When does spring begin?

[ideasguy]

The RHS A-Z reference book refers to flowering times as, for example,  From Late spring to early summer
In the older books, it would have been, for (a different) example,  Flowers from August to September

What is your preference?

Are the seasons equally and neatly divided into 3 month periods.
Do the seasons respect our Monthly calendar and align with the start of certain months?
In any event, I'd like to hear your interpretation of
What month(s) is/are Early spring?
What months are spring?

The reason I ask is, I have set up the Flowering Times categories into 12 grades
Early spring, Mid spring, Late spring
Early summer, Mid summer, Late summer
Early autumn, Mid autumn, Late autumn
Early winter, Mid winter, Late winter

This is to suit our Southern Hemisphere users, no doubt the same reason for the methos used by the RHS authors.

[TinaW]

Since I live in the Pacific Northwest our spring starts earlier than in other areas. What might bloom for me in March may not bloom for you the same time of year. I start seeing signs of life in February and in March spring is in full motion. I still go by the calendar seasons though. To me early spring is late March & early April, mid spring is the end of April & first part of May & late spring is the end of May and beginning of June. I have another program I use in tandem with IG and when I input information in that there is a section to list by the season and by the month (on the same input page). The difference is they only list winter, spring, summer & fall without the early or late addition. So for that program I rely on using the months of bloom. But using the seasonal bloom times including early and late is probably more universal and easier to use by the majority of people.

[Gene]

I agree with Tina, the 12 time frames allow for a much improved reference. I have lived in the Pacific Northwest and now live in Texas, there is NO corrolation to seasons alone. Here, winter is almost non-existant, summer is more like 6 months long. Here it is early December and I am waiting for some plants to go dormant so that I can ship them, we have had no frost to date.  Gene

[whis4ey]

To me early spring is late March & early April, mid spring is the end of April & first part of May & late spring is the end of May and beginning of June

It is difficult to fault that even here in Northern Ireland
And your other seasons would follow similarly ...  early summer possibly the middle of June to the middle of July, mid summer  July and into August, late summer the middle of August to beginning of  September
It does get confusing though when you try to tie it down too much
The general feeling of Spring being March April May, Summer being June July and August, Autumn being September October and November and winter being December January February are invariably right here in the UK at least.  On that basis early Spring would be March, mid Spring would be April and late Spring would be May
Now even I am confused

[bossgard]

When does spring begin? It all depends on where your spot on this planet hangs out. Since I?m in the Pacific Northwest (WA-USA), I?ll try to give you some information from a favorite gardener, who lives in this community, and is recognized as a garden authority in the Northwest and nationwide.

Ed Hume is his name, and I?m using info from his very good book ?Gardening with Ed Hume?. In his list of Annuals, his Planting Times are: Early Spring (March/April), Spring (April/May), Late Spring (Late May/June). His starting times for seedlings indoors are February or Early March. In his Perennial listings Flowering Times are: Spring Flowering, Summer Flowering, and Autumn Flowering. His planting times for Perennials indoors are late February, early March, for outdoors March to October.  Mr. Hume has a line of seed packets that are distributed quite well through retail outlets in the area. He researches his product so that they will grow in this area, I use them with very good luck! On the back of his seed packets he offers a wealth of growing information, too.

Now, we go to an authority on greenhouse operation, his name is Shane Smith. He is founder and director of Cheyenne Botanic Gardens in Cheyenne, Wyoming (USA). For propagation of plants starting times he uses December/January, February/March/ April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November. For propagation of vegetables and fruits, etc. he goes by each month (January, February, March, etc) for planting times, growing times, and harvest times. His book is entitled ?Greenhouse Garden Companion?.

And we haven?t even started to talk about Fertilizer, Pruning, and other schedules.

All confusing ? VERY! Since all the information above is important to various gardeners, in whatever they are trying to accomplish, I would suggest that IdeasGuy use the categories he has come up with. And since you have to take into consideration all of the localized environmental impacts, you can break his terminology down, into the twelve months or part of those twelve months to mean what you need for data for each of your entries.  After all, it?s to help the user (me) the way he uses that information. Decide on your localized ?times? and keep them as uniform as possible throughout your work. And if you are growing the plant, you can always edit your own copy to your own satisfaction.
After all, in most cases, they are all guidelines, not a firm action.

[ideasguy]

Spring began today!

Ive now worked out the seasons for Ireland!
In my book, each season lasts 3 months.
Here in Ireland, May is my favourite month. Its usualy soooo nice, it just has to be describned as Summer.
August begins to get colder and to me, summer is all but over.
With that reasoning I go for:
Spring:- Mid Feb to Mid May
Summer: Mid May to Mid August
Autumn: Mid August to mid November
Winter: Mid November to Mid Feb

and guess what?
Spring came a few days early this year, starting 9th Feb. Today was beautiful here.
Snowdrops out, Crocuses out, Iris reticulata blooming, I can see Anemone blanda re-appearing (yippee). my Tete-a Tete Daffodils have just started to bloom - Camellia 'Donation' buds are showing colour and about to burst. Spring (or is it winter) heathers are blooming away, Hyacinths are pushing up flower buds

I was busy pruning and shredding - what a waste of time!!!!
But, it sure felt good to be out in the fresh air and checking to see if my favourite plants are re-appearing!!
In case Paul (NewPlantsGuy) reads this, I did a special check to see if the plant he trialled for us, Polemonium Brise d' Anjou was still with us - it is, and looking promising!

Weather forecast is also good for tomorrow!

[ideasguy]

What a diference a week makes.
I'm just in for a coffee break, after cutting the lawns. Its sunny and WARM!!
Time for a bit of weeding in the front garden. It needs me!!

[NightHawk]

Well, spring hasn't reached us yet.

We're still getting freezing overnight temperatures and for most of today we've had heavy rainfall.

Not able to get anything done in the garden, but Laurie has managed to complete the obelisk in the garage.  It has yet to be stained, so when that's been done he'll then get some photos and post them on the forum. 

[ideasguy]

Well done Laurie 
Now you can rest on your (ahem) Laurels, eh. 

The weather man "phrophesised" that we'd have rain this afternoon. It arrived as a drizzle about 7:00 pm, so I count myself very lucky today.

[NightHawk]

Got up this morning to find we'd had a very hard frost during the night. 

Kathy panicked.  She was concerned about her little seedlings in the greenhouse.  Although we'd got a paraffin heater in there it wasn't on.  The frost caught us out.

I checked the outside temperature, got down to -4 deg C.  Then checked the greenhouse temperature, got down to 1 deg C.  Not too bad, so hopefully no damage has been done.

It's been a long time since we've had temperatures this low in April.  Definitely not spring weather conditions yet.

Laurie.

[Lynda A]

Hi George,  I have posted a couple of posts but they haven't appeared.  Why would that be do you think.?

[ideasguy]

Ive found your posting where you seem to have found your postings.

The easiest way to locate (any) new postings is to:
Click Home button (top of page)
then, scroll to the bottom of the page
You'll find the last 30 postings

Does that help?