The final throws of winter are upon us, and today I walked outside to check on how my dormant trees and plants are doing.
The first flower of winter in my yard is consistently the Snowdrop. It just opened its petals for the sunny afternoon warmth.
Evening and morning temperatures are still below freezing. The snowdrop thrives from the moisture of the icemelt, and February's increasing amounts of daily sunlight for every day the plant grows larger.
Here I checked on my dormant trees in my bonsai collection.
The pussywillow is slowly starting to push out catkin buds. Once the fur of the catkins open up, this signifies the end of the tree's dormancy. This usually happens when a few weeks of warmer temperatures occur in mid February to early March.
Under the ceramic dishes, dampened pinecones are being protected from rodents. If a few western hemlocks sprout from these, I will be overjoyed.
The developed forsythia here is another winter blooming tree to keep an eye on. When its yellow flowers appear, this is a signal to me that it is now warm enough for me to sow many types of vegetable seeds.
In the greenhouse, my thermometer show internal temperatures are still below freezing. Brassica seeds enjoy the cold wet, and have started to sprout.
The tiny cotton root root hairs are visible. The plan is to transplant them into cups after they form true leaves and stronger stems.
I also removed some cold stratified seeds from the fridge, and moved them into the sunlit greenhouse. Birch seeds, I am attempting again in three different ways. One cup has seeds on a wet paper towel, on cup has damp steril soil, and one cup has garden soil and had been stratified in the greenhouse this whole time since January.
Wait and see what surprises are in store.
