Forsythia
Forsythia
These little yellow flowers are one of the indicators I rely on for anticipating warmer days. Here in DC, forsythias are at their best on cold, damp, and grays days, the yellow flowers seem to glow with a promise of sunny days are just around the corner.
Though once the days begin to warm, drying out and staying sunny the blooms begin to fade and green leaves begin to sprout. And when the leaves begin to come out on forsythia bushes it means that the soil is staying at a pretty consistent temperature of 55 degrees F, which is a good point to begin other springtime plantings… So now that our forsythia bushes have dropped all the flowers and are in full leaf, I have been spending time prepping my beds and expanding a few of them in anticipation of future things to come…
Do you like to garden? If so this wonderful gardening blog I recently came across may be of interest to you, A Way to Garden, from Margaret Roach where she has these handy monthly gardening chore blogposts. I am finding them to be VERY helpful! Also if you are in the DC region, the American Horticultural Society will be holding their annual Spring Garden Market, APRIL 12-14. A great sale with fantastic seedlings and specimens to choose from and the 12th is the AHS members-only preview sale, so if you are not a member think about becoming one so you can get an early jump on your plantings…
This is a painting from my Bountiful Observations series, with 25% of the net proceeds of each sale being donated to the American Horticultural Society.