We have jumped from winter into spring, and over the Easter weekend, it felt like we had leapfrogged straight into summer. Easter weather is usually cold, windy or wet, in a word lousy, but this year we saw temperature records broken — and how!
Hellebore flowers in our shade garden
It was about 20°C higher than normal through the weekend. The norm would be about 7°C, and on Saturday we had 27°C. With all that warmth and in the aftermath of a very mild winter, spring blossoms are about two weeks ahead of where they would normally be. Our crab-apples are starting to leaf out, our star magnolia is in full bloom, and we have lots of daffodils out.
Crocuses growing in the lawn
Also with the excessively warm temperatures, spring flowers such as crocuses are not lasting as long as I would like them to. But that’s gardening — and we are definitely not in charge of the weather. The forecast tells us that there’s a change in store — thank goodness. By the end of the week, temperatures will be back to where they should be for this time of year, which is about 8 or 9°C. Of course, with the colder temperatures this weekend comes the risk of frosty destruction as night-time temperatures dip toward the freezing mark.
Along with the hot temperatures so far this month, we had a lot of sunshine, and it has been too dry. But fortunately overnight we had a decent rain, followed by thunder showers today, and the landscape is greening up nicely now.
In terms of gardening jobs done, we are well ahead of schedule there too. The ornamental grasses have been cut down and are getting cleaned up with the help of Cedar Springs Landscaping, and in the greenhouse we have been potting up the succulents that we overwintered in the basement. The gardening season is in full swing.
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Spring seems to be running 3 weeks ahead of last year here, but some plants, like Forsythia, have never looked better. I’m just worried that all this new growth and buds/blooms will be in for a cold shock when the temperature drops below freezing as it’s supposed to do tomorrow night.
Frost after all this warmth and way ahead growth: that’s my big worry too. We could be in for it on Friday and Saturday night when the temps drop again here. It’s not exactly easy or practical to throw blankets over shrubs or a boxwood hedge that should not have leafed out yet.
We had the big warm up too Yvonne and now it’s getting back to normal with the front that came through. My trees are in bloom, all the ones I missed last year. It is HEAVENLY!!! Love your Hellebore!
Ah, your first southern spring — a memorable occasion.
I’m happier with frost in the air at night than with freakish July temperatures in late March! My bio-rhythms (do we still talk about those old things?) are definitely more attuned to “spring in spring” than “summer in spring”. And maybe now I’ll get a chance to clean up the garden and cut back clematis before people are suntainning at the beach!
Cheers, Yvonne. Lovely hellebores!
Bookmarked your site, from? I hate that, but nevertheless, here I am.
Looking forward to reading through your site, I’m in awe. Just in awe. And I can relate to your weather, living in Burlington
Hi Janet, welcome Deb, and thanks for your kind comments. I still love the idea of bio-rhythms and I’m definitely with you there. In spring I want spring and I’m happy to wait for summer. In fact, hot weather too soon makes me really crabby.
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