The area has been enjoying beautiful sunny and very mild weather for the past week and people have broken out the shorts and short sleeves once again, but lets face it, this type of weather is just not normal for October standards! Everyday for the past 7 days has succeeded 80.F and 3 of those days has been quite hot in the mid to upper 80s at my location. I've seen an odd warm day here or there in October before, but to have such a long stretch of beautiful summer like weather this far into Oct is unheard of to me! Not only have the temperatures been un seasonably mild, but were are lucky enough that everyday has brought abundant sunshine. There was one day this past week that was very windy, Friday strong southerly gusted to 45MPH here in Rochester, taking away many of the leaves of turning trees, and taking down some minor sized branches, but besides this one day winds have been fairly light to just a few breezes. NWS La Crosse says Rochester Airport broke 1 record high this week, Friday at 84.F, They also said that there has never been a stretch of highs in the 80s this long at the airport in October even since records began in 1886!
Many of my more previous viewers know spring flowering bulbs are one of my favorite plants, I've gone from growing them in the fridge each winter, to eventually finding varieties that worked for me so I was able to leave them in the ground. When I moved into my aunts house for college, I found out there are no spring bulbs in any of the gardens, so we both purchased about 200 bulbs together and becuase I had success in planting them the ground in my home state of Wisconsin, I decided to skip the fridge this year and plant strait into the ground. We got 3 different color Tulips, 4 different color Crocus, mix colored Hyacinths, and two different color Daffodils. If all goes well it should be a very beautiful spring next year right around the time my horticulture studies end for the summer, I planted some along the southern foundation of the house to compare to home sprouting and blooming times, and I plan to follow their growth here next spring just as I did for my gardens in Wisconsin.
The time to plant bulbs is now! Anyone wanting to plant spring bulbs should get them in the ground in the next 2 weeks, especially if interested in Daffodils. Spring bulbs need time to root in before the ground freezes. Some bulbs like Tulips can be planted up to a week or two before a sticking snowfall, I've had very good results from this planting 1 week before a sticking snow, but the general good rule to follow is to have everything planted by the 20th of October, and for Daffodils is required that they get good roots down or they will be severely damaged and wont bloom. With this time limit, this makes the next couple weeks a great time to plant throughout much of the Upper Midwest! Don't forget to one of the post important steps when planting bulbs and that's watering them down good after planting, otherwise there just dormant bulbs sitting in soil!
Many homeowners end up with lots of leaves in their yards, and instead of bagging them they can be added to the garden and used as a great winter protection! I've taken this step every fall and I remove the leaves the following spring as bulbs begin to sprout. I leave the leaves near by the plants in most of April in case hard spring freezes threaten.
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