GREEN TIPS SHOWING !!

It's been a slow transition from winter to spring.   I always feel that way when I have to trudge supplies through the snow, or break off planting to shovel snow.  Very hopeful the shovelling is done until next winter.  All it takes is a few sunny days and the little plants in the greenhouse really perk up, even if the outside temps are chilly.  I check things in the morning and when I come back in the afternoon, I swear some of the plants have grown.  Everything is still small, especially the varieties I grow from seed.  Each year, I have to discourage people from buying tiny, newly transplanted seedlings.  A few weeks in the greenhouse is all they need.  And of course, the greenhouse environment is much more conducive to good growth than a windowsill in the house.  But what a nice quality that people want to take a baby plant and nurture it to maturity.  One time I told customers, "You can't take home a puppy or kitten when it's a week old."  They laughed and came back in a couple weeks when the plant matured.

Once the snow melted, I made a quick survey of the gardens.  Overall, things don't look too bad.  I don't think damage will be as widespread as after the record 2013-14 winter with both cold and heavier snowfall than this winter.  But the extended cold in February has probably damaged some plants and certainly delayed the start of spring for others.  There were pretty, scalloped green leaves on cucumber-flavored salad burnet when the snow melted.  I thought thymes looked surprisingly good after two months of snow cover.  Lavenders are a mixed bag.  Some, even on the prevailing wind side of the yard, actually looked good.  Others look battered down by the snow.  Don't make any decisions on the health (or survival) of plants at this point.  With lavenders, I always wait til new growth start to emerge before I decide on how hard to prune them.  Generally, I remove as little as possible--just dead and damaged parts.  Last year, after the very harsh winter, I wound up cutting back about half my plants very hard--just above new growth at the base of the plant.  Althnough it reduced its first flowering, the plants survived and filled in quite well.

No signs of survival on any of my outside rosemarys.  As I repeated many times last year--rosemary is not designed for sub-zero temperatures--even the hardier varieties.  I think this will be two years in a row that I have to replant outside rosemarys.

Although it's still chilly, on nice days you can begin cleaning up debris, leaves, etc. in your gardens and beds.  Another early spring chore is cutting back butterfly bushes--the ideal time is mid-March until mid-April.  It will be interesting to see how they fared this year.  Last year, we had to cut back to ground level.  Only the roots survived--everything above ground died.  And many people lost the bushes entirely.  Hopefully, it won't be as bad this year.