It's Spring Here

My car is covered in pollen and insects are in the house.
The windows are wide open and I don't need to turn on the electric blanket at night.
My brugmansia and confederate rose are all putting on new growth.
There has been a population explosion of anoles in the greenhouse.
I saw my first spider today.
The mocking birds are having knock down drag out fights over territory (really entertaining for the kitties).
The hedge rose is turning green.
The canna are peaking out from under the mulch.
and
The greenhouse is the first place I go to in the morning to see what's coming up or blooming.

X

X: LOL! Yes, the pollen has definitely arrived! Not only on the car, but the porch furniture, the leaves of all the plants on the porch and in the sheltered garden, the porch rails, etc, etc, :)

May I add:
I saw my first snake today. (Yikes!)
I bumped into my first cloud of gnats yesterday.
Bananas and EE's are sprouting up.

Don't ya love it?
Deb

The pollen is intense so far this year. It's been raining pollen for two days now. My EE's are coming back to life, actually I see flowers and leaves poking out all over the place.

The pollen is unbelieveable! I don't recall it ever being this bad.

X

Ditto on the pollen; worst year I can remember. I just noticed our black cat is coated with yellow! And about the no see ums, they are pretty awful this year too.

Uhhh, about the weather???? What is this about frost tomorrow night?????

Oh yeah. My brain's been racing since I saw that in the forecast. What to protect and what can I protect,etc.
I've been very foolish and put out some seedlings and stuck in a few annuals even! Hey- I was suckered into it - even the verbena is blooming. Silly me. :)
Well, at least I can lug the potted tropicals back inside! My tiny, mini greenhouse is full. Guess I'll try and toss mulch or something over the sprouting EEs and so forth. Sigh.

(I wonder if portulaca can take a "light" frosting.)
Deb

Yes, I've heard about the cold nights coming on Sat and Sun. Haven't checked yet for the low on Monday night. Thank goodness I ordered garden fabric that'll help down to 28 degrees. I'm going to tuck in my raised vegetable garden tomorrow before the chill arrives.

For those in my neck of the woods. Looks like it will be close, maybe only an hour or two.
FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY
MORNING...

A COLD FRONT WILL CROSS THE AREA TONIGHT...FOLLOWED BY A MUCH
COOLER AIRMASS. SATURDAY NIGHT...DUE TO CLEAR SKIES AND LIGHT
WINDS...TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO DROP INTO THE LOWER 30S
ACROSS MUCH OF SOUTHERN SOUTH CAROLINA AND SOUTHEAST GEORGIA. A
FREEZE IS POSSIBLE IN MANY AREAS. FREEZING CONDITIONS WILL EVEN BE
POSSIBLE WITHIN A FEW MILES OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA COAST...HOWEVER
THIS IS LESS LIKELY THAN THE THREAT FOR AN INLAND FREEZE.

A FREEZE WATCH MEANS SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES ARE POSSIBLE. THESE
CONDITIONS COULD KILL SENSITIVE VEGETATION...ESPECIALLY THAT WHICH
HAS ALREADY SPROUTED OR BLOOMED. IF FREEZING CONDITIONS STILL
APPEAR LIKELY LATE TONIGHT OR ON SATURDAY...A FREEZE WARNING WILL
BE ISSUED.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO ALL HAZARDS...TV OR YOUR LOCAL
NEWS SOURCE FOR THE LATEST WEATHER INFORMATION FROM THE NATIONAL
WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON.

Deb it looks like its going to be in the upper 20's tonight for a few hours .. I'll be putting buckets & trashcans over the new canna I put in the bed, I even brought the brugs in the pots back into the greenhouse. The brugs in the ground and the confederate rose will have to fend for themselves, but I'm not worried because we've had late freezes before and they've jumped right back.

X

X: I will be doing the same routine myself. I keep checking the forecast and hoping it will change..just a little bit..but no luck so far! :) I just hope I have enough buckets to go around. (If not, it's improv time.)
Deb

Drat this schizophrenic weather!!!!! Use sheets and blankets; lots of them! I am going to cluster some plumeria and use row cover. We are only supposed to get to 38 but I have worked too hard keeping these things alive to take a chance; I may even put a light bulb in with them. My hibiscus should be fine because we will only be that cold for an hour or two. WIll bring in a croton as these things shock so easily and drop their leaves.
a

Maybe if we coordinate, we can push that jet stream back north where it belongs through sheer force of will!! LOL!
Think warm everyone! To quote Charlie Brown, "Aaargghh!!"
Deb

I a pinch i'll use laundry baskets with towels over them.

X

Whew, we did OK here in this neck of the woods; it is 45 here at 5 am. The freeze watch has been lifted for tonight too.

How did youall make out?

No problem here either.

Everything is frosty here-will give a closer check up later

It was exactly 32F at 7 am when I got up. Light frost, but not nearly as bad as I had feared.
Forecast for tonight looks worse, tho. Possibly upper 20s. (Booo!)
Deb

I just went out and checked on everything. Some of the canna that were not covered got a bit frost bit along with the confederate rose and brugmansia .. nothing disasterous thank goodness. It got down to 37 degree in the greenhouse. The heater is set to go on at 39.

X

Back into the 70's today .. rest of the week looks good too. The canna definitely got frost bit but not mortally. The Confederate Rose and Brugmansia seemed a bit singed but are at this very moment enjoying the sun and warmth.

X

This message was edited Mar 19, 2007 1:20 PM

I don't think it froze last night after all. Looks like a good week ahead with a good chance of a touch of rain in a couple of days. Hope so. I've removed all the "laundry' from my plants. :)
Deb

Lol .. over the weekend it looked like I was growing buckets and waste baskets.

X