Garden news- April 1, 2012- It's a record

With the contest over I will try a post every week keeping you up to date with garden news. Sometimes like today it is difficult. Every moment seems like there is something else to do in the garden. The dandelions have started. While they do go well with the bluebells, sometimes you have to draw the line.
It is also time to divide hosta, potting them up to move somewhere else. I also need to make room for all the plants that are to arrive in the next two weeks.

So here is the news.
We all knew that it is strange that the lilacs and crab apples, that normally bloom in May, are blooming the end of March.
But now we know that an historic March has just ended.
The weather bureau says its true. March ended with an average mean temperature in Iowa City of 52.5 degrees. (That’s not the high. That’s the middle or average or something in the middle.) That is an all time record. It is something like 13.9 degrees higher than normal. It was 5 degrees warmer than ever. Ever.
One could worry. The ten-day forecast looks safe. So it seems appropriate to enjoy it.

So the explosion continues.


So let me share my enjoyment with pictures. You can even do what you do best- vote for what you like. You preferences may show up in the next contest.

First there is this wonderful daffodil. The late ones are just coming out now.

Then there is this crown imperial fritillaria, from underneath. The crown imperials were better this spring than ever. I don't know why a warm winter would make them bloom better. The only think I did different was that I fertilized them the moment they were out of the ground this spring. Who knows? There could have been a contest just between the crown imperial pictures this week. Some of the bonus pictures are almost better than this one.

Here is this wonderful tiny epimedium.

Finally here is this tulip, with many spikes.

-------------------------




For those of you who enjoyed the signs of the times references you may remember the stray electricity discussion.
We not long thereafter the Des Moines Register had an article that was a cousin.
Here is the link
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120319/NEWS/303190018/Leaping-Asian-carp-threaten-Iowa-Great-Lakes
It turns out that someone was thinking about creating electric fences in lakes or rivers to keep out the jumping carp. It goes without saying that they should think about harnessing the power of the stray electricity.
I quote as follows:

Headline
Leaping Asian carp threaten Iowa Great Lakes
Electric fence sought to keep fish from Dickinson County rec areas

“Large leaping carp capable of injuring boaters and skiers made their way up a Missouri River tributary during last year’s floods and threaten to spread into the Iowa Great Lakes, one of Iowa’s premier vacation spots. Community leaders are scrambling to install an electric barrier to stop the Asian silver carp from swimming up the Little Sioux River and into a small creek connected to Lower Gar Lake, the southernmost of the chain of glacial lakes. “They can knock people out of a boat,” said Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, who represents the lakes area. “They can knock someone off a Jet Ski.”

Is it true or is it the onion? Or maybe it is Iowa.



Here are lots of bonus pictures. I can take 50 a day without exhausting my subjects.







Philip