Oreo Cookies and Spring Bulbs

My grandson had me buy his favorite cookies, Golden Oreo's. We opened the bag and a little later I noticed he had a stack of cookies on his plate. I put all but three back in the bag hoping to teach him good eating habits. The other day my husband and I noticed that the middles were missing from a  lot of the Oreo's. We were perplexed until we realized that grandson had eaten the centers and put  the cookie part back in the bag. We laughed about this one. I quess three year olds are smarter than their grandparents!

Now for some flower advice ~
How will the lack of snow and cold affect the plants?
 Bulbs will grow in response to two variables, light and temperature. This year, the lack of deep cold and periodic spring warmth has tricked many of early bulbs to break ground weeks ahead of their normal cycle. Nearly all bulbs need a cold period to produce flowers and the cold period needs to last 12-16 weeks or 3-4 months in order of the bulbs to rest and then regrow. Even with the relatively mild winter, our temperatures have been cool enough to give the bulbs their needed dormancy period.

The leaves of spring bulbs are much tougher than their summertime counterparts. The cellular structure of the leaves is such that they can handle the freeze thaw cycle of late winter and early spring. These types of bulbs include daffodils, tulips, crocus, and the like. The fact that the leaves have already broken ground this time of year won't harm the bulb. What you may notice is some browning of the leaf tips and an earlier bloom.  Some bulbs don't flower as well after not having a nice blanket of snow. In the future, you could take some evergreen branches, like those from your Christmas tree, and cover the emerging bulbs with the branches. If you don't have a tree, cut some greens from the woods or use some hay. Keep some soil visible by not piling on the greens or other material too thick. Remember, tulips and hyacinths decline anyway after few years,  treat them as annuals. We will have nice ones at the market during Easter this year.

So what about those shrubs that have their buds opening or already opened? Shrubs that flower early set their buds last summer. In other words, those flower buds always sit dormant through the winter. Plants like lilac, forsythia, rhododendron, magnolia, early dogwoods,and others that flower before mid-June may start to come out of dormancy earlier than usual with the warm weather. The plants themselves will not be harmed. However, some of the flower buds could end up being killed if they open too much and then we get a blast of arctic air. The cold air will be able to penetrate into the buds and thus the plants will not be as floriferous as they potentially could have been. The cold air basically dried out the flower buds. I am ready for spring. How about you?

Blessings,
The Plant Lady ~ Linda