My Forsythia started blooming about four days ago and really got full in the past two days. I love this shrub! It really brightens up the earliest spring. I hope its blossoms do OK in the freezing weather we’re having for the next few days. It hailed a little today and is expected to snow tonight in the valleys. This will last through Thursday. I hope it doesn’t kill all the apricot blossoms I’ve noticed this past week (I don’t have an apricot, but there are plenty around).
My flowering plum is just starting to open its blossoms, so hopefully this cold storm won’t hurt them. If the cold doesn’t mess things up, it should have a really full head of blossoms in the next week.
I also thought I’d post this. I just trimmed these Blue Oat Grass clumps about 10 days ago, and all that green growth is brand new. These are growing about an inch a day lately! Impressive!
Actually, these aren’t the first blooms of the year. I had some crocus flowers up in the front rose bed about a week ago (maybe even longer?). I should have taken a photo, but I think they’re gone now. I also have some very nice pansies blooming their heads off in front. They’ve been flowering a long time, since they’re a winter flower (I planted them in the fall).
This was the first time I cut them back, but I’m not sure I’ll do it again, or at least I’ll leave them a little longer next time. I did it because you typically read that ornamental grasses should be cut back before spring to get fresh new growth. But a few of mine are struggling to recover from the cutting back, and I liked them better last year without the cutting. One thing I’ve done in the past instead of cutting them down is to use a small handheld cultivator (looks like a mini-rake) and just comb through the clumps to remove loose dead pieces. I may go back to that method. They definitely need the old seed heads cut off, but I’m not convinced they needed all the blades cut back.
This isn’t exactly like dead heading, since dead heading’s purpose is to remove spent flowers before they produce seed so the plant will keep producing flowers instead of spending its energy on seed development. That’s done during the growing season, where this is more like early spring pruning of shrubs.
I didn’t know you could trim Blue Oat Grass. Is that kind of like dead heading? Does it make them grow better/be healthier?