Letter: Blooms coming early in startlingly warm weather

Posted 2/24/20

To the editor:

Well, I am sure I don’t need to tell you that January was the warmest ever recorded and I wouldn’t be surprised if February didn’t follow suit. Here crocus are …

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Letter: Blooms coming early in startlingly warm weather

Posted

To the editor:

Well, I am sure I don’t need to tell you that January was the warmest ever recorded and I wouldn’t be surprised if February didn’t follow suit. Here crocus are blooming, and an occasional sheltered forsythia is throwing its pale yellow branches around. 

I was longing to cut some fat budded branches of my star magnolia, but before I did, I checked with Sakonnet Garden and they said they had never had any luck.  However there are several shrubs that you can cut right now and bring in the house, such as forsythia, flowering quince, pussy willows and Cornelia cherry dogwood (or Cornus mas) which doesn’t look like a dogwood nor does it have cherries. If you are lucky enough to be near Peckham’s, at the west side of the main greenhouse there is one just coming into bloom. Of course most blossoms which are forced indoors will be much paler than usual. 

I have to alert you on a disturbing note. I am sure you shudder at the thought of using Round Up, but I will quote from a bulletin put out by PRIG, a non -profit environmental group. “On August 9, the EPA announced it will prohibit companies from putting warning labels on products containing glyphosate.” So we will just have to tell our neighbors not to use it and join whatever group is protesting even though with so many things to protest it may seem minor. 

Just because we are having such blissful weather doesn’t mean it will last. I   am wondering “Is a weather shoe going to drop?” Let’s hope not. 

Sidney Tynan

Little Compton

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.