Unusual Weather, As Usual

Unusual weather we're having, ain't it?

In North Carolina, spring has been unusually late in arriving, as winter temperatures stuck around a lot longer than usual.  March was unusually cold.  Last winter, though, was unusually warm.  And last summer was unusually hot. 

With the unusually cool weather, my Edgeworthia has been blooming for an unusually long time. All photos courtesy of Ron.

I have reached the conclusion that, in central North Carolina at least, the weather is always unusual.  In the 8 years that I have lived here, we have never once had "normal" weather.  You can ask anyone.  It's always unusually hot.  Or unusually cold. Or unusually dry. Or unusually wet.

Since I'm a relative newcomer to these parts, I have a slightly different perspective, which is: snow in July is unusual.  Everything else is about par for the course.  Realizing this has done wonders for my garden.

My early-blooming pure white "Mondial" and pink "Foxtrot" tulips have also lasted for an unusually long time.

Let's start with tulips.  I am still patting myself on the back for my decision to forego the mid- and late blooming varieties in favor of early bloomers.  Of course it "shouldn't" be 80 degree in April or May, but it often is.  March bloomers are a better bet if I want my tulips to last more than a day.  

Today is April 1, the average last frost date in Zone 7B Cary.  Usually the weather is gorgeous, and everyone floods the farmers markets and garden centers looking for basil and tomato plants.  Not I.  Back in April 2007, a rare late frost killed all the peach blossoms and ruined life for many a farmer.  That one actually was unusual, but those freak spring hail storms that pour buckets of crushed ice from the sky are not.  How quickly we forget.

My hellebores have been blooming since January. How unusual.

As for the summer, it will be hot and humid.  Very, very hot and humid.  Sometimes it will be very, very, very hot and humid, and everybody will be surprised.  I was too, at first.  But after failing with  such allegedly hardy-to-Zone 7 plants as Sambucus "Black Lace," Delosperma "Eye Candy," Fuschia "Sanicomf," and pretty much every oriental poppy I ever tried, I stopped being shocked.  Now I'm even boycotting hardy geraniums, which are hardy to Zone 8.  Usually.

A perfect metaphor for the weather in North Carolina. (Young Frankenstein, in case you missed the movie.)

"Normal" weather is like a "normal" person: a phenomenon so rare that it is almost a contradiction in terms.  Most of us are a little crazy in some way. "Normal" people are the exception, which makes you wonder why they get to be called normal and we're stuck with being weird.  

Normal weather? Now that would be unusual.