Signs of Spring

Welcome Bam! It's nice to have frequent visitors I think. Sounds like Spring is off to the same slow start for you that it is for the rest of us. --Ginny

Yesterday was a lovely day - almost +6 (just over 40F) sunny and melting all over. A lot of my flower beds still are covered in snow but the ones that face south (along the house foundation and the north fence) are pretty clear and just the leaf mulch. So I wandered a bit yesterday and in several spots the daffodils are poking up and - can it be ?????- yes, yes !!!!!!!!!!!- there is a hint of pink on the rhubarb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome aboard BAM........misery loves company! Dontcha just love the forums here where they are basking under +70 F temps (and higher ;)

Heat should be here soon now and I too will try to send some of our prairie sun your way. :)

edited to say anyone that has a winter like ours automatically becomes an honorary Canadian. ;)


This message was edited Mar 24, 2006 11:09 AM

We too, in South Central B.C., had a lovely Spring-like day. Temps in the high teens...tee-shirt weather.

Today however, is cooler, high ot only +11 and cloudy. Expecting showers most of the day. Could use it though; over the past several days young plants are popping up all over and the buds on my magnolia, rhodos and other trees are ready to burst. My Clematis is starting to grow and the columbines are gettting really bushy. Tulips are starting to bloom.

I think it's here for sure. Woo Hoo...bring on Spring!

Don

Oh please, please, please send some of that Spring our way! --Ginny

Hello,

My hubby seen a gopher yesterday!

Joanne

I wish we'd get some of the spring showers my gosh it's dry. I watered my back gardens yesterday and dust billowed up when the water hit it. With the warmer than normal temps for most of the winter and not nearly the snow cover we usually get it would appear we're in for a dry summer unless we get those April rains. Forecast is for 60% chance of showers today then sun for the next 5.

The weathernetwork isn't accurate with the temps here today. Prairie gale force winds have picked up and between them and higher humidity it's bitterly cold out there.

Spring must be here.

'Very upstate NY'. Hmm....So you can go see the wonderful lilac collection in ???? Rochester I think plus the truly wonderful LA iris collection in in the Friendship Garden in Highland Park.

If you are anywhere around there of course.

Today in Winnipeg (YWG) melting eveywhere. Yippee.
Inanda

Potsdam is practically a suburb of Montreal... when she says waaaay upstate NY she means it. It's only 20 miles or so to the St Lawrence at Massena. I used to live in Old Forge, and then in Indian Lake in the Adirondacks of upstate NY... from my house in Indian Lake it was about 4 hrs to Montreal and easily 9 hrs to NYCity. LOL

and the folks in White Plains call themselves upstate.! imagine how left out and forgotten we who live really 'upstate' feel... ROFL
~Blooms

Yes, they do. so up here we are part of the "Great White North"! Call me McKenzie! ty for the warm welcome. I did not tell all of my secrets. I lived four years in Nova Scotia and loved it very much. Missed it sorely when I left. A long time ago now. But, still feel very akin to Canadians. My daughter in law is a lasting memento of our stay in Nova Scotia!!! Yes, not far from the Ontario border at all. Either Massena or Ogdensburg. Still cloudy, and damp here. Would love one sunny day. But, I guess it will come.
BAM

Hi McKenzie (Bam, love that handle). I hope you stop in this forum often. For those of us who wait for spring the longest, it is always nice to have another coldzoner waiting with us.

Brenda

Hello!

Well I am in Drumheller, AB and we are supposed to get another four inches of the white stuff tonite....it can quit anytime right now as far as I am concerned...I want green grass, tulips blooming, lilacs blooming....all those good thing!

Joanne

Joanne I just spoke to my father and he's predicting a huge dump here sometime in May. :( I have a really bad feeling his prediction might be a lot more accurate than Sofers (but this one I'm praying is wrong......at that time I'd *much* rather see rain ;).

No snow here today tho we did end up having a little more melt on the roads. Ü

Pam

This message was edited Mar 25, 2006 6:46 PM

Thanks, echoes. Misery does, indeed, love company. Another cloudy, chilly day here. Sun supposed to peek out tomorrow. I will wait and see. The crocus and daffodils are slowly peeking higher. I look every day! Well, it is just as well to get it over with now, rather than have snow after things start to bloom. How do they survive? How do we survive? LOL! Patience has never been one of my virtues, I am afraid. BAM

We were promised 5-10 cms of snow today - it has just started as I am getting ready to drive out to dog agility practice(1/2 north)
I wandered around some of the beds this morning. The south 'house' bed (betwen the foundation and a brick patio) has lots of daffs up , some tulips and a lot of little spring bulbs showing too and - glory be - the fox tail lillies are up!
Now perhaps this is no cause for excitement for some of you but they are not hardy here and this is my second try - they bloomed the past 2 years , taller each year - maybe this is the year they will be 6 feet? I can dream!

Here they are.

This message was edited Mar 27, 2006 8:41 AM

Yipee Yahoo!!!! I just saw a Bluebird and not once but twice...Spring is coming....After a real terrible night ( rain and snow) the sun is shining and it is beautiful out...

This will brigthen your day.....My frist blooms of 2006...

Annetta

Alliums are up! Ü

Don

Fancy, throw a coupla handfuls of those loose leaves over the little crowns for the coming cold... then blow them away as soon as temps return to spring. I do that and it seems to help the tips not get scalded by frost.

Hah - snow didnt happen at least not in the city,
More scrounging around this morning - shoots on the primroses and pulmonarias too!

This message was edited Mar 27, 2006 3:12 PM

Hi Bam, welcome... I've visited Potsdam, very pretty town. I was there to perform at the Crane School of Music a few years ago.

I'm in Ottawa, just an hour and a half drive north of you, so we get pretty much the same weather unless the Lake is acting up.

Annetta Ü


There's hope for us now echoes......

Observed At: Moose Jaw, CA
Elevation: 1893 ft / 577 m

48 °F / 9 °C
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 50%
Dew Point: 30 °F / -1 °C

I'm pretty sure it was warmer than that tho.

Our sure sign of spring.....one outside dog that finds his coat too warm.


This message was edited Mar 27, 2006 5:24 PM

Much happier now...... ;)

Nicey done, Robbie. He lookes like a Robbie. Ha Ha, I id the same thing to my son last night. Buzz cut.

Carol, it is time for you to do the handless touring of your gardens. Hands behind your back, no picking, prodding or poking. OOOh I can't wait, mustn't be long now. What colour are your Foxtail lilies, and where did you get them? Please.

We think Robbie fits him too.....when we picked him up at the Humane Society his name was Wiggles. He was sooooooooo ashamed of it. ;)

Wiggles, that's a name for a hampster. Poor Robbie, how undignified. I once know a Robbie and he looked just like yours. Just a little darker maybe and a little heavier as he got older.

Spring is here too. Just not your post card, pretty, wait all winter for it spring. The car is a mess, roads to town are muck, work trucks are out, and it's raining. So it must be sring in Manitoba. And if you missed that, there's all the pot-holes on the paved roads. But, I wlil soon be putting plants in my green house, hurray. out you go pansies.

Yep. ;)

Your DS and Robbie will feel like their floating on air now (and a wee bit chilly around the ears. ;)

Snow melt really isn't the prettiest time of year but everything but the pot holes will be looking better soon (I love the first street cleaning day of Spring). Ü

ty andy. I have seen your name before. So, you performed at Crane. Impressive. tell me what your talent is, and when you will next be there, and I will try to attend. and, Hello, neighbor! I assume you garden as well. Do you live in the country? I sort of do. Just off a highway, though. but, woods behind. large yard. not here long, so not much impressive in the way of plantings. Our last yard was getting pretty good after seven years, but we all split and started over. Oh, well. BAM

Echoes I think the Foxtail Lilles were yellow and orange. And I got them from Garden Import - I think! Botanus usually has them too. I got the cheapest ones (my first lot didnt make it) and now I know I can grow them I will get some more - want some pink ones. They will be in the fall catalogues.

I'm keeping my eye open for a white one, and I'd get a pink too if I came across one. We're hoping if you can grwo them, maybe we can too. Do you have sandy soil?

Don, alliums already? Didn't know they am up so early. What kind are they, those great big round ones?

Echos For sure I dont have sandy soil - lots of clay here although the beds around the house are pretty good topsoil. I planted them almost right against the house foundation in a south facing bed. There is a brick patio a couple of feet away . (And the outlet for my new high efficiency furnace is almost right above them - lots of warm air (CO2)coming out although there was quite a lot of ice there over the winter - freezing condensation. ) So it is probably much warmer than 3B. That is where I have my rhubarb which is up and all the bulbs there are the first up. If I am trying something that pushes the zone that is where I plant it! The first Foxtail lilly roots I planted never came up.

Well I can't quite imitate that, but was worried more about drainage. I've managed a few zone pushers so far, so maybe on a hill, piled high with snow, may give a nice white one or a pink one a try. So much fun every spring to tour the gardens in anticipation, wondering what made it and what didn't.

Not the best pics (had the old digital with us)

Sure signs of spring here.......




Air Shows will be starting up soon so the Snowbirds are practising in earnest now (prior to today's sighting we've noticed they've been keeping a healthier distance between their wings).


This message was edited Mar 29, 2006 4:21 PM

The Combine's getting closer to going under (Combine Dunk Fundraiser;). Sinking should happen soon....we noticed that one wheel has broken through the ice.

This message was edited Mar 29, 2006 10:15 PM

Herd of ~ 75 Pronghorn Antelope (most out of the picture)



This message was edited Mar 30, 2006 6:51 AM

Bikes are awaitin' for the school bus...

Meadowlarks are singing their hearts out and 1000's of geese are now overhead

Ah spring!!!!!!!!!!!

Lilpon: I grew up in Saskatoon. One of my youthful spring recollections was when the first whooping cranes were sighted flying to their then unknown summer nesting sites, There was always a picture in the paper. But I cant remember exactly when it was.

carol

Isn't it wonderful Carol Ü........ Iwas hoping I'd see a Bluebird (or even a Robin) here too but not that lucky yet.

I saw one mated pair of whoopers ~25 years ago. My Aunt was quite the naturalist and was given a hush hush phone call that they were resting in a field not far from here. She phoned me ~4 am and was up to get me within the half hour. They are an extremely rare bird and I will never forget the sight I was priviledged to see. My Aunt has since passed away but we still get the Whooping Crane Society newsletter that she subscribed to for us.

I imagine they will be flying over in the next week or two since the Whooping Cranes usually lay two eggs in late April or early May.

This message was edited Mar 29, 2006 8:41 PM