Midwest Climatic Normalcy or Global Climate Change?

I'm feeling particularly querulous today as I watch the needle on the thermometer outside my office window drop to 30 degrees. It's times like this that I wish the world would have taken the issue of global climate change more seriously years ago. If so, it's quite possible the new spring foliage now would not be under assault from a threatening winter storm and I would not have to grieve for plants that I know aren't going to make a come back once this cold snap has passed.

Yesterday I went out and surveyed the prospects. The nectarines and nanking cherries are in full bloom. Good bye sweetness. Luckily the rest of the orchard is not so far along. One of our peach trees is partially flowering but isn't in full bloom and we have apples and other cherries that are only just beginning to form buds. Hopefully it won't be a total loss.

I'm also aghast at losing lots of new and tender perennials that didn't realize the trick being played upon them when they ventured toward the sun too soon. From same past experience two years ago, I can expect heavy casualties. Only the very hardiest will survive this brutal a beating---possibly a foot of snow and night temps in the 20's. In the past I would be running around like a crazy woman with mulch and quilt batting, trying to cover as much of the new growth as possible. I just don't have it in me this year.

Maybe its age, but I find I am less tolerant of stupidity as I get older. For instance, last weekend I was in a local nursery and I heard one woman correct another on the pronunciation of the word peony. Pronouncing the word pee-un-ee or pee-o-nee, in the whole scheme of things, what does it really matter? I have both northern and southern roots. For the most part, I find its a northern/southern difference. My northern family members pronounce the flower with the former pronunciation and my southern family members call a peony by the latter pronunication. Who's right?

Who cares?

When I hear someone going out of their way to point out that clematis should be pronounced clem-uh-tis instead of cle-mat-is or vice versa, it simply sounds like an uppity snob thing to me, northerner or southerner. That's as pathetic as which side of the global climate change issue one supports based on one's political affiliation. Please!

I remember 30+ years of Midwest winters vividly. Just a few years ago, March was part of winter and April was always on the fence. A Midwestern gardener didn't expect to start planting until the middle of April because that's when the ground was thawed enough to till. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I've been gardening long enough to know a change when I see it. Ten years ago, I didn't have to worry about April coming before March on the calendar.