It Must be March!  Oh wait, no it isn't but it sure feels like it doesn't it?  The weather has been unseasonably warm and the plants are responding accordingly, which may not be a good thing.  Don't get me wrong I love being able to get outside and do stuff in the garden but the effect on the trees is what concerns me.  Do you remember 2007?  It seemed very similar to this year.  Unseasonably mild temperatures, we thought that maybe winter was done early and so did the plants, but we were deceived! Winter had one more blast to give us in freezing temperatures and it did a number on our favorite garden specimens.  I'm hoping we don't have to go through that again this year. 

The Japanese maples and crape myrtles suffered the most but all kinds of plants were fooled and received frost damage.  The warm temperatures caused the sap to flow which then froze in the trunks of the trees and caused splitting.  Splitting bark isn't a good thing!  At our house we lost several Japanese hollies that year.  I can't say I was disappointed as I probably would have removed them anyway in favor of something a little less holly-like!

Have you been around your garden and gaged what is coming up early?  I took a trip around the garden yesterday and found a few things.  They are probably coming up in your garden too. The crocus bulbs are sending up their foliage (picture on the right).

The daffodils are coming up too.  I wouldn't be surprised to see the daffodils actually bloom in early February.  The earliest I've had one bloom was in the middle of February and that daffodil bloomed back in 2009.  

The Lenten Rose is already blooming and it's not even Ash Wednesday yet!

Even the tulips are sending up foliage.  I have a combination of Negrita and Shirley tulips that have done a great job for my garden over the years.  The secret (which is not so secret and applies to many bulb flowers) is to allow the foliage to die back naturally to absorb as much energy as possible for the following bloom cycle.  This is how their foliage looks now:

And here's what they will turn into when their blooming begins!

But then of course there are those winter bloomers that are showing off as expected like Winter Jasmine.  Although I have to admit the show isn't nearly as nice as last year but when in winter one should not be picky when it comes to blooms!