Our backyard saucer magnolia in full bloom on March 10

This is THE time of year for us - it isn’t just having a love of gardening, but the whole process of observing nature wake up. The weather has been wild - and that shows no sign of letting up. A week of 70s and 80s brought a whole array of blossoms - forsythia, magnolia (shown above), spirea (shown below), quince and daffodils. Then we had a night in the mid 20s, which the magnolia clearly hated - many of the blossoms turned brown. Next week we are in the low 20s for a few nights. Fortunately, some of the spring blossoms don’t seem to mind - next up will be our redbud, dogwood, Lady Banks rose and lilacs. I hope that they don’t get bitten.

Seed planting and germination is going very well, but is not without unfortunate (as in dumb) incident. I was moving flats of tomato seeds carelessly and I dumped my second full tray, with lots of experiments. Fortunately I had enough seeds of each to do a full replant, and they’ve popped up and joined their companions outdoors (see below). Of course, these are all headed in later today, as the strong windy rain, followed by the low 20s, is not at all compatible with happy tomato seedlings!

Seedling flats all off the heat mats and spending most of the time outdoors

Of all of the seeds planted - 176 cells in the 50 cells flats - the following are the only no-shows: Lettuce Green Ice, Aunt Ruby’s German Green from 2012 (that makes me sad), Ferris Wheel from 2013 and 2014, Cancelmo Family from 2017, Giant Syrian from 2014, two different Fire Opal sweet peppers and one eggplant (Skinny Twilight). The jury is still out on seeds in 11 cells. But that means, that only 20 of 176 cells are currently no shows - a really great result.

I was pleased to see germination from 7 different 2016 saved Cherokee Purple or Cherokee Chocolate. The oldest seeds I got to germinate were Green Giant saved in 2014 - 12 year old seed. There will be lots of decisions to be made, and lots of findings await, particularly in leaf shapes of the various Captain F2 and F3 seeds I started. All of the Lillian Rose samples are up and growing. It is going to be a fascinating garden.

The only news items - I am back doing weekly Instagram Live sessions, on Fridays at 4 PM eastern (follow me at @nctomatoman and you will be notified when they begin) - I will be in Shelby speaking at the Cleveland County Master Gardeners event this coming Saturday - and I am looking to schedule my right knee replacement for mid May!