Thursday, February 24, 2011

Flowering Quince

is finally flowering. Three years, but it finally did it.



People are out, even when the temperatures dip into the 50s during the day. It's unseasonably warm. Tomorrow should be another mid 70s day. Today, cloudy, cool, and rain likely. Of course the sun decides to show itself as I type this. It's NC, what do you expect?

Work is, to say the least, busy. I passed myself crossing the Garden Center twice yesterday. We're short staffed for the volume of sales and customers we're seeing. This time of year, only a few people are usually milling about looking for clearance deals on winter damaged plants. We're unloading trucks of plants almost three days a week now. Mulch arrives 22 pallets at a time. We're out of room in the racks. Spring is busting loose regardless of what the calendar says. Stupid peach trees are gonna get burned, I just know it.



Maybe I'll get a few heads of broccoli from my fall sown crop before summer slams through in early April.



Maybe it's just my age, but there doesn't seem to be any "normal" weather these days. I know, Global Warming (Climate Change), whatever you want to call it. I'm not knocking it. I'm glad winter keeps retreating earlier every year. I'm just worried about next year's budget and how bad my comps will be if February is cold and dreary like it usually is.

It's 41 degrees.

5 comments:

Christopher C. NC said...

Perhaps I am lucky. Haven't been here long enough to know what normal is. My Lowes garden center is filling up, mostly trees and pansies. I tell myself only manure and compost can be purchased, but once the shrubberies arrive I may not be able to resist. Some shrubberies can be safely planted now.

Unknown said...

Damn, love that quince! My wife and I have talked for years about moving from NJ to NC as the weather sounds fantastic to me.

Best of luck at the garden center.

L. D. said...

Our weather guys say you are going to be warm today. We have a band of snow that is passing south of us by one county. This really means we will get snow and the weather doesn't obey the county lines. The quince is wonderful. Our garden centers are still asleep up here but the mulch is starting to coming in certain places.

Bonnie said...

I absolutely love flowering quince. My quince was a gift from a student. It took about three years for mine to bloom. Now it is bursting. Love your blog!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

I love your flowering quince. Hope your peach blooms don't get frosted.
Enjoy your nice gardening weather. We've got our a.c. turned on already. Sigh.

Happy Gardening ~ FlowerLady