Dandelion Clocks - Warm Week and Buds Breaking

Dandelion Clocks - Warm Week and Buds Breaking, a photo by linfrye on Flickr.

8" x 12" Watercolor
Arches 140#CP

Amazing to think that here it is early January and already there is a slight haze to the woodlands as buds begin to swell in anticipation of 'Spring'! I noticed yesterday that even our dainty dogwoods have swollen their flower buds ....And my Prunus mumi (apricot) and an 'late winter bloomer' is showing a bit of pink on some of the branches.... sigh. The weather forecas for the next few weeks is for warming temperatures, as high as 50F and 60F most of this week, though the evening temperatures still fall below freezing. The spring ephemerals - dandelion, chickweed, henbit and other early spring flowers that take advantage of sunlight through the bare trees, are now breaking ground -- Very crazy weather and seemingly far too early in the season.

Last year the USDA changed our plant hardiness zone from 7b to 7a ... indicating that our temperatures have warmed significantly over a long enough period of time to warrant the change. This means that those plants that once were consider too 'tender' to be planted where I live, now have a much better chance of survival .. and my choice for plant varieties have increased for cold tolerant plants and have become more 'iffy' for those plants that don't like too much heat.

For me as a utilitarian gardener, it means that instead of beginning my spring garden in March -- I can now begin weeks earlier in February .... geez ... where is the winter??

But like all else weatherwise, predictions are not necessarily fact, and I can still hope for snow before I plant the spring lettuces. At least I can hope ...

Lin Frye
North Carolina