http://home.ptd.net/~bcmalt/garden/april.html
In 2012 and 2013, I didn't do any updates, mainly because my spare time was taken up with working on the revised edition of Birds of the Lehigh Valley and Vicinity. (Now taking orders! All proceeds benefit educational activities of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, a non-profit organization. See http://tinyurl.com/bolvv-2nd for ordering info. )
Now that the book is off to press, I'm going to try to do some 2014 updates throughout the growing season.
Here's the first! The weekend of March 15, I was in Boston for a conference and had a chance to spend a few hours at the Boston Flower Show. I bought several native plants there, bareroot. The seller told me to keep them for a week in the fridge and then plant them. I missed the window of opportunity when it was nice on Saturday the 22nd, so I decided to wait another week. Then it was so rainy this weekend I thought I'd wait some more. But I took a look at the bag in the fridge, and I found that the Hepaticas were putting out shoots and even some blossoms!!! in the fridge, in the dark - and, as it turned out, with slightly frozen roots. That goes to show you what these early spring bloomers can handle. I went out and planted them in the cold, windy rain. Pretty miserable, but hoping it gives them a smooth transition to the warmer temps arriving soon.
