Chilly Crocus and A Farewell to Snow(?)

This shot was taken.after the most recent snow on 3 April, 2008. We're hoping this is the last of it we will get this Spring, but there are no sure guarantees in the often fickle climate here in Iowa. The first year I lived here (1994) I recall it snowing as late as early May, with lows in the 40's lasting into June ... we're just keeping all appendages crossed that a repeat of last year's disastrous cold snap is not in the offing. I don't think our Spring bulbs could take another extended spell like that one, not to mention that it virtually destroyed our normally colorful Spring bulb show.

Though it's supposed to go down to about 32/0 tonight, nights like that shouldn't affect things too much, but we sure hope it doesn't become ingrained pattern over the critical course of this month! Some comfortably coolish type weather really would be to our advantage for a while, to give us the chance to mass sow some early spring seeds we'd like to get out, namely a bunch of Larkspur, Foxglove and Rudbeckias. Perhaps a few of the pink poppies as well, but we usually don't even bother with those or calendula because they seem to do quite well left to their own devices. I think we might also consider sowing some Convolvulus tricolor as well, because we never seem to get that in soon enough, and we always end up wanting more than we get!