There are so many garden plants blooming and budding out of season right now that I thought I would capture this in photographs. The steady warmth and spring-like days in January fooled many of the early spring plants to bloom as early as mid January, and now we have others starting to bud and bloom before their time. I want to tell them, “Hey! No peeking!”  Below are pictures I took today, February 3, 2012, around the garden.  Most of these plants are blooming or budding approximately two months earlier than they should.

Plants Blooming Out of Season

The question I used to get when I worked the phones at the garden center many, many years ago when such a winter occurred was, “My plant is blooming out of season. What can I do to save my plant?”  Because if a hard frost or snows comes before the true spring dates, we’ll certainly lose the flowers, and potential fruit on many of the trees, for instance.

The answer is, “Nothing.”  Nature has gone through this type of winter once before, if not thousands of times before in the history of the plant kingdom.  The plants will survive.  It’s going to be an interesting spring, however.

Lilac bud

 

Daffodils. They’re in a micro climate near a clothes dryer vent, but still don’t usually bloom until April.

Candytuft, typically blooms in late April – May in my garden

 

Phlox…almost always blooms in mid April