Today is spring? I’m not impressed.

There should be no surprise that the weather on the first day of spring is not much different from the preceding three weeks, and much the same or worse is forecast for the next ten days. It’s not exactly cold, but this doesn’t feel like March, or spring. It’s more an extended February.

I don’t expect any weather related problems from this cold, or light snow that’s a possibility again tomorrow. Daffodils (above) and any other plants that are flowering, or any new growth that’s popping up on perennials is well acclimated so that it won’t be injured, and most often the relatively mild cold temperatures will only extend the life of blooms. So, don’t worry about the cold. Don’t run out to drape a blanket over the pieris (Pieris japonica ‘Dorothy Wyckoff’, below), and don’t waste a moment worrying about the garden. It will be fine, though just like you, it’ll be shivering.

When it warmed up for a few hours on Saturday bees awakened from their winter slumber to seek out early blooms. The pieris was buzzing as bees darted frantically between blooms. As the sun set and temperatures dropped, the bees disappeared, and they haven’t been back. It could be another week before they’ve thawed out enough to get moving again, but this weekend it won’t be raining or snowing, so I’ll be out and about. There’s far too much to do to sit out another weekend, or even a few hours.

I’ll be working on the spring clean up, and today I brought home a bunch of new hellebores (above) to plant, so I have plenty to do. I warn family and friends not to bother including me in their plans for several weeks once the garden clean up has begun, and not that I’m ever invited or anyone wants to visit, but my wife knows that I’m doing nothing over the next three weekends but garden chores.

I know that everyone’s thinking that the day this spell of cold is over the temperatures are likely to skyrocket straight to hot. So many times these things catch your attention, but we know that’s not reality. Certainly, we’re due for some average and above temperatures since the last month has been slightly colder than average, but any string of very warm days in April will probably be followed by a few cool ones and so on until the start of June. This is how it works in spring, though the weather last year makes you question if things work properly anymore.