Will have new one up tomorrow.

Springtime arrives in February in North Central Texas

As always, I enjoyed your newest Come Stroll posting. Especially since my garden color is still white. The snow sure is slow to melt - which is a good thing.

I love the Quince! It's probably a warm weather plant? And what big pine cones - bigger in TX I've got cute, little bitty cones from the hemlock trees.

I found refs to Quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) being hardy in zones 4 and 5 and grown commercially for retail in Maine and Montana, so it sounds like you’re in with a good chance :-)

?? Where are these Quince pictures?

Its the last pic on the current comestroll page for Feb 03. Here is a direct link to the page. But since I renew the strollie page every month, this link will take folks who read this after next month, to whatever is up at the time.

Oops, I was wrong,,, it is the 2nd to last pic on the page, just above the Afghan pine tree pic.

Thank you Maggie for taking me by the hand--I can be kind of dense sometimes. I thought the pictures were somewhere within this forum--it didn't dawn on me to go back to the home page for a broader look.

((Caution!! computer neophite on the loose!))

You sure were johnny-on-the-spot! Not much else to do on this dismayingly cold and sleety day. I know this would be nothing to your friends further north, but its just that old man weather jerks us around so down here (it ain't funny mother nature!). I just know that my GEORGEOUS, FRAGRENT Tazettas, which were just coming into their prime, will be mush by Thursday. And I hadn't even gotten a picture of them yet (pout, whine). :o(

Oh, hope you are still here - I was answering your other post while you where doing above. And I too was moaning about this fickle mess and frozen daffs.
As for the puter woes - no worries,, you make me realize I should be more clear about it when opening a new strollie thread.

On this Feb 03 comestrollie,under this pic

I wrote:
"... an old species Quince began in January this year, well before the first Forsythia buds opened."

Usually in No Central and East Texas, the quince and forsythia bloom together, such as in this old pic from my garden.


Well, something just occurred to me - farmers used to use forsythia as a last-freeze barometer. They wouldn't sow tender seeds until the forsythias blooms were fully opened.

But as of today - this ground freezing day - the forsythias are still just buds. Seems like those old time tillers used a pretty good barometer.

Those are gorgeous pictures. I have been thinking of getting a Quince to put in front of a Bush Honeysuckle. Doesn't Quince come in several different sizes? I think they would bloom about the same time. My Bush H. has been blooming for quite a while, and although not tremendously showy I love the lemony fragrence. I guess the flowers are done for, now (sigh) along with the daffodils. Another cute little early blooming plant that seems to be awfully tender to be so early is Snowdrops. I planted a few 3 yrs ago and have yet to see them in good bloom--they've always gotten frozen--even the leaves.

Don't give up on the daffodils and snowdrops! Mine always get snowed on and even some hard freezes but keep on blooming. They're tough little guys.

Very curious about your snowdrops freezing Sandra. There is also the Leucojum snowflake - some of mine were in bloom before the ice storm and got smashed, but others will open later.

I've noticed that the tight daff buds will still open after a thaw. Another good daff to have in the garden is 'Tresamble', a lovely pure white one, which opens later in the season and is more likely to miss and ice in NC Texas.

You might also like the deciduous Winter Honeysuckle too. Here's a pic I took of it in January at a friend's house. Mine is very small, but still has some bloom on it.