Dear Friends, We've had two whole days mostly in sunshine and the temps have managed to get above 40 F. We have a 4 day forecast that includes 2 snow storms and temps as low as 20F. The warm sun has produced fully open flowers on Winter Aconites (Eranthis). They had been sitting there as golden balls of buds , waiting to spread out. One clump of an un-named Galanthus has opened and spread its 'wings' while most others remain tightly closed and now still turned down. We were surprised to see the yellow specks in the leaf mulch were Adonis amurensis pushing up to show the tips of their petals and they managed to half open before the snow hits later tonight. Maybe the next warm spell will push them to bend their stems down and spread their petals. Still no crocus open and few even showing points of leaves. Lots of hellebores are pushing buds up into the cold and many Lycoris are show tips of their spring foliage. Likewise many daffodils are up less than an inch although Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' has come up far enough for earliest buds to get frozen. Hopefully there's a few more in reserve. We have quite a bit of above-ground and above-snow-line damage this winter, but new plantings were fairly well mulched last fall. Have to sit on our hands and not go poking around as much as we want to. As winter looms for another week, the long term forecast isn't too good either. Where's that rascally ground hog? Best Jim W. -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +