The fuchsias are coming. But will spring be ready?

Since the depths of January, there hasn’t been much new going on outside. It's been basically the same pattern. Freeze. Snow. Freeze. Snow. Freeze. The over-wintering pots of fuchsias are… well… still impatiently over-wintering inside. Waiting in the wings. Literally. (➤ The indomitable spirit of the fuchsia.) By the second week of March, I'd ordinarily be getting ready to set them all out again because the freezes are pretty much over here by the third week. Not this year. Happy Spring? The vernal equinox arrives on Thursday. At 16:57 hours UTC. That’s 12:57 pm in the City. We’ll see.

There have been some attempts at spring-like behavior. The deep tide of snow has slowly and finally receded. Last Monday was heavenly blue and 64˚F (18˚C). Tuesday it was raining and 48˚F (9 C). That's a good sign of spring. Rain. Not snow. But as soon as the front passed on through, the temperatures started dropping. Plummetting really. By six in the morning it was 20˚F (-7˚C). Ouch. Another Arctic Vortex hits hard. My first order of fresh new fuchsia starts for the coming summer, those from ➤ The Earthworks in Washington State, will be arriving in the mail in a couple of days. In fact, they should delivered on Thursday. First spring. Then my fuchsias. Great combo. Spring had better be getting its act together, though.

With the garden locked in an icy embrace over most of the winter, the real early action has been inside the apartment. In my "greenhouse" under the plant lights. The cuttings I took last fall are going strong. In a week, but probably more like two this year, I’d like to be setting them out to harden off for the garden. I hope. I'm really excited about one new cutting in particular. Late last summer, I noticed that Fuchsia Kwintet' sported (➤ Come on, Kwintet, be a good sport). The branch wasn't so big but I did manage to get three good cuttings off of it. They took. Now I'm waiting to pot them up. Hopefully the sport has stuck around. It’ll be joining a bunch of new friends on Thursday if it did.

The Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | winter | spring | propagation