A Gardener in January

January and February are rough months for me....although Woof and I are often able to cuddle up together on the back porch even if there's just a brief burst of sunshine. My Aunt Katie used to swear that the"January sun" was the first sign of an approaching Spring. This winter has been really different...more like an extended and kinda nice long Autumn. While I'm usually in bed early with the latest seed catalog by now, instead I've been out without a jacket quite a few times cleaning up my potting bench and even propping open the door to my little backyard greenhouse.

Yesterday I was amazed to see a blue and a yellow primrose blooming in the garden. All the supermarkets and box stores always replace the poinsettias in January with those beautiful vivid little primroses, and I finally figured out how to keep them for more than a week or two. They like the cold, not freezing cold, but very chilly. So while the logical place for such brilliant little flowers would seem to be a sunny windowsill, they'd much prefer a colder but bright spot. Mine seem to bloom forever on the floor of my greenhouse where it's really only about 40 degrees for most of the winter. The ones I planted in the garden after enjoying them all winter really brightened my spirits this week.

Now if Phipps would just move the opening date of the Spring Flower show to about February 1, I might actually be able to keep my spirits up in spite of what happens in the next few weeks. Usually by the time the show opens around Easter, my own daffodils and tulips are also blooming. I could use a dose of Spring much sooner than the beginning of April. For now Woof and I will just focus on those two little determined primroses, and soak up every available ounce of that January sun.