Originally Posted by WEBlue (Post 12229915)

Daffs, hyacinths, and forsythia are blooming like crazy. Hostas & iris are sending up little leaves.

I got my peas planted, and a bit of lettuce. Lets see if the chipmunks, woodchucks, and deer can leave those alone this time! .....

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12230230)

The daffs are long gone here, the pear blossom came and went before the cold snap a month ago, and the cherry blossom has all gone in the past few days.

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12230230)

The azaleas are in full bloom and some of our bushes are absolutely covered this year, giant balls of blooms, and some that have been unmemorable in previous years are heavy with blossom.

A couple of weeks ago there was a green mist in the trees as the leaves started to burst their buds, but now our winter view of perhaps a quarter mile through the trees is almost gone and we can't see much beyond a couple of hundred feet, effectively barely beyond our lawn.

Originally Posted by WEBlue (Post 12230245)

The differences are interesting, because I think your area & mine are only one full (?) growing zone apart at the most.... My zone is 7a, and from what I see on the USDA map most of NC is either 7b or 8a.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

We've had such a late, cold spring here! Today it'll get into the low 60s, one of the hottest days we've had in recent weeks.


Maybe the rains have beefed up the azaleas' bloom. We had some azalea bushes years ago when we lived in Houston TX and they always seemed to bloom best after hurricanes & floods....

Our woods here in New England are just beginning to acquire that "misty" look--it's not even a green mist yet, but now you can see the budding "lace" along some tree branches interfering with the view into the depths of the forest....

Originally Posted by WEBlue (Post 12230245)

The differences are interesting, because I think your area & mine are only one full (?) growing zone apart at the most.... My zone is 7a, and from what I see on the USDA map most of NC is either 7b or 8a.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

We've had such a late, cold spring here! Today it'll get into the low 60s, one of the hottest days we've had in recent weeks. ......

Originally Posted by Nutmegger (Post 12230278)

I think you must be closer to the coast than me, WEBlue -- that new leaf haze hasn't started at all yet. But it is almost 80 degrees today and I am hard at work clipping off the dogs' winter coats. So our five day spring will probably have come and gone by next weekend!

Originally Posted by WEBlue (Post 12230348)

Yes, we're just a couple of miles from the ocean. Weirdly, however, our high today was only 70 (in the warmth of the back garden @ 3 pm).

If your area hit 80 today I'll wager your green forest haze will arrive soon....

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12226721)

You're new to gardening and have been grafting citrus fruits? :blink:

Originally Posted by username.exe (Post 12230376)

Yup, because when i develop an interest, i tend to turn it into an obsession pretty quickly. :thumbup::o

(I have about thirty plastic cups with citrus cuttings and avocdo seeds in them at the moment).

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12230290)

Yeah, we're in zone 7, and many plants that need zone 8 object to the number of frosts we get most winters, but this winter has been exceptionally mild, with only a few days of frost, I doubt more than twenty and probably only around ten, and I was worried that the peonies might not have had enough frosts to make them flower, but the early ones are loaded with flower buds. Anyway, so everything was a month or more ahead of itself by the end of February, and would be still were it not for three or four days of frosts during the second week of March, which set things back a bit.

Originally Posted by WEBlue (Post 12230411)

Yes, peonies are pretty fussy; they seem to need a 'real' winter. Maybe yours liked that March freeze.

I planted several two years ago & in spite of our long winters with lots of freezing days & nights, I've had only one blossom to date. Hoping for a few more this time around, but I may be disappointed....