It is unofficially springtime here. Today my Purple Magnolia Tree's flower buds opened up into beautiful big flowers. This kind of magnolia, a native to Japan, blooms before its new leaves appear, so it looks like a mass of light purple.
Actually it has been spring here all winter, so far. My Periwinkles and Impatiens have been blooming and growing non-stop. The weather people said it got into the 20's for two nights, but I know they were wrong. These flowers would have frozen down at 31 degrees. I was a practicing Landscape Architect for 33 years and I know plants.
This has been a very warm winter and its almost over.
Mark