Late bloomer

I happened to note last year that the forsythia was already blooming on President's Day, which was February 15th in 2010. The forsythia is just now beginning to blossom this year. According to UW meteorologist Cliff Mass we did have an unusually cold stretch for a few weeks in late February, although I don't recall that we dropped below freezing much. I'm not sure whether that's the reason for the late-blooming forsythia or not. The crocuses were already starting to blossom on February 19th this year (I posted photos to Facebook), but I've never noted the date of first crocus blossoms in the past, so I have no idea whether that's early or late. Memory says they've bloomed in January before, but memory talks a lot of shit. Going back through my gardening posts, I discovered that it was Eric the baker at ETG and not don_fitch, as I've always remembered it, who recommended President's Day as the day to prune roses. Stupid memory!

I did prune a rose on President's Day this year (which was, you guessed it, February 19th), and it already had a lot of new leaves on it, making me wish I'd pruned it on MLK Day instead. But that would have been cold pruning, as I recall. Not that it was particularly warm on President's Day, but it was a beautiful sunny day. I've got photographic evidence of it.