March 25th, 2011
Week 12: 3/19 – 3/25
2011-03-24. Pink evening primroses insist it’s spring despite a poor showing of bluebonnets.
Suddenly, the yard is plunged into shade. The morning sun stops shining through my bedroom window and plants that have grown all winter in the full sun, plants about to flower, are now in the shade. The cedar elms have leafed out and transformed the landscape. I’m not as fond as cedar elms as I once was, as they are the trees that tend to fall in high winds. But this week, they are gorgeous. They leaf out a chartreuse green that deepens to a bright green. The red oaks and live oaks are leafing out too. Only the pecans are still bare.
Dateline: 2011
Spring will not be ignored. It rushes into the garden whether or not I’m there, just not in the way I would have planned it. The pink evening primroses smother the path while the areas I consider my meadow are bare. I’m not blind to the lesson.
This is the week that something new opens every day. All of spring’s bounty comes just as the yard is plunged into shade. The weather continues dry and hot. The toads and mosquitoes have returned. Temperatures rise into the 80s and the larkspur, just sending up its flower stalks, droop. The Tulipa clusiana and the Muscari racemosum have also faded quickly in the heat. A whole year of anticipation…and then they whither as they open.
If you don’t look too closely the garden is filled with swathes of Easter basket colors: yellows (Engelmann daisy and Jerusalem sage and some snapdragons that have finally recovered from the freezes); pinks (pink evening primroses, pink bluebonnets, Indian hawthorn, ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’, ‘New Dawn’, ‘Blush Noisette’); white (bridal wreath spirea, cilantro); blues (bluebonnets, baby blue eyes, starch hyacinths) and purples (false dayflowers, Nierembergia gracilis, tradescantia, prairie verbena). There is also one jarring red, the St. Joseph’s lily.
So much needs to be done which will be left undone. Right now the garden is blooming on the strength of previous years. It really is a garden wild.
Dateline: 2008
This is the week I both look forward to and dread. On the one hand the garden finally looks like a garden. I take pleasure just walking around in it and frequently forget to do anything but just stare. On the other hand, the shade has descended which means the sun-loving flowers will soon turn sulky and I’ll soon be counting the days until fall.
The cilantro and baby blue blue eyes have taken over the yard and so the initial impression of the garden at the moment is blue and white. This has been a bad year for bluebonnets. Most of the ones which came up in the fall are small with only a stalk or two blooming and those keep getting felled by cutworms or something. There are much fewer plants than I normally have. The ten or so that oversummered are doing most of the work.
The Tulipa clusiana came into full bloom, as did the Indian hawthorn and the rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ and the Spanish bluebells. The replacement rose ‘Ducher’ is blooming like crazy and the rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ is still putting out flowers. The orange-red California poppy ‘Mikado’ and the yellow Jerusalem sage make a nice combination blooming together.
We are eating Swiss chard and making lots of salads from our lettuce and greens. Twelve feet of lettuce greens once they get big is too much for two people. On March 20th, I planted 3 tomatoes and one poblano pepper in spots that I hope will be sunny all summer.
First flower: Verbena canadensis (3/19); Hyacinthoides hispanica (3/20); Centaurea cyanus Black Magic’ (3/20); Aloe barbadensis (3/22); Engelmann daisy (3/25).
Dateline: 2007
2007-03-24. Do I ever get tired of photographing Tulipa clusiana? No, I do not.
I was in New York City until Thursday (3/22). As this is the week the garden starts blooming like crazy, I missed the exact dates of a lot of first flowers. I will average it out and say they bloomed on March 18th.
Friday (3/23) was the quintessential Austin spring day in my mind: in the 70s, humid with low dark clouds churning in from the Gulf and a promise of rain. As much as I enjoyed my trip to New York, I flung myself into the garden with a feeling nearing ecstacy. It was so green and so quiet and so blooming!
First Flower: rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ (3/17); Centaurea cyanus ‘Black Magic’ (3/19); Hyacinthoides hispanica (3/19); Lavandula heterophylla ‘Goodwin Creek Grey’ (3/19); rose ‘Blush Noisette‘ (3/19); rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere‘ (3/19); rose ‘New Dawn’ (3/19); Salvia greggii ‘Raspberry’ (3/19); Spiraea (3/19); Tulipa clusiana (3/19); Lathyrus odoratus ‘Regal Robe’ (3/25); yaupon holly (3/25).
In Full Bloom: Commelinantia anomala, Coriandrum sativum, Lupinus texensis, Meyer lemon, Narcissus jonquilla ‘Quail’, Nemophila insignis, Oxalis (various), Rhaphiolepis indica, Solanum jasminoides, Tradescantia, Viola.
Also Flowering: Cercis canadensis (fading), Consolida ambigua, Lathyrus odoratus ‘Velvet Elegance’, Leucojum aestivum (fading), Muscari neglectum (fading), Narcissus triandrus ‘Hawera’ (fading), Prunus caroliniana (fading), Sedum palmeri, Sophora secundiflora (fading), vetch, Verbena canadensis.
In the vegetable garden I pulled the black Spanish radishes that I planted last November because they were covered in aphids and AJM decided he didn’t like radishes anyway. The two tomatoes started flowering.
Dateline: 2006
A record-breaking rainfall of 2.93 inches late Sunday (3/19) night ushered in much colder weather (low 40s). It’s a good thing I hadn’t packed away the winter clothes yet because by Thursday and Friday nights the temperatures dipped near freezing. (Yep, nineties one week, thirties the next…that’s Austin. Two other years I’ve had relatives fly in for spring bluebonnets only to arrive with a cold front and wonder where spring went.)
The weather was clear and cool on Friday (3/24), but pleasant because the wind had died down. I spent all day weeding–a task I enjoy when the ground is moist from rain. I also transplanted the ‘Hawera’ daffodils into a bottomless wooden box so that they wouldn’t be overrun by weeds. And I cleaned up the bed around the David Austin rose ‘Heritage’. It is blooming better than ever this year; the flowers are much larger than in earlier years. They still have the bad habit of dropping their petals before they’re faded. Not so ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’. She’s been covered with the same flowers for over a week. Many of my roses like ‘Penelope’ and ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ have flowers that open and fade in one day in Austin’s heat and humidity. All week I’ve been spraying a weak apple cider vinegar solution on the roses to combat the little green worm. I was on the lookout for them a week earlier this year, and so far I’m winning.
First Flower: Hyacinthoides hispanica (3/20); Oenothera speciosa (3/20); Hippeastrum x Johnsonii (3/21); Verbena canadensis (3/24).
In Bloom: Aquilegia hinckleyana, Commelinantia anomala, Consolida ambigua, Engelmann daisy, Lavendula heterophylla (fading), Lupinus texensis, Meyer lemon, Muscari neglectum, Nemophila insignis, Oxalis (various), Prunus caroliniana, Rhaphiolepis indica, rose ‘Blush Noisette’. rose ‘Ducher’, rose ‘Penelope’, rose ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’, rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’, rose ‘New Dawn’ rose ‘Heritage’, rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’, Salvia farinacea ‘Indigo Spires’, Tradescantia, Tulipa clusiana.
Dateline: 2005
‘2005-03-25. ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz‘ looking her best ever. (Arg! She died in the fall of 2006.)
The peach trees are blooming along Cesar Chavez, the bluebonnets are blanketing the highway embankments, and azaleas in the neighborhoods near UT are making me think again that they might be worth the trouble. Speaking of trouble, I spotted the first little green worm yesterday (3/24).
First flower: Tulipa clusiana (3/19), Hyacinthoides hispanica (3/24), Consolida ambigua (3/25), Wisteria sinensis (3/25).
Full bloom: rose ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’, rose ‘Ducher’, rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison, Tradescantia, false dayflowers, baby blue eyes, bluebonnets, oxalis, Iris albicans, narcissus ‘Hawera’, cherry laurel.
Also flowering: Aquilegia hinckleyana, bridal wreath, Texas mountain laurel, Dianthus chinensis, lavender, Muscari neglectum, Indian hawthorn, roses ‘Madame Alfred Carriere, Prosperity, Penelope, and one flower on ‘New Dawn’.
Dateline: 2004
2004-03-25. Tulipa clusiana and Texas Bluebonnets. Austin, TX (zone 8). Detail
Our wet spring continues; it’s warm and rainy all week. The roses are loving it. I’m loving it because I don’t have to water. The weeds are rampant too. I’d rather weed than water.
First Flower: Tulipa clusiana (3/21), rose ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’ (3/21), Rhaphiolepis indica (3/21), Wisteria sinensis (3/21), rose ‘Blush Noisette’ (3/25), rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere‘ (3/25), rose ‘Souvenir de St. Anne’s (3/25), rose ‘New Dawn’ (3/25).
In full bloom: rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’, Lady Banksia rose ‘Lutea‘, rose ‘Ducher, ‘Hyacinthoides hispanica’, bluebonnets, baby blue eyes, tradescantia, false dayflowers, bridal wreath, Aquilegia, Lobularia maritima, Dianthus chinensis.
Tulipa clusiana. 2004-03-25.
Dateline: 2003
The long-anticipated Tulipa clusiana have begun to bloom. (Click the photo to see more pictures.) Ditto the Lady Banksia rose, ‘Lutea’. Bluebonnets and grape hyacinths continue to bloom; the bluebonnets in the front are at their peak.
First flower: Spanish bluebells (3/19), bridal wreath (3/19), wisteria (3/21).
The false day flowers are just beginning to bloom, later than last year because they were damaged by the freeze. The daffodils are finishing up, the ‘Trevithian’ faded first, then the ‘Quail’ and finally the ‘Hawera’.
Like last year, the Bridal Wreath spiraea, which lost all its buds in the freeze a month ago, blooms. It has produced a smattering of blossom, nothing like its usual show, but it’s encouraging to see it try. The Texas mountain laurel, which usually is in bloom this week, did not recover (I’ve seen it around town, though). Neither did the redbud.
Once again columbine seedlings are popping up. I’ve tried and tried to grow these from seed (it is supposed to be sown when fresh) and nothing ever happened. New four o’clocks are sprouting from self-sown seed and the old ones are coming back from the roots. (No wonder they get out of hand so quickly). The cannas are coming up. The Brugmansia is leafing out. All the roses are in bud. And the potted Meyer’s lemon tree is covered with flowers.
Dateline: 2001
Saturday March 24, 2001
Alternately cloudy and sunny, but in the 60s. Spent most of the day weeding the upper meadow and trying to get rid of the grass weeds before they go to seed. Neighbor J hires someone to do her once-a-season mowing. The weeds were almost waist high in her yard.
Transition
This is usually the transition weekend from early spring to late spring. The early-flowering trees, the Mexican plum, the redbud, the Texas Mountain laurel, and the spiraea are finishing up. The bluebonnets are peaking, but the larkspur and irises are just starting…sometimes a few early blooms tease. The cedar elms are bright green and the red oaks have suddenly leafed out.
Dateline: 1998
Sunday March 22, 1998
“One could not imagine a more perfect weekend. The skies were deep blue, humidity was low and the days warmed to the 80s. The garden is at its height: the cedar elms, indeed all the trees are chautreuse with new leaves; the spiderworts and false dayflowers are at in full bloom.” –Yes, this is what I wrote in 1997, and it is true again.
–Ditto, 1999. The combination of the newly-leafed cedar elms, bright for only a week, and an intensely blue sky, almost an autumn sky, is intoxicating.
Dateline: 1998
Sunday March 23, 1997
One could not imagine a more perfect weekend. The skies were deep blue, humidity was low and the days warmed to the 80s. We did yard work in the morning, went to the Hills and then the library and then spent the late afternoon lying in lawn chairs next to the bluebonnets, reading. In the meadow, I dug a new bed and planted the remaining wildflower seed. I weeded out the grass, loosened the dirt with the fork, and blended in 7 pans of sifted compost.
Dateline: 1996
Saturday March 23, 1996
The columbine is covered in flowers.
Planted six serrano peppers.
Looks like rain, but the drought continues.
Dateline: 1995
Thursday March 23, 1995
The heat wave that began Tuesday, continues. The high today was 92, which is 20 degrees above average. As a result the crocuses have given up.
Saturday March 25, 1995
The mountain laurels have already faded as has the Bridal Wreath. The spiderwort remains at its peak. The live oak I planted and the Texas persimmon have pushed out all their old leaves and have their new leaves. The Texas persimmon is forming its tiny bell-shaped buds. About town bluebonnets, azaleas, and Indian hawthorn are beginning to be intense.
Dateline: 1994
Sunday March 20, 1994
Yellow rose beginning to flower. [Note: This is the original Lady Banks rose that died. First of three that I’ve killed.]
by M Sinclair Stevens
March 30th, 2005
How strange it would be for me, a northener, to garden in Austin: wisteria, daffodils, tulips, roses all at the same time. It must seem to you like you’re in a flower storm sometimes. I’d have to sit down a lot and let my brain cool off.
It’s “live fast, die young” down here. In a couple of months, it will all be dry and brown. — mss
September 27th, 2006
I’m trying to plan an outside wedding in the Austin area/Hill Country area for next spring. What is the best time for bluebonnets, at their peak, and what is the weather usually like during the same time the bluebonnets are blooming.
Bluebonnets are typically at their peak the last week in March and the first two weeks in April. However, this depends on the amount of rain we receive over the winter. Because of the drought beginning in September 2005, for example, the bluebonnets of 2006 were very late and not spectacular.
In Central Texas, weather is the most variable in spring. If a cold front comes in, it can be rainy and in the 40s. Two days later, the temperature can shoot up into the 80s. A friend of mine had an outdoor wedding on April 2 with perfect weather. However it rained heavily the weekend before and the weekend after. The good weather was a wedding present from a Wiccan friend. — mss
March 26th, 2007
For several years I’ve planned on getting some Tulipa clusiana, but never have followed through. That’s a lovely photo. One of these days…
March 26th, 2007
The Tulipa clusiana do look lovely, M, and like R Sorrell, I also want them! If our plans for new garden beds work out, there’ll be somewhere to plant them this fall, and the Hyacinthoides would be another good addition. A few flowers are finally opening on the infant Texas Mountain Laurels, but the larkspur and Baby Blue Eyes show no buds yet.
Is your garden also getting a tremendous soaking this afternoon?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Nope. We got comparitively little rain downtown. A bit of a drizzle between noon and 1PM and then about an inch between 5PM and 7PM. AJM said it was raining hard up where he works near the Arboretum from early in the day. I’m glad we got some and that it wasn’t so hard that the garage flooded again. — mss
March 27th, 2007
I bought the red colored Tulipa clusiana the other year but didn’t care for the flowers at all. They were too big for the height and gaudy. Your peach colored ones are what I should have bought. They do appear early though.
They are a very “floppy” flower. The long thin stems do not seem to be able to hold up the flower head and they snake over one another. I think the flower heads are smaller than Darwin or Parrot tulips. And they don’t stand up like soldiers at attention the way I normally visualize tulips and that’s what I like about them. They look more like rainlilies than tulips to me. I don’t like those strong red and orange colored ones I see in catalogs, either. I’m glad my two varieties came in sherbert colors. — mss
March 27th, 2007
Outside of a tiny number of gardening books, I’m thinking of Hinkley’s “The Explorer’s Garden”, your picture is the prettiest photograph I’ve seen in a long time. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. — mss
March 27th, 2007
I love your tulips clusiana pic! Cool blog…
Thanks for stopping by. — mss
March 26th, 2008
Do you Plant a Row for the Hungry in Austin? Is there some food bank you could donate excess lettuce to?
Thanks for mentioning this. I’d never heard of it before. I’ll look into it. This is the first time we’ve ever managed to grow more than we can eat of something. Usually our harvest is so small we have to serve it on a very small plate as an appetizer. — mss
March 26th, 2008
I too was looking at some trees coming into leaf this week and thinking how lovely the chartreuse colour is right at the beginning phase.
Each year I appreciate spring green just a little more. The trees look so fresh and vibrant and soon they will look dull and be covered with dust. I have a hard time wanting to do anything in the garden right now except drink in the colors, like the Rainbow Goblins. — mss
March 26th, 2008
The cedar elms do seem a mixed blessing, MSS. Our main shade in the back yard arrives when the pecans get leaves but in the front two big Arizona Ashes have had leaves for weeks – I don’t bother planting much under their canopies. I’m glad your California poppies had time to make flowers before the shadows fell.
You’ve given me so many ideas over the years, but your diary also reminds me of plans left undone. Maybe I’ll get around to the tulip clusiana this fall.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I’m watching this spring carefully because I had two chinaberries, a hackberry, and a dead redbud removed over winter…so there is a bit more light than usual. I curious about the rose ‘Mermaid’. It looks like she’s going to finally make it into the sun and bloom. She’s shot out these 15 foot canes which are smothering the rose of Sharon. This should be interesting. — mss
March 26th, 2008
The Tulipa clusiana are very photogenic. They’re gorgeous! I can understand you wanting to photograph them often.
It must be wonderful to be in your garden during those milder temps. I’d especially love to see all the roses blooming with the spring flowers.
Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. I agree that an RSS reader is a better way of tracking blogs than Blotanical as the posts move through the list so quickly. The sometimes competitive atmosphere is not one of my favorite things about the site either. But I do find it a great place to meet other gardeners and find posts about gardening. There’s always room for improvement.
I always think of the roses as being spring flowers. Maybe Austin doesn’t have a spring. What temperature is it in your garden when tulips and daffodils bloom? Reading about gardening in different climates always fascinates me. And for discovering new gardens Blotanical is certainly a wonderful resource. But the interface is too clunky for me to keep up with all the blogs I find there, so I rely on an RSS reader for that job. — mss
March 26th, 2008
Those tulips! Please tell me they will still have some bloom next week. I must see them in person. They are beautiful, unlike any tulip I’ve seen.
I hope they will be but not if the weather persists in the 80s. We need a cool front and some rain before your visit. Some of the tulips opened today and immediately withered. I’m doing my best to keep them shaded and watered until you arrive. — mss
March 26th, 2008
I agree–we need a good, steady rain in the next couple of days and slightly cooler temps to sustain the spring bounty on display right now. I hope it can hold on through next weekend’s Spring Fling, and that we don’t get hit with a row of 90-degree days.
My roses haven’t started yet (the first one may pop tomorrow), nor has my Jersualem sage, but I did move it recently. I LOVE those tulips.
I’m finding it difficult not to work myself into being anxious about Spring Fling. I wish I could put some flowers on pause and press the fast-forward buttons on others. — mss
March 26th, 2008
I don’t think I could get enough of these tulips either. I like the colour of them … for a spell sitting here, I could imagine what it is like – all those spring green colours and blooms. I would just want to sit and soak it in.
I agree with Kerri’s point about Blotanical. The competition to collect points doesn’t seem to me to be the best way to foster a healthy and vibrant blogging community. Besides, as you both point out, it is a cumbersome way to track new posts by bloggers. I’m finding that the number of new garden blogs is becoming overwhelming and that there is no way I can keep up and actually savour blog posts if I try to read too many. I’m glad Blotanical gives us the ability to find new blogs – but I also am relying more on Garden Voices as a more straightforward directory.
When I first started garden blogging in 2001, I felt very lonely. Then I met Kathy of Cold Climate Gardening and Bill of Prairie Point via their blogs and felt like I was at a small gathering of friends. Then Pam/Digging and Annie in Austin started writing and a score of other Austin garden bloggers joined along. Through people’s sidebars I met Carol of May Dreams Gardens, and Yolanda Elizabeth of Bliss and you. When Blotanical started mapping garden blogs, I was introduced to people outside this circle of friends. At first it was exciting but now I find it a bit overwhelming, too. I can’t keep up with everyone but I don’t want anyone to think I’m snubbing them. I prefer to interact via comments because Blotanical’s messaging and picks systems are just another layer of overhead that suck up time I’d rather use blogging and commenting. — mss
March 27th, 2008
Love those tulips, especially their colour, very understated and elegant. Pity about the bluebonnets though, they are so beautiful. I noticed Pam/Digging had problems with them too this year.
Shall I send you some rain and cooler weather as I have plenty to spare? That way Carol is guaranteed to see some of your tulips still in flower. And if you will be so kind as to send me some sunshine and warm weather then we will both be as happy as the proverbial sandboy. If only we could, eh?
BTW some of my tulips are in flower too and it’s around 3 to 6 C during the day at the mo. No sunshine so they stay closed.
Oh yes, please! Let’s swap some weather. Thanks for the answer about the daffodils. This March, high temperatures have been in the 20s C although sometimes jumping up into the 30s C. And yet, we have still occasionally dipped to freezing at night. I guess everything tries to bloom all at once in March, the warm weather plants because they are anticipating the heat and the cold weather plants because they are trying to flower before it gets too hot. — mss
March 27th, 2008
Our average April daytime temp is about 58ºF, and May is 69º, but we do get up into the 70s and sometimes 80s for some glorious spring days. We plant tomatoes and peppers at the end of May, but I remember a killing frost on June 23rd which damaged them one year. Thankfully, that’s not the norm. I too enjoy reading about gardening in different climates.
I noticed Kate’s comment about Blotanical. We have quite a discussion going here 🙂 I agree that it’s quite a clunky way to read posts, and I often have trouble getting a comment to go through. And Kate makes a good point about the competition for points not being the best way to foster a healthy atmosphere. I’m nodding my head at your reply to her too. I’ve had trouble keeping up as well, and not wanted people to feel I’m snubbing them. It is a bit overwhelming and eats up time. In the end I use both my Bloglines and Blotanical to do a bit of picking from the list as well, as a compromise between the two.
You described my strategy as well. There are so many people garden blogging now that I can barely attach names to blogs. I used to feel I knew everyone so personally. I feel guiltly that I can’t be more attentive. — mss
March 27th, 2008
I love the species tulip – and just planted some in my garden for the first time this year (they haven’t yet bloomed).
It’s funny, reading through your post – today I noticed more shade too, and thought that for the first time this spring, that the garden is beginning to look like a garden again. We have had a slow spring though – and I think are behind you guys a few weeks or so – but like you, it will get hot much too soon, and we’d better enjoy ‘now’ as much as we can.
When waiting for one flower or another to bloom, I often think that spring is running late. But when I read my week-by-week posts, I find that I’m often saying the same thing from year to year. — mss
March 27th, 2008
Well, I can certainly understand why you wouldn’t get tired of photographing those tulips. They’re beautiful. I’ve never seen those before.
I’ve bought them at Gardens and Shoal Creek Nursery here in Austin and via mail order from McClure & Zimmerman.
March 27th, 2008
I’ve just had the greatest time the past half hour or so, going through some of your posts and tracking back through the years with you. What a terrifically dedicated blogger and gardener you are. Through both Blotanical and people’s sidebars I’ve ‘met’ a number of fantastic new and new-to-me bloggers, and while like others I get busy at times, I’m also having so much fun learning about gardening in other climates. There are things that you can grow that I can’t, and vice versa (those that can handle cool climates do fine here, probably not for you) and it’s really intriguing just how far ahead you are. My T. clusiana will bloom in mid to late May! But we have cold, slow springs here in my part of Nova Scotia (other parts are a bit warmer, others are colder yet). And the cooler temperatures act to hold blooms for much longer, on my roses and lilacs and peonies and such.
I really wish I could be with you all at the Spring Fling (just over a week away, now! How exciting). My heart will be with all of you, and if things go better this year I hope to come next year–if you Austin gardeners do another spring fling, that is.
By the way, thank you again for telling me about the purple background. I was pleased to be able to get into Blogger’s layout editing page and get it to WORK for me for a change, and I like the easier to read background. May be making the jump to Typepad or WordPress, though, if only so I can answer comments right underneath where people can find the replies. More new things to learn. 🙂
March 27th, 2008
Ah, such a good sign. Gotta love cilantro in the garden. What a sign of summer that is…
Sean
April 1st, 2008
I’m with you on the Tulip clusiana, and many of the other species tulips. They are my favorites and I look forward to seeing them this weekend. Traffic or no, I hope Susan and I can make it over there.
Mine should be up later this month. I am hoping the acuminata makes an appearance in all its weirdness again. It can be elusive.
Looking forward to seeing you at Spring Fling. — mss
March 25th, 2011
It may not be up to your standards, but that 2011 photo at top looks lovely to me, MSS. I like the Easter egg analogy for the colors.
Here the front Arizona Ash trees have leafed out but our pecans in back, like yours, are still bare. We’re less than 20 miles apart but most roses here are still buds and the cilantro is not in flower. The Ladybanks rose, however, is a mass of wide open yellow flowers. I do wish one of your 3 had survived!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose