did you add fert in the hole.. when you planted in fall ... that MIGHT be a reason ....

you might want to get a box from the grocer or somewhere ... and watch the weather ... and if you get any extreme temps drops ... run out and put the box over the plant ... just to protect it from above ... retained heat in the soil .. will keep the inside of the box a bit warmer than air temps ... and then remove the box in the morning ... do not leave it on all day ...

flora is probably right ... in your warm zone ... im just giving you an idea of how we in cold frost/freeze areas .. protect from extra cold in late spring ...

ken

I was walking in the yard today with my 17-month old granddaughter who loves shuffling through the leaves in the lowest part of our yard which is not really landscaped at all. I noticed green shoots coming up, too. I will check again tomorrow, but I think the shoots are daffodils. Yikes.

I did point them out to her-she will be a gardener, I have no doubt! We also waded through large stands of Carex-swishy swooshy-which was oh so exciting!

Nope, I didn't add fertilizer to the hole when I planted. Just compost. So I don't think it was that. I may just leave it and see what happens, but I'll watch it closely and if that first leaf shows signs of damage, I'll try to protect it. But in real life, I probably won't be able to do it every time the temperature gets down. I can't be too much of a slave to my garden! Thanks for your input.

Watch out with the Carex and the tiddler. I don't know which species you have over there but a lot of them can give you a nasty cut.

cyn, I watch a little girl who will be two the end of May and we spend a lot it time outside too! Tons of leaf kicking, puddle jumping and stick collecting :)

My daffs are also poking their heads up and a couple of the early blooming peonies have begun to awaken.

Update: The tiny leaves that came up in at the beginning of January continued to very slowly grow even through the snow and cold temperatures, no damage whatsoever. Now that the weather has warmed up, it grew a few new shoots as well. Interestingly, the leaves that came up in the middle of winter look very different, and those stems do not have flower buds, but the new stems are taller, have a different color, and have flower buds. When I planted it, it certainly was just one root, and not a graft.

Feburary 12, 2020:

April 1, 2020

Today (April 8, 2020). The leaves on the right are what came up in the winter. The ones on the left are the new ones.

Plants don't respond to dates. They don't wait for a specific date to emerge. They respond to changes in their environment (temperature, precipitation, etc). When the conditions are suitable for them to grow, they will grow.

Peonies can send up multiple stems as long as there is enough root tissue to do so. Expect your plant to have many stems in the future.