Hello

Spring must have sprung. I looked into my little garden
and I have 3 red tulips in bloom. I didn't notice them
last week when I walked into my garden. I bought the tulip bulbs at Costco.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought two bags of perennials (cone flowers and siberian irises ) at Costco. Each bag cost around $14.00. What is the stuff in the bag, Is it peat moss ?

I saw my first flowering quince in bloom a couple of weeks ago, and the perennial violets are now blooming as well. These tend to be the harbingers of spring here in the Sacramento area. Between the rain and the cold wind, I haven't been too motivated to get out and work in the garden, although I'm sure the weeds are getting more entrenched by the day. Sue

I've noticed some things starting to bud and new growth.
I could still get frost for another couple weeks so can't get too excited about anything.
Have kept up on the weeding thru the winter despite temps being cooler than average. About 60 today and breezy as usual but warmer by the weekend.

Sorry,

I beat you to it.

See my Early Spring Thread posted last week.

Well bear,it was so dark last week from all the cold rain it took until today for me to believe it!
And speaking of that,you early risers notice its quite abit lighter at around the 7-7:30 A.M. time?

Oh man,today its sunglasses time.

Hearing the temperate plants are stirring is a nice thought. My Bougy 'Barbara Karst' stayed evergreen this year. Sort of an indicator plant for the winters overall mildness.

I am just glad the sun is setting later on my slope instead of 2:30pm! No kidding!

The solar azimuth is definitely getting higher and days are longer already. It's been a mild winter here in Bakersfield and only now, as the jet stream is beginning to be perturbed again, are we seeing some chilly days. But thankfully, there is no hard freeze in site like last January! It's amazing that we only had about 4 or 5 days of Tule Fog this winter.

I'll be moving some 300 miles north in just a few days and although its a 9b instead of a 9a zone, it's definitely cooler and wetter at this time. I've noted this on the last two trips I made up to SJO to find new digs. I could feel it getting colder with every mile northbound on the I-5. When I go, I'll be pushing that azimuth down again. 10 days and a WU! I'm so short I need a step ladder to get across my door step!

San Jose is a great place bearstate. Some areas have a tropical vibe with the many palms. A very good compromise of inland summer warmth without unbearstateable heat,but with milder winters.With a little bit of overhead cover you jump to a 10a winter.

I sure wish spring would come up here. It is supposed to get down to 28 tonight. And it is windy to boot. I have been seeing buds forming on some of the trees/shrubs and some crocus are smiling at us. The CA poppies have sent up a lot of new babies. I know we need the rain, but I am really enjoying the sunshine today.
Donna in sunny Orland, Glenn County

Yup same here. All of my fruit trees are breaking buds (cherries, plums, apricotts), the brugmansia is refoliating after losing all it's leaves in the frost, new leaves unfurling on the australian tree fern, new fronds pushing up on the majesty palm and phoenix canariensis, easter lily's are pushing up out of the ground and just noticed yesterday that the freesia are about to flower and so are the verbena - they've been lazy non-bloomers all winter long, and finally have begun to bud up. More significantly, all of the native brown birds are crazy making nests and doing their mating rituals, as are my cockatiels.

From Digitalseed's website, which seems dead on to me: Southern California Garden Guide Month of February.

February is a transition month; one foot in winter, the other in spring. In Southern California, these days may seem like spring - the weather is warming and the first of the spring bulbs are starting to bloom - but it's still winter and most plants are growing slowly. This is not a major planting month.

Wait to plant those summer vegetables. There is little sense in planting tomatoes and other summer-garden edibles until the soil warms up.

Plan for spring. Time to go through those seed catalogs and order your seeds. Try something new - an interesting flower or vegetable you haven't tried yet. Do your part to maintain the world's biodiversity, try some of the wonderful open-pollinated or heirloom varieties.

Now is also a good time to clean up the garden; prepare the soil, build a compost pile, and stay ahead of the weeds.

Yep, I had to prune the clematis early cause they were already breaking. I'm holding back on the fertilizer though til around mid-Feb. Although it's unlikely we'll get frost again, it's still possible and I don't want any tender new growth if that happens.

Weeds? Shoot, I've been weeding all winter. I start walking the yard in January and get them before they get a head start. I snail baited a few weeks ago, it's time to do it again with all the rain, I'm sure it's all melted and I want to catch those puppies before they start.

Tons of bulb foliage up; my neighbor's daffs are already blooming! They must be the early season variety.
Some of the Ceanothus is starting to color and I'm seeing blooms on the Tidy Tips.

Come on long days!!! I HATE the long nights.

wanda

I like to complain,so here goes. Frost isnt over at my house! Its 34 at 10:30pm tonight. February is the turning point though, things start growing again. Nights are shorter. Yadayada...

The leaf buds on the buckeye are really swelling now, but I'm still waiting for my flowering quince to do something.

The wind just stopped a few minutes ago, and the temps are slowly edging down to the forecasted 32F and below here just north of Sac.

It's really nice to have some sunshine in the mix for a change. :)

Brenda

Here in BKF, sunrise is supposed to happen at 6:52am. But the crack of dawn is already lighting up the morning sky as I write this at 6:30am and has been doing so for at least 5 or more minutes.

Dicot is correct that winter is not over. The Vernal Equinox occurs on March 21st. That's the last day of Winter. Until then and even afterwards, Mom Nature can still pitch us a slider ... via the jet stream dragging down some cold arctic air as it wriggles with air mass displacement under the warming of the Sun at higher azimuth.

However, it's wrong to believe that February and even January are not good for planting new seed. These are actually the best months for planting a whole panoply of seed varieties. Human cultivated crop seeds like veggies should be held in reserve for a while though. That's likely true.

Ah, I wish I could have stayed long enough here to see my experiments bust out of the ground this Spring. But 'se la vi'! Sacrifices must be made.

I think veggie seeds can definitely be planted now. Doesnt mean its spring! I start some summer crops in Feb (peppers indoors). And absolutely cool season stuff.

It's spring enough for cabbage,broccoli and the rest of the cool season crops. Is it Spring enough to put away warm clothing?-of course not. But those who think it still winter will realize come March or April that they wasted time getting some plants in the ground when it gets warm. And i'm speaking mainly to the Sunset zones of 13,15-24. If you know your area still has "bite" to it ,by all means be conservative.I vote San Francisco(zone17)gardening liberal!

Well, after a huge windstorm a couple of weeks ago, and something like 23 days of rain, I'm not sure spring has sprung!
We have FINALLY had a few days of sunshine and no rain in order to put on a new roof!
The old roof was a 20 yr roof, and we've been in the house 19 yrs. (doubt the insurance would pay for a new roof without canceling us) So it was time to do it!
NT

My gosh, I just finished pruning the roses a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still recuperating...I can't POSSIBLY start weeding yet!!

How nice? A warm sunny weekend to do my move in. Yes!

Rain is part of Spring. Remember ... April showers ... bring May flowers.

As for weeding ... heck ... since I'm leaving, I just had the hired help weed wack everything in the patio except the Peruvian Night Shade, Boogies, Crepe Myrtles and the climbing Roses. Clean as a hound's tooth ... whatever that means?

Time to go to work tomorrow ... I got a truck to load and have to figure out how to get my mini-jungle on that truck without getting dirt on anything else and without breaking any terracotta pots or the plants themselves.

6 days and WU till I'm totally out of purgatory. :)

Spring is here early and so ... my Spring cleaning will be done early too!

As long as the calendar says it's winter, then it isn't spring yet. Today was warmer but there are several weeks of winter left and anything can happen. How can one say for sure that the warmer temps will stay this way? As for me, I'm going to continue enjoying the gardening hiatus and plan for spring planting.

I agree with Stanofh. As far as the calendar goes,
winter doesn't really end until March 21, but there are too many climatic variations to be absolute.
New growth is sprouting in my garden. Plants are starting to wake up. This, to me, is the signal of spring beginnings.
Sure, we will still get some coolish days and cool nights and I will not be planting tomatoes until after the first of March, nor rushing fertilization, but I am definitely poised and ready.
The signs and signals are there (in my zone) that it is coming and that's enough to cause me to celibrate. Wooooooo Hoooooooooo

Whats interesting for my area is that sunny and mid 60's is predicted for the weekend. And our February ave. is 60-62H and 43-44L(beginning and ending of month temps) all time.So,it's not all my hunch's that spring has sprung-lol. Another great thing about February(becoming one of my favorite months!) is that we never have as a much as a single 80 and very rare to have a 70 day in all of Dec.or Jan...February almost always has a 70 or two. And,again looking at local records, spring has gotten warmer over the last thirty years. If its global or plain urban(bay area 3-4 mill in the 70's now,7.2 mill pop.) warming doesnt matter..just enjoy!

Our weather report is for temps in the 60's for the high, but lows down in the low 30's. We still have to watch out for the frost. I don't want to lose anything to the frost now. By the end of the month we should be out of the woods.
Donna in Orland.

Ok, I could not resist the beautiful weather and nice comfortable temps today so I went out and tackled the spot left bare by the rose I just removed. Got a few things in, moved a plant to another bare spot, did a bit of cleaning up. I'm back in the gardening groove and tomorrow I'll start some pruning.

I do remember a hard frost in late winter or early spring several years ago, so I tend to be a little conservative and wait too long before I prune.

Jen

It should get to 80 today but no way am I doing anything major. I'll pull some weeds and do some planning but no digging or pruning yet. It still could get to 30 at night into March with frost.

My home temp hit 64 yesterday..and that was after a morning of dense fog.Temps shot straight up.Today it's sunny from the getgo. Using the car air conditioner for the first time since November..dust and spider webs shot out..ah,just kidding. Weeding like the rest of you while the ground is soft and the air warm...

70 yesterday!..made it!

It's gonna be green out there and worth taking a road trip with the camera in hand to some of those outback places where the hills are normally tan and brown.

It has been a mild winter. There are Pathos growing out doors where I am moving to and they are flourishing. I've heard you can only grow those outdoors in central and southern Florida?!

Bearstate, if you put sunglasses on those hills become golden...hence the name the golden state. That is what I tell people back east.

Another 80 degree day here

It's been in the high 60's here. Today we went out to plant 2 bare root trees and we were out in our shirtsleeves. I did some pruning and some wintersowing. I am worried that as warm as it is, my perennials wont get the cold they need to germinate. I love the warm weather, but I have so much to get done before spring arrives. I really need to weed. I wonder if it is warm enough for roundup?
Donna

Anybody putting down slug/snail bait? This is definitely the time. I baited the entire yard (front and back) with Sluggo. If you get them under control NOW, you will have less problems in the future.

Weeding...DEFINTELY. The ground is still soft from the rains and they come up easily. As long at the temp. is above 60 and the weeds are actively growing, Round-Up will work. Just make sure it stays dry long enough.

I finished up my Clematis pruning this weekend, pulled a few weeds and shovel-pruned a few shrubs. Tried to figure out where the new Clematis on order will be placed and made some cuttings from the old Clematis prunings, and planted a few other items in my "plant ghetto".

Things are starting to get green and growy. Buds galore on all of the Ceanothus.

Yep, Spring is defintely just around the corner.

Come on LONG days!!!!!

Not to keep my own topic going just for the sake of it..But,isnt it nice that if it's not very warm today-at least its NOT COLD?..not cold anymore..what a relief-lol.
And Wanda is right on..picked up some empty pots in the yard to do repotting..young snails all over.
BAIT TIME!

I am SORE - spent 2-1/2 hours bent over, yanking the dreaded oxalis pes-caprae (Bermuda Buttercup) weed out wherever I could reach. It's times like this I can't imagine having to take care of something bigger than our 1/6 of an acre. How do people do it? Maybe they hire help, I can't imagine being able to do it all by oneself (as I do).

The weeds will come back, of course, so I'll need to do another round in a month or so. Yes, definitely time to bait again with Sluggo, too!

The bearded iris have been blooming for over a month, and the white callas are finally starting to bloom too. They are one of my favorite pairings. And the freesias and ranunculus are putting up buds, all ready to bloom soon. I can hardly wait - I love those two bulbs. I never used to like ranunculus, but the new Bloomingdale hybrids totally won me over. And who can resist the sweet perfume of freesias?

This was a bouquet from last spring - I meant to cut some callas and iris today, but was just too tired after all that work!
{{gwi:510185}}

Today was a bit cool, with the prevailing winds, but still the warming trend is on! The callas have been blooming since last month and so has my meyer lemon. Freesias and irises are budding too. can't wait until the freesias are in full bloom. I have large clumps flanking my front entrance and the fragrance is amazing.

Is it super hot there? One of
the most loveliest season for
me is spring, because I can wear
my shades and I can also swim
at that season.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ski Goggles

Today the eastbay was 78f and I bought my T-matos,Chard plants,and zuke and cuke seeds. Swiss Chard 50 cent a leaf at the market?-stop the insanity!...it's a weed here in Califorinia for gosh sake.
How did spam pick my topic?-lol.