Replanting Fuchsia Baskets

I’m sure that Don, our favorite-all-time-plumber, knows what he is talking about when he tells us it’s still early for reconnecting our outside water pump.  Like most households in Oysterville, we have our own well for supplying irrigation needs – that is for watering the garden.  Each October or November, Plumber Don disconnects the electric pump and drains the outside spigots so that we won’t have frozen pipe problems (or worse.)  And, come springtime, he reconnects everything

Several weeks ago, we thought it about ‘time’ and we left a call on his answering machine.  Nothing happened and I think that I, the impatient member of the family, called yet again.  And again, nothing.  Yesterday as Nyel was getting ready to replant our hanging baskets, he called (at my insistence) yet again.  Having a working hose nearby beats the heck out of trekking back and forth to the kitchen with a watering can.

Mid-April Hyacinths

This time, he got a live voice and Don said it’s still too early, although he did concede that we’ve had some unseasonably good weather.  He might have said “warm weather” but my second-hand report said “good.”  Or else I went on automatic translator; I am never ‘warm’ until it’s in the 80s which pretty much leaves me goose-bumpy year round here in Oysterville.

For sure, something is amiss in our garden.  I think the blooming sequence around here is completely out of whack this year.  Our hyacinths didn’t make their usual showing until a week or so ago – well after the flowering cherries on Territory Road had burst forth.  Usually those perky blue hyacinths are one of the first harbingers of spring at our house.

Jean Maries, April 23, 2014

On the other hand, our Jean Maries – those beautiful bright red rhododendrons that line the west sides of our front and back fences – are showing serious color already.  My dad planted them thirty or forty years ago and we always marveled that they were in full bloom for his birthday each year on May 12^th.  I think they will be just a memory by that time this year.

Mrs. G. W. Leak

Meanwhile, Mrs. G.W. Leak, that saucy pink rhody that’s dark at her core, is still lording it over the eastern end of the garden.  She’s always earlier than the Jean Maries but is usually making her exit by the time they appear.  Not this year!  They seem to be co-conspirators in the current Spring Garden Mystery here in Oysterville.

The temptation, of course, is to just blame any discrepancies in blooming sequences on the new standby, “Climate Change.”  It works for me – far better than blaming an aging or faulty memory about the sequence of things.  But I do know I’m right about those May 12^th blossoms.  Maybe we’ll just have to celebrate dad’s birthday early this year.