I will be planting my seeds indoors for lettuce, peas, kolabi & the like very soon to be put out in 4-5 weeks. By mid March it's definitely spring. I'm on the southern coast of NC.

Well, it depends on your definition of spring. If it's when the spring bulbs begin to flower - the earliest daffodils are just starting now - I have one open and several almost open. The winter-flowering shrubs are going strong - see recent posts. I also noticed one blue crocus this morning...

The redbuds won't be open for another month or more, nor will the dogwoods, so that might be your starting point...

If you are talking about consistent temperatures in the 40's-50's, well, again, it depends - we've BEEN having that, but it was 20 at a neighbor's this morning, and I was told it would be in the teens one morning next week. We WILL be having temps in the high 60's again in the next week, but then they will go back to 40's, so that's not it. And there is always a danger of a late frost until May, so the end of freezing isn't it.

I think you can only say that it arrives sometime in Jan. for the opening signs, shows up in Feb. for the full force, and is definitely here by Mar., but exactly when it begins is anyone's guess, as there isn't any ONE thing or day that points to it, and when you can say "now it's spring". It's mostly an awareness that spring IS here... Maybe it's when the robins come, which should be in another few weeks.

I already have snowbells blooming & my quince is flowering.

I have been seeing robins for the past couple of weeks & our neighbors have seen bluebirds checking out the houses.

I think that this year it will be difficult to know exactly when spring is here due to the unseasonably warm weather....not that I'm complaining about that!

Have we even had winter yet? I'm still waiting. My beehives think it's spring, bringing lots of pollen into the hives. Forsythia is blooming and so are the daffodils. I think we escaped winter this year. At least I hope it doesn't blast us now, so many things would be lost. Theresa.

theresa, that's what i am so afraid of. i feel like other than a cold early start in october that blasted things into dormancy, we really haven't had winter yet. i'm waiting pensively for the very unwelcome other shoe to drop. seems like it normally does if we have a warm jan- february comes in with wiicked cold. although i suppose we won't be happy with the amount of bugs & diseases that didn't get killed off next summer if we don't get some cold weather.

my quince, winter honeysuckle, camellia and veronica 'georgia blue' are all starting. the rosemary never really stopped. i haven't had any daffs yet, but they are getting there. mine tend to bloom a little later than the crowd anyhow.

Here in Charlotte, our last frost date is tax day, April 15. I consider spring to have started when the Forsythia blooms, which typically means around the 3rd week of February in my yard.

I wondered how typical this ice storm today is...this is our 1st winter here.

I have bluebird pairs feeding at the feeder and looking at the house I just put up. Also saw robins poking at the ground, but then I had robins in my CT yard all winter long; they only came out to be seen and beg food in the worst of blizzards - amazing to see a flock of >20 robins sitting in the juniper bush 3' from the kitchen door with all the other normal winter birds! Throw them some berries and nuts with some suet and they can make it through the blizzards. (I wish I had known about mealworms then!)
"Sorry for the bird digression - hoepfully there are enough of us here who garden with the birds not to mind...)

I'd say today's ice storm was fairly typical for here. The only other thing I could say is our winters can have very wide temperature swings. They are anything but predictable.

If you are a die hard gardener it starts in March. If you like to dabble in the garden, it is in April. The nurseries really don't start getting a GOOD selection of plants in until after the frost date.

It definately is not tomorrow. Low temps are expected to be around 20 degrees! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This year has really been horrible on our plants at the nursery. One day it's summer the next it's winter. Although I really hate it when winter rolls around, we do need the freezing temps to keep next years insect population in check!

My daffodils have been blooming for two weeks now and my perennial candytuft has had white blooms also for about two weeks. This has been a strange winter and the only plants I am really concerned about are my hydrangeas - other than that, I love seeing some color here in January.

Carrie