Seattle experienced multiple days in a row in January below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It seemed like this would stall out the anxious spring growers like the crocus, tulips, and hyacinths in the garden.

During the freeze, I moved the iris and crocus bulbs that I am forcing in pots to the greenhouse. I saved them from freezing solid, but then the greenhouse heated up in the sun and we experienced a spell of warm weather. Normally, I would move the pots in the house to force them one pot at a time, but the cold/hot/warm treatment caused them all to bloom at once when I moved them out to the shelves again! The crocus did not make it–rats ate them all in the greenhouse except the one pot I have already moved into the house! But the iris flowers are spectacular.

The bulbs in the memory garden are also blooming beautifully with the unseasonably warm weather.

Last year, the Veltheimia bracteata in the greenhouse failed to bloom for the first time in several years. But I noticed, way back in the greenhouse, that there is a spike coming this year!