Green Thumbs Up: It’s time to think spring

After torrential downpours, the perpetual snowy covering of this interminably long winter season seemingly vanished overnight, creating an irresistible urge to wander through the landscape looking for signs of spring while pausing to assess the consequences of another challenging winter season.

Passing through my garden arbor, I was delighted to discover the vibrant yellow, fringed blossoms of the witch hazel Hamamelis "Arnold Promise" had finally burst into bloom, its dense clusters of delicate ribbons dazzling each time the sun momentarily broke through the steely gray cloud cover.

Although its flowers usually appear by mid-February, this season’s chilly temperatures have delayed their opening, but last summer’s plentiful moisture seems to have ensured an especially prolific floral display that should continue well into the month of April. This underused multi-stemmed shrub or small tree should be grown more widely considering its many positive attributes, including fragrant, persistent blooms for six to eight weeks when few, if any other plants are in bloom, in addition to attractive foliage and pleasing fall color.

Beneath the soggy, matted layer of garden refuse, other welcome signs of springtime were gradually beginning to emerge. Along my back walkway in a sheltered area with southern exposure, the delicate feathery tips of early crocuses have appeared, pushing their little noses up through the moist earth warmed by the afternoon sun. Nearby, the tiny strap-like leaves of miniature daffodils created curious tiny domes as they surfaced through damp leaf litter.

In my damp, wetlands meadow, the silvery, silken catkins of the Japanese fantail willow have fully emerged, its contorted branches twisting and turning to form fascinating curlicues. When cut and dried, these unique spiraling, curved stems produce delightful artistic decorations perfect for vases and floral arrangements. Stem cuttings taken during early spring root easily in water or moist sand and once established grow quickly in moisture-retentive soils into a fascinating multistemmed shrub.

My collection of shade-loving hellebores expands each year as new cultivars become available, with exceptionally handsome evergreen foliage and increasingly beautiful and diverse flower forms and colors.

Helleborus "Jacob" continues to astound me with its exceptionally long season of bloom and incredibly dark green, leathery, palmate leaves. Pure white satiny blossoms atop rose-tinted fleshy stems started blooming in November and with each snow-melt, new buds have emerged and continue to flower with reckless abandon. Plump flower buds have appeared on nearly all my hellebores this week, cradled in clusters of shiny new burgundy-tinted leaves. When time and weather permit, I will clip back the battered leaves from the previous season to allow the new growth and fabulous blooms to show to perfection.

Sadly, a new coating of slushy, wet snow blankets the landscape again this morning as frustrated gardeners struggle to patiently wait for spring. For yet another year, March is roaring in like a lion, with several more days of unsettled weather predicted, but a promising forecast for the end of the week may offer opportunities to get our spring clean-up under way. While treading on soggy lawns and gardens should be avoided, many plants face their greatest hazards during these last weeks of winter, and several steps should be taken to ensure a smooth transition into the new spring season.

Fluctuating temperatures in late winter and early spring are often more damaging to plants than continuous cold. Daytime temperatures usually rise above freezing, thawing the upper soil surface; when temperatures drop after nightfall, this upper layer may freeze again. Alternate freezing and thawing of damp soil may cause shallow-rooted plants and late season transplants to heave out of the ground, which may prove fatal if roots become desiccated or exposed to extended cold.

Survey your gardens during the warmth of the day and firmly press plants that may have lifted out of the soil back into the earth. I keep a bag of bark mulch in my garage during colder weather to surround the crown of uprooted plants, which provides temporary protection.

Drying winds and the intensity of the late winter sun also pose a hazard to evergreen perennials, trees, shrubs and mophead hydrangeas in exposed areas.

A stockpile of Christmas tree branches will be used to cover a variety of evergreen perennials for the next few weeks including candytuft, ground phlox, coral bells and dianthus. These branches will allow light, air and moisture to filter through but shield the foliage that may be subject to winterburn.

On warmer days, anti-desiccant sprays will be applied to broad-leafed evergreens such as rhodies, azaleas, mountain laurel, boxwood, hollies, leucothoe and to the protruding leaf and flower buds along the dormant stems of mophead hydrangeas. Deer continue to forage in my gardens, with damage often most significant in late winter, so deer repellents will be sprayed on susceptible plants when temperatures are above freezing.

Suzanne Mahler is an avid gardener, photographer and lecturer who has been developing the 1.5-acre property surrounding her home in Hanover, Mass., for more than 30 years. She is a member of two local garden clubs, past President of the New England Daylily Society, an overseer for the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and is employed at two garden centers.