils, Anemone blanda 'Blue Shades', and of course the sweet and Parma violets; in the woods primroses (P. vulgaris), hepaticas, and Erythronium dens-canis; and my planted snowdrops are in flower. I hope the snowdrops like my garden well enough to naturalize there. What a heavenly season this is.
Melissa

Today marked what I'm taking to be the first day out of the unusually cold Winter we've been having -- temps reached "normal" range for this time of year, and much of the week will be warmer as well. So I went out and snipped off the last leaves still clinging from Autumn, as well as any freeze-damaged tips (interestingly, there was very little of that -- while it was colder than normal, we never went below the lowest temps for this zone). Unfortunately, I got only about halfway through the job -- the rest of the roses are still covered with ice and snow. It'll need a few more days (at least...) above freezing for that to finally melt away.

:-)

~Christopher

I'm feeling no euphoria whatsoever since after an extremely mild winter where everything seems to be growing and blooming prematurely, we're expecting an unseasonably chilly spell with bitter northerly winds for the next fortnight or so. Real spring has been postponed to the end of March. Neither I nor the plants are in the mood for this.
Nik

This post was edited by nikthegreek on Thu, Mar 6, 14 at 1:46

Nik, that's so unfair that you're going to get awful weather now, what a bummer.

I thought I saw Wild Edric in previous catalogs but I certainly can't swear to it. I wonder why they no longer offer it. It seems to be an extremely healthy rose which certainly can't be said of all of their creations.

Ingrid

Just remembered a little poem by the greek poet George (Giorgos) Seferis (1963 Nobel literature prize laureate).

A little further
And we shall see the almond trees in blossom
The marbles shining in the sun
The gently waving sea.
A little further
For us to rise a little higher.

Nik

This post was edited by nikthegreek on Sat, Mar 8, 14 at 15:05

I see why he won the won the Nobel prize. Thanks for the poem!
How's your garden holding up? It surprises me that your weather patterns can be so different from ours: I suppose it's that you don't have the Alps for protection and are further from the Atlantic. At the moment we're rejoicing in a high pressure system, though the smog is already gathering in the Po Plain.
Melissa

The NE front they are predicting has not hit yet. Weather has been wet and quite warm. I'm not afraid of any significant damage to the roses apart from wind damage to young shoots since we're expecting gusts of 80km/h but temps will stay well above freezing in the high 30s and low 40s (big change though from the 60s we've been having). Now citrus is another matter altogether since they are all unseasonally budded up and full of young shoots. It doesn't take much for these to get burned by chilly dry winds. It is the winds I'm worried about.

Our weather patterns over here come predominantly either from the SW (the central Med) or the NE (the Balkans and Ukraine). SW weather is usually warm and humid while NE is cold and dry. We welcome the first in the winter and the latter in the summer. It makes a big difference if one is close to the sea (like I am) or further inland or at higher altitudes.
Nik