Back in January, we had some unseasonably warm weather in my part of the world. We had a lengthy thaw, and my tulip tree decided to put out some buds. Bad choice. The poor thing was set straight a few weeks later when things turned icy.
Fast forward to May. So the rule here is to wait to plant until after Mother’s Day. But the weather turned warm again two weeks before then, so I decided to chance it. Well, just like my tulip tree, that was a bad choice. 
I planted some veggies in a raised bed and then heard we were going to get a deep freeze. Not just a light frost, but a frigid blast. So I scrambled and put together a row cover with PVC pipes and greenhouse plastic. The freeze came and those plants… well the tomatoes and peppers didn’t fare well at all. They were done. So were some of the flowers I’d planted in my front bed. My husband, who’s from this part of the world, didn’t say “I told you so,” to his credit. Maybe he feared for his life.
But I’ve regrouped and replanted (after Mother’s Day, this time), and Spring has finally decided that it’s okay to appear, for which I’m thankful. After thirteen years of living here, I’m still not quite used to long winters, but I have come to appreciate Spring. Especially the tulips, in several colors, which come back year after year.
How about you? Any hard and fast rules about planting in your part of the world? Have you ever blown it, like I did?
Love is the Best Medicine 
Beautiful flowers, Tina! 🙂 I’m not a gardener but I do appreciate gardens very much and I LOVE flowers, often treating myself to a supermarket bunch just because,
We had bulbs breaking the surface in February this year! The weather’s been very mild this spring and so thankfully they survived, but there have been years when late frosts have killed everything off. Your flowers are just beautiful, Tina.