Spring on Steroids

by Em
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I suspected that the flowers, shrubs and trees in my yard might get a little antsy after a week of record-breaking March temperatures in the upper 70s, but I really wasn’t prepared for such rapid growth.

All of my tulips–early and late varieties–have popped out of the ground. A few clumps could start blooming any day now. My perennials and daylilies are all awake too. Some of them shot up 10 inches in just a few days:

My blueberries don’t usually leaf out until May, but the buds are already swelling:

I don’t clean up my flowerbeds until spring because I like to leave the flower seeds for the birds to feast upon in fall and winter. I can usually count on rudbeckias to overwinter, but I poked around out there the other day and noticed all sorts of annuals popping out from under last summer’s dead stalks. My Asiatic and Oriental lilies are poking out of the ground too.

In late April I usually cut back my butterfly bushes to 1 or 2 feet tall. Then I hope and pray that little sprouts will appear on those branches. Last year I lost 2 butterfly bushes, but this year I’m not going to have that problem. I haven’t cut them back yet, but those crazy bushes are leafing out at the top of branches 4 and 5 feet tall. They must’ve started growing before the really warm weather arrived because the leaves have been nipped by frost:

I didn’t cut back my roses last fall either, but like the butterfly bushes, they are leafing out all over the canes. Even the hybrid tea roses, which are iffy in my Zone 5 garden, are sending out leaves on top of 3- and 4-foot canes:

I’m all for an early spring, but wow, could this ever be a stressful 8 weeks (May 15 is the average last frost date) for gardeners and farmers in southern Wisconsin. Our average high temperature is 43 degrees this time of year, so there’s still plenty of time for a killing frost or two (or nine). The other night I saw a local news reporter interviewing apple growers who are worried that a killing frost could take out 90% of Wisconsin’s apple crop for this year.

While I couldn’t be more excited about being able to open all the windows or eat a juicy steak from the grill in March, I’m one confused gardener. When should I cut back my plants? When should I apply systemic rose treatments? The bugs are already WAY ahead of schedule. People have spotted mosquitoes!

And when should I fertilize the lawn? If it keeps growing like it has over the last week it won’t be long before we’ll have to drag out the lawn mower. Of course first we’ll have to put away the snow blower.

It’s going to be an interesting growing season…

 

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