Wow, the weather here is warm just like almost everyone else in USA. Normal temperatures are in the mid 30’s but we are in 60’s and 70’s. This week the snow melted and we have been able to begin work in the garden. The spring peepers are out in force the last few nights. We love this sound in spring.Â
We physically inspected each un-named seedling last weekend and gave it a foliage category; Dormant, evergreen, semi-evergreen. This is not an easy task as many are somewhat in between these categories. There are dormants that are below ground yet – those are easy to distinguish. There are also ones we consider dormant because all the new growth is from underground buds although there is a little green above ground. We also look at the foliage above ground. Evergreens are soft and mushy this time of year. The more dormant plants that have some above ground foliage are hard, green, and undamaged from the winter. The plants in between are given semi-evergreen status. We take a status check every year and some plants get a different designation than the previous year.Â
We also inspected some of our southern evergreens we had hoped to use for breeding. We mulched the plants in late fall with a couple of inches of multch around the plant base leaving the foliage sticking out. Then in early winter, we put some evergreen boughs over the top. Even with the mild winter, some plants looked awful this spring. Attached are some pictures of named plants in our garden this weekend.Â
 Bird of Prey – Dormant
Heavens Proclaim – evergreen but looks OK
Briar Patch – evergreen but looks mushy after the mild winter. Hopefully it will come back.