Turns out it isn't just the fruit trees. Wandering the outback in yesterday's sunrise, attempting to convince my body that the time really was the time and clocks weren't aberrant, (it being that twice a year dis-orientation hell caused by the dastardly practice of changing the clocks an hour) I was pleasantly surprised by Iris germanica (aka Bearded Iris) yawning their lovely fuzzy throated flowers all around.
Turns out there are scientists who study these things and spring IS early this year. The northern hemisphere winter 2023-24, like the summer which preceded it, is set to be the warmest on record (130 years) according to NOAA. (National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration). The University of Arizona’s National Phenology Network has also reported that signs of spring in certain parts of the USA - like the budding of the first lilac and honeysuckle leaves - are the earliest since the organization began keeping records in 1981. I've read several online "news" articles now on the topic. I think they might all be linked back to a report from the National Phrenology Network on the status of spring in the USA here.
Suddenly the garden is galloping into the new season. Cilantro and Fava Beans are in full flower now, and causing quite a buzz amongst the pollinators.
Of course the fruit trees are also all you can eat bee buffets. They have a certain time of day when they visit. There's nothing random about the busy, buzzy pollinators. I am relieved they no longer mob my masala chai or golden milk (both spiced drinks sweetened with honey) when I try to enjoy a cup in the garden.
If we don't get late frost, and fruit sets, I shall have to open negotiations with the birds for a share of fruit picking rights.
Pomegranates are coming into gloriously rusty rose coloured leaf in both front and back gardens.
Caught up in the sap rising fervor, I moved and divided a clump of Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker/Torch lily). Temperatures today rose almost to 80(25/26 C). There's now a bunch of wilted octopus colonizing the outback rockery-in-progress.
I do hope they recover. I hadn't planned on it getting quite so hot so soon. Thinking I should possibly have shaded the transplants until they reestablished their root systems.
Eryngium (Blue Sea Holly)and yellow Bulbine from the Drakensberg have been planted in some of those rock circles. Seeds of coriander and calendula were also scattered. One can never have too much cilantro/dhania (the green leaves which garnish everything) and coriander (seeds) in the kitchen, in my opinion.
While there are no signs of life from the giant rattle Papaver somniferum seeds which I sowed in the front last autumn (too warm? Not enough of a freeze? Bad seeds?Doves ate them?) there are two flourishing poppy plants outback. I do love it when the garden takes over the planning and control department causing plants to appear magically.
Meanwhile the Dutch Iris refuse to produce any sign of bud. Are they sulking because the Iris germanica got to flower first this year? Or was the extreme heat of the past summer and winter just too warm for them?
Today's status report on Spring in the Garden of Earthly Delight: sprung.
Of course it IS March, typically the mutable month, when the Lion and the Lamb dance. Though February had a bit of that Lion/Lamb mutability this year.
I really don't need sophisticated scientific instruments to measure it: the garden and I are living daily within a shift to a warmer world.