Archive: Around Town

Dan SegalWith snow arriving Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and again on Easter, one can’t help but wonder what Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day may have in store. And, as in mid winter, we wondered what effect the warm-December-into-real-winter would have on our plants, we may now be wondering what will happen to all the plants that poked up from the ground during our false spring of a few weeks ago. Not just the bulbs, but peonies, day lilies, countless perennials, plus all the trees and shrubs that budded out with the tease.

In concert with us, the people, many of our plants seem to have asked, “Haven’t I Waited Long Enough?” Usually, we enjoy a period of time in early spring where the nice weather comes and goes again, and the question isn’t if we’ll continue to have cold interspersed, but how cold, and will it actually snow or just drizzle flurries for a week straight. Usually, the plants know it’s not real spring, and they wait, or some wait while others leap ahead. Those that leap ahead tend to be those that can withstand the cold on their newer growth, but keep in mind a bud is less tender than a leaf in most cases, and the robust shoots that emerge and then wait, poised, coiled, wrapped, furled—those shoots are tough. They’re much more durable than the tender leaves rolled within.

So while they appear to have been fooled, or foolhardy, they know what they’re doing, more or less. They are still waiting, most of them—the buds growing fuller, brighter, but still in bud rather than opening all the way. Most plants will be fine, at least for long-term survival. Some buds may be injured by vacillating warm and cold weather in early spring, but rarely will plants die from the swings. Keep in mind, success for a plant is just staying alive, living to reproduce. Success for us, the people, has gradually grown to mean more than that.

Speaking of us, the people, what do we do that’s similar? I guess some of us run around in t-shirts when it’s still just 40 degrees, we put the ice scraper away, or we perform those tasks that symbolize and herald spring, when in fact we know it’s not really here. Because haven’t we waited long enough?

As for what this all means for your garden, and your life in it, don’t panic. You’ll go from not wanting to do much gardening in these cold days of early April, to feeling some remorse later in the spring at your tenderness. But don’t panic! Plants and people have one very important thing in common—we both like warm soil. Few gardeners really enjoy working cold, sticky soil in April, and few plants really enjoy growing in that stuff. By contrast, most gardeners, and plants, prefer the warmer, more friable soil you find in May, or often not until June. Growth rates improve, moisture balance is better, and morale goes way up. Our morale is manifest in our behavior and moods; the plants just show it with bursts of growth and splendor.

As a nurseryman, I won’t discourage anyone from gardening in April—if you can dig a hole, you can plant, and that’s true the entire year. But don’t feel bad if you wait till May, even if your crazy gardening neighbor is out there now, in the flurries weeding and raking and…gardening. Yes, we’ve waited long enough, we and the plants. And we can wait another few weeks if we have to. But here’s to what Frog, of Frog and Toad fame, calls “…the warm clear light of April”.