The Winter That Never Was

Its been spookily warm this year and has never really gotten very cold.  We've seen lots of 50's and 60's and the thermometer hit 70 this week. The daffodils are starting to bloom what feels like about 2 weeks early, normally they come around valentines day.  The prunus mume still has flowers after about 6 weeks of flowering, I saw cherry trees beginning to turn pink in town this afternoon. 

It is really tempting to think "that's it, spring is here" even though its only Feb 3rd.  Apparently both Punxsutawney Phil  up in Pennsylvania and Sir Walter Wally here in NC saw their shadows yesterday.  But I've never put much stock in their predictions.

Call me a geek, but I think it's interesting to study the weather records from time to time.  The record lows and highs for our area from Jan 20 through today run from the single digits all the way up into the 80's and across decades from the fifties until recently.  There was a little heat bump in 2002 with a couple of days running in the 80's and also back in 1989, but otherwise there is no real pattern.  There was also a record 17.9 inch snowfall in 2000.  So it's safe to say that the weather can be fickle in this part of the world this time of year.  Though I'm not saying I don't believe in climate change, I absolutely do.

In fact this past week the USDA changed the plant hardiness zone map for the US for the first time in 22 years.  Based on weather patterns over the last 30 years, the whole country pretty much got bumped up a notch, adding 5 degrees to the average low.  The Piedmont of NC is now zone 7b instead of 7a.

This clump of white hellebores has been going to town for about a month.  I'm used to them blooming during the cold times, but they still started a bit early I think, they are in a sunny protected spot.  It has certainly helped the vegetables to grow nicely despite the short days.

I'm tempted to toss out a few pea and lettuce seeds and see what happens.  Does the change in the hardiness zone result in a change in the last and first predicted frost dates?  I'll have to go look that up next...

Hello Hellebores

This was the scene that we woke to this morning, swirling white, coming down pretty heavily. But it didn’t last long, by afternoon the white was all gone. I like the effect of the railroad ties holding the snow and outlining the path of stones.


This afternoon I took a brisk walk and it was windy and cold, but the sun came and went and it was good to be outside. Lots of birds were down along the creek, golden and ruby crowned kinglets, a phoebe, winter wrens and a hermit thrush were all twittering along the banks, staying just ahead of me as I walked.

The past week or so the hellebores or Lenten roses have begun to bloom- I just put that one together, last week was the start of lent and that’s when the blooms start and they pretty much last through spring. An Ah Ha moment for me!

They are quite delightful and these are some very special ones we picked up a few years back. I can’t help loving things that bloom in winter.