March 7th, 2009 Springing Forward
New Dawn preparing to flower
Yesterday was absolutely beautiful here! Sunny, warm (over 50F), a few clouds now and then, a good breeze to help dry the soil. Amazing for early March!
A tour of our garden revealed many surprises. Tulips, daffodils, narcissus and Siberian irises are all peaking through the soil. Under the mulch of leaves, perennials were greening up in anticipation of more warm days ahead. The buds on the trees, especially the maple, are beginning to swell. All signs of what’s to come.
A very nice surprise came when the roses and chestnut showed no signs of being winter pruned by our resident rabbits. I think we can in part, thank the large bird population in our garden who, are very messy eaters. They spill as much bird feed on the ground as they eat, I swear! And the rabbits eat the spillings.
Not so nice is all the litter that has been buried under the snow. Why people cannot throw their garbage into a trash can is beyond me! Pop cans, drink cups, chip bags, papers all scattered around the property. The other nasty, we found are the land mines left by dogs. Poop and scoop is a foreign concept to some of the dog owners here. But, I’m not getting into all of that!
Since it is just the first week of March, I resisted the temptation to begin the garden clean up. The mulch was left in place and shrubs were left un-pruned as I know more cold weather, and snow, will come. One thing I did do, and it broke my heart to do it, was cut back our “New Dawn” climbing rose. Yes, my pretty climber that reached over the porch roof, is now a mere ten inches high. Why you ask? Read on!
The rose has to be moved to allow easier (and safer) access to the porch which will be undergoing some renovations this year. In preparation for that move, I took the precautionary measure of cutting it back before its leaves began to sprout. In theory, having less growth to maintain will make transplanting easier on the rose. When it is moved to its new home, the rose can concentrate its energy on developing new roots, rather than dividing its energy between new roots, new leaves and flower buds. It will likely be sometime in April before the “New Dawn” is transplanted. I will wait until I know it has just broken dormancy, as evidenced by the swelling buds of this year’s leaves.
All in all, yesterday was a delightful taste of spring. A kind of day that gets the inspiration and imagination going, A taste of warmer days ahead and another gardening season that will be full of colour, fragrance and beauty.
