Sprinter

Front yard view 2/10/2020

In my last post it was mentioned that this winter was reminding me of 2019 never ending snow, well now that more time has gone by that could not be farther form the truth. The snow basically shut off, one day last week was absolutely beautiful with sunny skies it went to 57 degrees, that was the day the snowcover took a huge hit. Ever since then it has been in the upper 30s to lower 40s most days and the remaining snowcover has been slowly receding. It's Winter but it seems an awful lot like early spring winter, Wasn't sure what to call it so I called it Sprinter. Much more a fan of the way the weather has been this year compared to last when we had 2 feet of snow on the ground until nearly mid March, this year has been much more like the other 5 years I've been in Iowa where the snowcover "comes and goes"

Snowdrops in full bloom 2/10/2020

The snowdrops are in full bloom this week, by far the earliest I've recorded. What's strange is that it doesn't seem to make a difference if they are near the house or out in the middle of the yard there blooming all over. I tried to put snow on them but they just keep popping through and blooming away happily. Typically these reach full flower at the end of the month to early March. This year they have been flowering since around January 9th.

Daffodils 2/10/2020

Daffodils are way out, again much farther then I've ever seen for it being so early in the season. It seems they are only a week or two away from blooming which beyond unusual. March is more typical blooming time for these, however this particular variety 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' is known for being quite early and this is only the second year in the garden so I am unsure of whats considered normal timing for these. 

More Daffodils 2/10/2020

Here is another patch of Daffodils which might be 'Scarlet O' Hara' and a couple mornings ago the mulch was being lifted up by these vigorous way-to-eagar bulbs. We have two more nice days coming up before we have a brief one day arctic outbreak Thursday temperatures will go below zero. I'm a bit concerned since it doesn't look like it comes with snowcover which is natures protective blanket so they will be unprotected. Hopefully it will not ruin the bulb show later on in the season.  I guess we will find out.