Wait, I Wasn’t Ready!
In a previous blog, I wrote about falling into the mellow groove of winter. I wrote about the seemingly endless months of cold weather where we strive to accomplish the minutia of winter. Filing, cleaning, planning and preparation. We have months to get these important but deadline-less tasks done. Right? Right. Except when we don’t.
Today is March 6th. Today I saw an Okame Cherry in bloom. Last Wednesday I observed a star magnolia proudly and defiantly blooming despite the cold. Such lovely, and welcome harbingers of spring, right? WRONG! Because if a Magnolia is blooming on the eastern shore, and a Cherry is blooming in Annapolis, it is only a matter of days until the same finds its way to our nursery as well. 70 degrees ahead this week. I’ll be in short sleeves by Tuesday. Great news, right? WRONG AGAIN!
For those of us in the nursery business, spring is a race against time. 70 degrees on Tuesday means maybe 15 days until we’re done digging flowering material. A few more warm days and the deciduous trees will wake up threatening to unfurl their leaves. CRAP! Just a handful of days left until we won’t be able to dig deciduous. Thanks goodness for Oaks, right? At least we can count on SOMETHING to stay sleeping until April.
Now that leaf out is imminent I must reflect on the winter to do’s. What, from the long list of to do’s did we get done? Now that there are mere days left until the insanity of spring arrives, I find myself needing to prioritize those winter tasks in the hopes that I might accomplish just one more thing or two before spring swallows me whole and spits me out and left for dead. Where should I start?
Well, let’s see, my bookshelf is clogged with catalogs I never looked at since MANTS 2013 and yet still picked up current catalog from that same vendor this year. I should definitely clean that off. The ghosts of availabilities past litter the corner of my desk; am I ever really going to use any of them? Likely, no. I was going to go through all my tree pics and label them so they are easier to find (oh, that’s an important one. Maybe I should actually make time for that one) Call all those people who had “hot to trot” plant needs but then never we never heard from again. (Yeah, that one probably has merit as well) Oh and let’s not forget all the blogs I was going to write in advance so that I would have one in the can and ready to print the next time I needed one (obligatory laughing should commence here)!
If I were you, I’d bet me $1 that I don’t get any of the aforementioned tasks done. Why? BECAUSE THERE ARE CHERRY TREES BLOOMING! And, if you’ve been paying attention you know what that means. You just got a dollar richer. Try not to spend it all in one place.
Hang on tight friends! See you on the other side.