• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
  • Books
    • Shop
    • Creatures and Critters
    • Potted & Pruned
    • Homegrown & Handpicked
    • Seeded & Sodded
    • The Christmas Cottontail
  • Speaking
    • Upcoming Speaking Engagements
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Social
    • YouTube
  • Gardening Humor
  • Children’s
  • All Books

May Dreams Gardens

Watch Your Step: Early Signs of Spring

February 10, 2009 By Carol Michel 21 Comments

Ladies and gentleman, you are currently looking at the first tiny leaves of what is likely to be the first blooming crocus in my 2009 spring garden.

However, it is not in the spot where the first crocus normally blooms. In that spot, there is nothing, not even an early snow drop. Zip, zilch, nothing.

I guess that kind of blows my theory about using a microclimate to get crocuses to bloom a few days earlier than normal.

Or does it? Time will tell, it could be a crocus will shoot up in the microclimate location, overtake this one and flaunt a bloom before this one “realizes” what’s going on. It’s a race, a competition, and neither bloom knows it. If this was Vegas, we could wager on it.

But this isn’t Vegas. It’s Zone 5 in Indiana, where it has warmed up these past few days for a kind of ‘faux spring’, which has melted all the snow and whetted our appetite for “real spring”.

It is a time for daily walks around the garden, weather permitting, to look for early, early signs of spring.

Here’s an early sign of spring.

That’s the very tip of a daffodil leaf making an appearance. Perhaps it is an ‘advance scout’ for all the other daffodils, sent up to check out the situation to see if it safe for the others to sprout.

It’s safe. I swear it is.

Many gardeners worry about these early blooming bulbs, that they’ll sprout now during these first warm days and then “Pow!”, cold weather will return and try to knock them down.

But the cold weather won’t succeed with a complete knock out. I’ve never seen it happen that the spring flowering bulbs didn’t succeed and bloom, regardless of how cold it got after they sprouted those first leaves. (Okay, I’ll admit spring 2007 was bad, but that was really unusual).

In this fight between winter and spring bulbs, put your money on the bulbs, especially the crocus and snow drops (Galanthus sp.). They’ll bloom regardless. And soon.

So let’s watch our step out there, be happy and not worry that we see some green, and welcome these earliest signs of spring.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bulbs, spring

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    February 10, 2009 at 6:28 am

    We had one of those faux Springs here as well… then it snowed last night and there is sleet falling right now… sheesh… It’s enough to drive a gardener to drink! LOL

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    February 10, 2009 at 7:24 am

    I’ll second that – got faked out this weekend, then the snow returned. Oops! I checked on my already-blooming crocus, they didn’t seem to have minded at all. They even opened up again today when the snow melted. Maybe an industrious squirrel moved your crocus bulb for you, just to be nice…

    Reply
  3. Katarina says

    February 10, 2009 at 8:02 am

    These first signs of growth are most welcome – no doubt Spring is on its way!
    Katarina

    Reply
  4. Unknown says

    February 10, 2009 at 10:23 am

    Heck yeah! Spring is on it’s way for sure! Love the little Daff peeking up to check things out!

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says

    February 10, 2009 at 11:26 am

    Argh! I have spring envy. I still have multiple feet of snow on the ground with no end or bare ground in sight…

    Reply
  6. Lisa at Greenbow says

    February 10, 2009 at 11:43 am

    I have worried about my early bulbs in the past but no more. As you say they know what they are doing. The bulbs that were up before the snow show some burned edges but they will pull through.

    Reply
  7. Unknown says

    February 10, 2009 at 12:09 pm

    Giggle. I’ll welcome early signs of spring in YOUR garden, my friend, whilst looking at the glacier-like conditions in MY garden. I’d go on an expedition to see how the hamamelis is faring, but there’s so much snow everywhere around it (partly from plowing) that I can’t even SEE it. Spring? Maybe by April….

    Reply
  8. Rock rose says

    February 10, 2009 at 1:14 pm

    I wonder if all gardeners are the same going out in the garden and looking for a sign of green poking through the ground? Your snow melted really quickly- spring is on the way.

    Reply
  9. Anonymous says

    February 10, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    Sage advice Carol! I’m tiptoeing around the tulips as we speak. (well not tulips but you catch my drift) 😉

    Reply
  10. Cindy, MCOK says

    February 10, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    Here’s to more signs of spring at MDG in the days to come!

    Reply
  11. Kathy says

    February 10, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    It’s not quite as bad here as where Jodi and chzplz garden, but I don’t have bare ground yet, either. Hard to imagine things are so far along at your place.

    Reply
  12. Anonymous says

    February 10, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    I’m on daffodil watch myself. Soon I hope to see their little heads poke up. Congrats on the return of your babies!

    Reply
  13. lynn'sgarden says

    February 10, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    LUCKY YOU! The snow have just about melted and MY garden (in NJ) has no life…yet! Meanwhile, I’ll just join in on your excitement…yippee!
    Lynn

    Reply
  14. Unknown says

    February 10, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    i have never had a spring bloom freeze, thank goodness. Now my iris buds are another story. I use styrofoam cups and cover every blossom if its going to freeze.

    Reply
  15. Gail says

    February 10, 2009 at 5:34 pm

    They are exciting when you see them peaking out of the leaves….I also have to watch where I step..

    Reply
  16. EB says

    February 10, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    My problem is that the birds find my crocuses irresistible 🙁 The leaves come up all right, but as soon as the flower forms the wretched flying monsters descend on it. I know people use thread and so on to deter them, but that seems too fiddly to me. I will put them in pots in the conservatory this winter, and do without the ones outdoors.

    Reply
  17. Anonymous says

    February 11, 2009 at 11:38 am

    Carol, we are having our azaleas starting to bloom here on the Gulf Coast, but our daffodils are still in bud stage. You would think they would be in bloom with or before the azaleas. This winter has been a puzzle.

    Jan
    Always Growing

    Reply
  18. Nancy says

    February 11, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    Hooray for Spring!

    PS: I may have a challenger for your ugliest tomato.

    At any rate, it might be the ugliest tomato ever harvested in February…

    Reply
  19. Rose says

    February 11, 2009 at 11:20 pm

    I haven’t seen any signs of spring in my garden yet, Carol, but it’s so muddy here that I’m afraid to step very far:)

    Reply
  20. Annie in Austin says

    February 12, 2009 at 2:26 am

    I think your bulbs are okay, too, but we both know better than to uncover chancier plants.

    Over at Kathy’s blog this quote appeared:

    When dealing with frost it is always best to be paranoid. In the spring never think it is too late for one more frost to come. And in the fall never think it too early.

    Good advice from Rundy Purdy!

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

    Reply
  21. Pam says

    February 13, 2009 at 9:24 pm

    If only the snow would melt, so my spring blooms could come up!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Categories

  • Blog (3,012)
  • Internal (2)

Blog Tags

annuals Blogging books bulbs dr. hortfreud embrace fairies fall family flowers fruits garden bloggers bloom day garden bloggers book club garden design gardeners gardening gardening geek gardens hoes holidays hortense hoelove houseplants humor indoor gardening insects lawn letters to gardening friends perennials rabbits reviews Secrets seeds shrubs spring tools trees vegetable garden vegetable gardening vegetables weather weeding weeds when a gardener wildflower wednesday winter

The Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Footer

Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Connect

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • maydreams icon

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Books
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Podcast

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Newsletter Archive

Copyright © 2022 · CarolJMichel.com · Sitemap · Privacy Policy

Book purchase links are affiliate links and Carol earns a small commission if you make a purchase.