I have mud coming up at my house :( I keep checking for my tulips, but no sign yet. The crossing guard at my corner says her tulips are poking up (after she noticed mine weren't) My mom in Mcfarland said hers are coming up.

Sedum ground covers are mostly green, although I think they stayed that way under the snow.

Snow crocus are just starting to open up and tulips just broke through the ground.

Garlic is growing. No signs of life from hostas yet.

Seems too early for tulips. Doesn't seem to matter what kind I buy they come up too early every year. Silly things.

I think I see some life in a hosta or two, that's been about it. I planted snow crocuses and tulip bulbs and haven't seen any sign of them. I'm afraid our squirrel might have snacked on them this fall!

I did see some snowdrops in a neighbor's yard the other day. I sat and stared for a minute with a big smile on my face!

My daffodils started coming up in mid December. They're about 4" now. I also have some iris leaves popping up. My corydalis stays green all winter. They aren't the greatest looking right now, but at least they have leaves and are green. :) My groundcover sedum has stayed green all winter. Our grass never turned brown...I think that's a first. I have noticed the weeds are making a showing too. :( My purple colored heuchera never died down completely either. (I have several different kinds) Some of my campanula are popping up too. It's really nice to see the plants waking up. We're expecting some flurries on Sunday, but at least we aren't going to get that bitter cold.

Kat

I also had my daffodils come up early, get covered by snow, and now that the snow has melted there they are still. I have lots of lost-in-a-mist coming up, my sun daisies that are evergreen are a big mass of green, goldenrod is starting, as is lots of other things....and grrr, the rabbits are already starting to have a great time nibbling - I should have caged the bottom of my honeysuckle that is still young, as I see they bit through one of the stems. Its caged now, but its a little late.

Here in the Rio area the tulips and daffs on the south side of the house have been up for quite a while. they always come early and survive several snows and cold snaps before they get to bloom; never seems to hurt them. Found a bud peeking from a Peony I transplanted last fall--didn't expect to see that so soon.

So today--I planted spinach! Really just sprinkled it on the surface of a corner of the vegetable garden that was tilled last fall. I have a feeling there'll still be some snows to settle it into the soil!

Becky

Whats coming up at my house are all the things that I dont want. i.e. redtwig, um, oh whatever they are. Drive me crazy. I planted a wonderful tree/shrub line down both sides of my back yard, and these creepy red twig dogwoods are popping up everywhere. I hate them!

On the plus side, my daffs have multiplied and are up about 4/5 inches. All my lovely tulips succumbed to the vole/mole infestation. Crocus are up too, and even bloomed.

Does anyone have a sure-fire way to kill shrubs that are too, too agressive? I hate to use the big killer stuff, but will if I have to.
Ideas please!!
Pondy, @sbcglobal.net

I saw my monkshood coming up yesterday. I love that plant, and it always is one of the first plants to come up even if it's one of the last to bloom.

My favorite plant, heartsease! It is always the last to go down in the fall ... only because snow covers it up and the first to flower in the spring ... often they will have a bloom from last autumn that must lay dormant all winter and is ready to go the moment the snow is off of it. Linda

First crocus in bloom today in the Cactus garden. C. thomasianus....just beautiful....Hey Y'ALL! I'm retired...:)

Dave
Franklin

Dave, did you just retire? Hopefully, in 4 yrs if all goes well, I'll be able to. Hubby will keep working so I can still buy plants! LOL!!
Linda, just what is a 'heartsease' plant?
My daffs are really popping up now. Also my forget-me-nots are really taking off well.

Kat

Hi all, and happy Spring!
This is the most snow we've had in 10 years here in SE WI.
It's also the first time I've had a reliable snow cover, and didn't have to cover anything with leaves. So some plants just hibernated under the snow, kind of suspended in time, still green. So it's hard to tell what's just coming up or what is STILL up from last Dec. One in particular is Feverview - just as fluffy as ever, ready to spread everywhere. I think it will be a spectacular Spring for Daffs & Tulips & weeds.

Dave, what kind of cactus do you grow that is hardy in WI?
I'm so jealous (but happy for you) that you're retired! I have to work at least one more year to keep my benefits, but I may work up to 3 more years in order to build up my retirement nest a little more.

Julie in Sturtevant

What's coming up? Nightcrawlers!!! Now thats what I call the first sign of spring. After the rain last night, the last of my snow piles are gone and when I went out today to clean some garden areas, there were the nightcrawlers. I was going to clean up some leave debris but figured I may as well let the worms take care of 'em.

tj

Hey, Kat, heartsease is also known as Johnny Jump Ups or viola tricolor. They are really good in Jell-O!
Julie, I never would have believed it but I think a number of prickly pear cactus are hardy in Wisconsin. I was given one by a dear friend who moved from South Dakota ... she now lives in Ogema and belive me this place is cold. Flower Factory has offered cultivars that are new this year. I love this plant but they are tough to weed around!
Linda

Thanks Linda.
If it's the cactus I've heard about, it's also hard to transplant - you have to wear leather gloves to handle it, or use tongs to break off the pad things to propagate them.
Julie

From a person with experience with the hardy cactus, all I can say is "OUCH"! Those things never come out of your hands or your gardening gloves.

Happy Retirement Dave! Would you like to come work for me for a while??? It would just be working with a bunch of kids (Just 750 of them) who are going stir crazy for spring break!

margo, I think I'll pass on the cactus, unless someone gives me one as a gift. My dentist and I got to talking about plants (in between the times he had his fingers and gadgets in my teeth) and he said he grew cactus on his roof! I was so amazed, and he was willing to show me his collection, so after he finished pollishing my teeth, he took me up to his roof (he lives above his office) and showed me all his potted perennials, cactus, shrubs, and even small trees. He had a rubber roof installed, which sheds the water easily. What a nice oasis in the middle of downtown Racine!

I second that statement about the children that are going stir crazy for spring break. The kids I work with have their heads in outer space!

Happy gardening!

Julie

box elder bugs are doing quite well here :-)

I'm north of Madison WI. I have yellow crocuses in bloom, purple ones starting to open a few blossoms, hyacinths peeking up their knobby little heads, the chives are up about 4", the garlic is up about 6", the heritage sweet green onions are flourishing, the strawberries are looking green and leafy, the serviceberry tree has open fuzzy catkins on it, and I just planted spinach seeds today, saved from when they bolted and went to seed last summer. Oh, and there are hosta eyes poking up, and daylilies coming back too.

Oh yeah, box elder bugs here, too.

I have a lot of primroses and they are all green and growing and will probably be blooming very soon if the weather stays so nice and warm. I try to pick the dried blossoms off every year and start the seeds from them in the spring. I have a large number of seeds planted this year and will probably have lots more primrose to set out for blooming later. Usually they only bloom in the spring, but when I put out new seedlings, they bloom in summer and right on through the fall. They can really put on a nice show and each year the plants get larger. I see tulips emerging and other fall bulbs. I don't think the squirrels bothered them this year. They were too busy all winter hiding the peanuts I kept throwing out for them. We have 4 gray squirrels and 1 black one in the yard. We also have 2 blue jays and a cardinal family that come for the seed I put out along with plenty of the smaller birds like chickadees and grackles. I sometimes spend hours sitting in my dining room watching them all helping themselves to the food I put out for them.

Welcome back, Violet Skies! I tried to email you as I think we live in the same city ...I too live just North of Madison, 15 minutes from East Towne Mall.

I have lots of tulips and perennials coming up now, and killed my first slug of the year. Alas, no hosta noses for me yet...and I have 147+ noses to look for (I'm a hostaholic...have 23 more on order).

Rachel, I love watching the animals and birds too. We have cardinals (DH's favorite), sparrows, house wrens, dark eyed juncos, chicadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches and yesterday a golden finch! I see bluejays but they rarely come to my feeder.

Also, at one of our feeders in front of the window we watch the antics of the brown and blond squirrels. No matter how high I raise the feeder, they manage to jump from the deck railing onto the feeder. Oh, well... they're fun to watch!

Char

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you near South St.? Near Norway Grove Church? Just a guess. I haven't been able to get on gardenweb in a long time, because I normally use mozilla firefox for my browser, but it doesn't hold my login for gw, so I could never post. I finally tried it with explorer and now I can get in again and post...whew!
I live in an apartment and have a bigger plot elsewhere this year, so I will be able to grow a lot more. At home I have all my hostas and daylilies in pots. I'm getting tired of dividing them all every year though, so I might be getting out of the hosta habit soon. When I had a big yard, they were so fun to collect.

Violet,

you are close...I'm on South Hill. Maybe you need bigger pots!

Char

Hello to violet skies and hostahaven, I have a niece that lives in DeForest, so I've been down in your neck of the woods. It's beautiful scenery around there. We were through that area a few years ago just after you had a severe storm and there were lots of trees down all over, even found some roads blocked by fallen trees. I'll bet you must remember that storm. Rachel

oo oo! I walked the yard today and I have stuff coming up! I didn't keep track of what bulbs I planted but I have quite a few coming up that have a reddish color to the stem and a few green ones too, any idea as to what the reddish ones may be? I also have a mystery something coming up in the back yard. Since we moved here last July, I don't know what pops up in the spring the previous owner pointed to spots where things came up, but didn't know what they were.

Carriedaway, post some pictures and we'll try to help you. Get a free photo-bucket account (see link below) and after you upload the pictures, copy the 'tagline' and paste it right here in your message area...like this...

Picture of my ditch bed by the road...(taken today)
{{gwi:1352023}}

Then preview your message and if you can see your picture, we can also.

Char

Here is a link that might be useful: free photo service for posting pics.

I have a lot of stuff coming up. Most of the clematis and a lot of the hostas have broke ground, and close to half my other perennials are showing signs of life. A couple of day lilies started growing late last fall, and started growing again this week, snow and dog damaged tips and all.

Rachel, I'll never forget that storm. I lived in Windsor then, right on the edge of the golf course. All of the big old mature pines were literally sheared off, the top halves were gone. Our windows were plastered with leaves. I hadn't heard a thing. I opened the curtains that morning and was so confused---why were the windows plastered with leaves? Then I looked further and it looked like the world had gone crazy. We got in the car and went for a drive and saw soooo many big old trees crashed down on cars, on roofs, etc. Destruction everywhere. It was Memorial Day weekend. It wasn't even a tornado, it was described as a sheet of wind over 150 mph that had come thru and sliced the trees in half like that.

Chives and tulips. And the strawberry patch is getting green. No sign of hostas yet, but some of the variety of perennials we planted last year are poking up.

Mike

OK, let's try this, I think these are tulips

Here is a link that might be useful:

Carriedaway,

I think both pictures are of tulips. The first picture, the ones with red tones...look perfectly healthy. However, the second, I'm afraid, look pretty spent (weak). See how dull and flopped over they are? Old bulbs maybe. Tulips don't last forever, especially some of the new hybrids. Also, sometimes they get too tight and need spreading out. When they get as old as those appear to be, the bulbs just don't have the energy to store the proper amount of nourishment for the next spring. I'd be very surprised if they bloomed. You might want to dig those up soon (once you've confirmed there is nothing else growing/coming up there), discard them and plant fresh new bulbs this fall. Sorry!

Char

Char,
Thanks I never thought the 2nd pic would be tulips this is located in the back yard where I had no intent of planting anything so I'm not too worried about it. The first pic must be the bulbs I got for free after rebate at Menards.

Howdy, I am not as excited as I was last week about everything that is coming up, as I ran around throwing old Christmas tree branches over them to avoid the worst of this cold snap. To me the most beautiful emerging things are polemoniums and columbine - they are so perfectly formed and tiny, its almost as good as when they flower. Not to mention the intoxicating smell of the air and the dirt. I also have poppies, lupine, monkshood, many geraniums coming up and now semi-squashed under evergreen boughs. I didn't bother to cover lady's mantle, lambs ears and daffs/tulips. Does anyone think they are screwed because the cold will be deep and long?

I'm concerned about what this cold is going to do to some of the plants, especially the flowering shrubs.

I would be interested in hearing how the cold affected certain plants, so maybe we can keep a thread going of all the stuff that didn't flower, flowered late, distorted leaves, etc.

Or maybe we should start a new thread. I think it would generate more interest and responses.

Char

Lots of the plants I had up bit the dust the last few days. I had tulips, crocus, daffodils and glory-of-the-snow blooming. Now they are in limp piles on the ground. My clematis were starting to leaf out, peonies were up about 4" - not sure what will happen with those. My alliums look frozen and so do my tall garden phlox. Bummer.

Hi all. Sorry for the delay in posting this. Yes, i am retired!

I grow many types of cacti and succulents that are hardy here in Franklin. Most are Opuntias (Prickly pears and Chollas) but a few barrel types as well. Here's a partial list:

O. humifusa
O. imbricata (gets to be about 4 to 5 ft tall here)
O. viridiflora (ditto)
O. whippleii
O. fragilis ( many cultivars)
O. basilaris ("iffy" in our climate)
O. macrorrhiza (many cultivars)
Escobaria vivipara (cute pink flowers)
Echinocereus triglochidiatus (BEAUTIFUL orange to red)
A bunch of different sedums...mostly miniature types
A bunch of Sempervivums
some Jovivarbas
some Orostachys
some Delosperma (not reliable here but easy to start from cuttings)
Mammilaria wrightii ( not supposed to be hardy here but mine stays out all year and seems to do well for 4 yrs now.)
Yucca glauca, and filamentosa
And I'll be planting some Agaves (Century plants) when I can find some.

My garden was made with a product called "Paver Base" from Menards. I simply bought a bunch, laid down newspaper, and built a mound over it. It works great!

Dave
Franklin

Hosta's, Japanese Iris and Phlox. Covered them during the cold snap and they are puttering right along. Will be in the vegetable garden next week.

Virginia bluebells are a bloomin'!

Dave
Milwaukee

I have lots of pretty yellow tulips coming up ( I did plant other colors but their not showing their color yet), 1 daffodil, a peony bush, and some more unknowns.

My Pink Spires Crab Apple has blossoms on the top half of the tree. I don't know what happened to the bottom half. One of my Clematis will be blooming by the weekend.