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A 'Normal' Spring For Early Bloomers

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Too cold, too hot. What's with the Goldilocks weather? It doesn't really matter why we went from winter to summer and back to spring in a week - or why the trees are blooming 3 weeks later this year than last, but it does tell you that plants react to the weather - not the calendar.

It's the accumulated warmth in the air and soil that nudges plants to wake up, start breaking buds into flowers and leaves and it also cues the insects to get going, and birds to start making babies. (We're not the only ones who get spring fever when the temperature spikes!)

So, last year the magnolias were blooming in March, this year they were still closed up tight the second week of April - until, we had four days of summer weather in a row and the next thing you know, magnolias were blooming all around you.

Flowers also die back faster when we get a summer spurt too; a lot of the bulbs that came out in the heat were finished within a few days, when they would 'normally' last a week or two. But then, since every year is different, 'normal' is a relative thing.

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