Signs of life in 2013

[stevelau1911]

I think we just need some consistently warm temperatures for a week or so for anything significant to happen up here. Of course the early plants such as garlic, tulips, daffodils, and raspberries will be making good progress, but those plants activate as long as the soil is not frozen. The trees are still looking dormant now despite being well leafed by this time of last year.

The soil temperature is still only around 36F here so even if we go from way below average to slightly below average temperatures, there still won't be much activity for the next 3 weeks. The grass should be greening up in 1-2 weeks as lows are usually a little bit above freezing now. If the soil stays in the 40-45F range for a nice long time, I think that can help the growth hormones reach their peak in all the temperate plants, especially the peonies that require it to properly form flowering buds.

[JWH]

Daffodils are mostly bloomed out here. Tulips & Anemones are just starting to bloom, Japanese maples are leafing out. One of my ice plants is starting to bloom, the rest are still forming buds. The slugs sure LOVE to eat my ice plants

[JWH]

Couple more:

[johnw]

Still giving a good show since February - Hamamellis Arnold Promise and the Erica carnea Springwood White and Myretoun Ruby.

+5c

[johnw]

Cyclamen hederifolium looking good after a long tiresome winter.

[canadianplant]

Gorgeous shots guys..... Can I have some please?

[JWH]

Brrrr!....looks cold! That much snow in april is just....wrong. Hope some nicer weather is headed your way!

I think our sunshine went back to California for awhile. It's been very rainy and gray here the past two days. I bet the bamboo is enjoying all the rain. I know the grass is. I need to Mow as soon as it gets dry again.

[johnw]

That snow storm blew past here last night. We must have missed it by a hair. Rain on & off.

[stevelau1911]

It has been getting up barely above freezing in the past few days, but that seems to be ideal for plants such as tree peonies that thrive in cool climates. Here's an overview of all the progress.

It looks like these may have flower buds in them already. If not, then they are still going to make a considerable amount of growth seeing how much stronger they look. I'm looking forward to seeing how something like this will turn out in another month.


1st year seedlings have just started popping up after all the rain in the past few days.



The 2nd year ones are finally opening up their leaves a little bit.


3rd year seedlings are just barely taking off.


Here's my most developed "lemon dream" itoh peony which is clearly growing faster due to the heat of the black nursery pot.


These pots seem to make everything grow a bit faster.


Herbaceous peonies are finally poking out of the ground.


Sempervivums are starting to look colorful and distinct at this time of the year.




The Musa basjoos I uncovered last week have pushed just a couple of inches so far. They shouldn't make much progress until May.


The garlic is really starting to take off now as the soil temperature stays above freezing. Here's one of the ones that I missed in my harvest last year.


I have them growing all over the place.




The garlic under the power line which pigeons regularly roost are getting twice as big.


The pear trees should flower in a couple weeks.


Raspberry plants seem to be kind of invasive as they are filling up the entire garden beds with little plants produced from their massive root system.




I ended up separating all of my garlic chives so I could harvest more. Each individual bulb can produce a nice big clump within 1 season.

This clump was from 1 little bulb separated over last summer.


Here's one of the ones I separated out recently. They do seem to out-grow the grass and weeds.


I'm not completely sure yet, but it looks like I have some more Asian pear seedlings coming up. They could be apple or pear seedlings, but I can't tell until I see true leaves.


The grass is also turning green now. This picture shows my trellis used for angled luffa or bitter gourds which I have doubled in size today up to approximately 1000 square feet as my plants never have enough room.


These luffa seedlings are getting started much earlier too so I can have a longer harvesting season.


Here's some greenery on my moso bicolor which should mean good production for next month.

[johnw]

And a few Paeonias for Steve. 1&2/4

[johnw]

And the last 2 Paeonias. These guys don't wait for decent weather.

[stevelau1911]

Peonies seem to grow as long as the soil temperature is above freezing. Last year, I had blooms before May on some of them so it's very likely that blooms will appear before June this year regardless of a slow start. So far temperatures in April have been around average which should make up quite a bit of lost time created by the cold spell we have had from February through March.

Anyways here's my goji berries which seem to be sprouting leaves much sooner than I expected. It's only about a 100 square ft bed now, but that's still triple the area it took up last year before I separated the clumps and propagated them. I grow them for the leaves, not the berries.








This entire area in the picture above should be filled in and green in about 3 months. Here's a link that's stating how goji leaves can have even more antioxidants than the berries, but that doesn't matter too much as I don't like waiting for berries. http://www.producecommunity.com/forum/t ... oji-greens


The phyllostachys prominens divisions appear to be pretty close to producing new leaves, but I think it's because they've been under warmer conditions in the greenhouse up until last week.

[yard e]

Like Steve said.
I'm in Metro Detroit, and we are lucky to get into the low fifties. I would say we are 2-3 weeks behind min.
I was seeing shoots from Spectabilis by this time last year,and Rufa started shooting 3 weeks ago. Their has been nothing from either.
This is terrible

[canadianplant]

Behind? ITs "cool" for sure but this is more "average" then what most of us have had in the last 15 years.

Another 15cm of snow last night

[Samajax]

Everything is in full swing down in 8b. The oak trees are fully leafed out, and all the potted plants are awake- with some blooming

Here is a section of my urban back yard. Just in this shot, if you look carefully, you will be able to see four different bamboos. P. nigra/Pseudosasa japonica in the ground, and potted Sinobambusa tootsik/Bambusa multiplex fernleaf