Sunny and cool days means that it is warm enough for the forsythia to start blooming. The first few flowers have just started showing.

It seems funny to see the forsythia, a harbinger of spring, blooming now when so many other plants that usually bloom later than forsythia are starting to show color. A few of the purple azaleas are already showing a few flowers.

All of this before any of the daffodils bloom. I have a feeling that with the milder than normal winter we have had, everything is going to burst into flower all at once instead of there being a progression of blooms. Spring just may come early and be bloomed out in just a week or two.

I think it was in early November. I succumbed once more to an amaryllis kit. I had said I would not buy any of these inexpensive bulbs because so often the flower does not turn out to be the one pictured on the box. Red ones instead of pink, orange instead of white. However, I just can’t seem to resist, so I purchased one that was labeled Minerva, an amaryllis I do not have.

In the past, I have waited until the beginning of December to plant these bulbs because I prefer to have the blooms after the holidays. Mid-January can seem rather bleak after all the Christmas decorations are put away, and why have an amaryllis blooming in December when there are so many holiday items competing with it for attention? This year I didn’t wait to plant the bulb since last year when I delayed the planting, the flower stalk on that year’s amaryllis was already up and never did develop.

So, in early November I planted my Minerva. It didn’t bloom in December. The bud showed but didn’t grow. It almost didn’t bloom in January. January is almost over and finally an open flower.

I figured this was late because I kept the bulb outside since our winter has been so mild. With the cooler than household temperature, that must have delayed the bulb from growing and flowering. I don’t mind the flower only showing up now because it certainly does cheer up the place since not too much is blooming right now. I never realized that it can be nice having a belated Christmas present from Mother Nature.

The USDA has issued another plant zone hardiness map, and many areas are now in warmer zones. The area where I garden, about 30 miles north of New Orleans, has been nudged from zone 8b to 9a. You can access the full info for your area here.

This move does not surprise me, but I still am not going to trust that zone 9 completely. While it is true that our winters have been milder in general, we still can get a very hard freeze that will kill the plants that need a true zone 9 to survive. In the winters of 2010 and 2011, I lost many plants to the cold, and I know this will happen again.

I have always felt that my garden may have the summers of a zone 9 or 10 and can have the winters of a zone 8 even if it is only for a very short time. Tender perennials that survive in my sister’s garden (in the New Orleans area) will often succumb to the cold in mine. So, while I welcome this new map as guide and maybe as the years go by a true reflection of my climate, I still will garden with the idea that a zone 8 winter is likely and be careful about what I plant.