About two weeks ago I was checking on some of the gardening blogs I follow, and Alan @ It's Not Work, It's Gardening! had put up a post about relocating a large Forsythia in his backyard. His garden is in the St. Louis burbs and a Zone 6 (I'm Zone 4) so the Forsythia was already blooming on March 14. I was completely jealous.
You see, Forsythia can be a tricky plant here in Zone 4. Our winters can get pretty brutal; temperatures routinely drop to -30*F (-34*C) and stay there for weeks. Any flower buds on early spring blooming shrubs that are above the snow line are killed by the harsh temps. Since we had hardly any snow to speak of this winter, I had little hope of any Forsythia blooming this year.
Last week I was driving through Excelsior and I caught a beacon of yellow out of the corner of my eye:
The sight almost made me stop in the middle of the road! As I continued through town I saw more Forsythia in glorious bloom. For the next half hour I went on a Forsythia Hunt, taking pictures out my car window. I hope I didn't freak out any of the neighbors as I drove around in circles!
Here are the results of my drive-by photography!
One of my clients has a Forsythia, so I took the opportunity for some flower close-ups.
So how is it the Forsythia are in such rare form this year? My theory is that, although we had no snow to protect the flower buds, we didn't have the damaging low temperatures that would have otherwise killed the flower buds with or without snow.
The result is a fabulous Forsythia flower show!
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