Early Spring Flowers

We are in our second week of summer-like temperatures and the first day of spring was yesterday. This is my 7th year of blogging and my previous entries provide a good diary of seasonal events. The earliest our forsythia bloomed in the past 6 years was April 5. Most years it blooms around the second or third week of April. The flowers opened up today, March 21.

The heat also has our maples in flower and there are hordes of flying insects around the trees. My husband saw mosquitoes when he was working in the garden this evening, an insect we don't deal with until mid-May around here.

Last year I kept my Amaryllis plants outside on the deck after they finished blooming. In September I took the bulbs out of the pot and cut off the green tops. I stored the bulbs in a paper bag in the garage until January and then replanted them in a pot in the house. I wanted to have some bright flowers indoors before the garden started blooming.

The first Amaryllis flower opened today and there are many other buds developing. I didn't expect to have flowers in and outside at the same time.

After work we took Raven to a nearby woodland trail for a walk. Spring ephemerals are popping up all over, again about a month earlier than usual.

Bloodroot is one of the earliest wildflowers and the leaves wrap around the flower to protect it from the cold temperatures we usually have when it blooms. This flower was wrapped up even though it was 26C at the time. Trout Lilies, Wild Ginger, Trilliums and Blue Cohosh all had leaves poking through the ground.

The weather is supposed to cool down in a couple of days, but temperatures will still be well above normal. We really need rain. Our maple syrup season ended abruptly last week and fruit trees will be vulnerable to frost damage when they bloom early. I do hope summer is not proportionately hotter than normal like winter and spring have been!