Up from the sea the wild north wind is blowing

Under the sky’s gray arch;

Smiling, I watch the shaken elm-boughs, knowing

It is the wind of March. – John Greenleaf Whittier

The Natural Calendar

In the coldest years, pussy willows squeeze out by the first week of March. They open well before the weedy henbit, partial to around a dozen thaw days, maybe five or six afternoons in the upper 40s, one or two near 60, and about three warm rains. The catkins generally reach their prime when crocuses bloom, and woolly bear caterpillars come out from winter hibernation.

Pussy willow time is the time that clover and wild violet leaves start to grow; horseradish stretches out to an inch or two, and red rhubarb unfolds in the sun. Honeysuckle buds are unraveling on the lowest branches. Bleeding hearts are pushing their heads from the ground as daylilies reach to the top of your boots, and white snow trillium blossoms appear in the bottomlands.

Earliest spring is over when the sleek pussy willow nubs flush with pollen, almost always a week or 10 days after equinox, just after forsythia and box elders, spring beauties, violet cress, bloodroot, hepatica and twinleaf come into flower. Horseradish and comfrey shoots are two inches long, raspberry leaves the size of honeybees.

The catkins start to drop the first week in April, falling for a week and a half until redbuds and cherry trees blossom. Then come bright blue squills, delicate yellow jonquils, then the full-size daffodils, then purple grape hyacinths, then pale wood hyacinths.

Pussy willow branches finally leaf out when daisies and bleeding hearts have buds, when tulips are in early full bloom, between the first asparagus and the first rhubarb pie.

In the Field and Garden

Complete the spraying of fruit trees between March 13 and new moon, March 27. Spray with dormant oil when the temperature is expected to stay above 40 for 24 hours. Do late pruning on colder afternoons. Spread fertilizer, too. Cut off tips of young black raspberry branches and remove old canes.

Flower and garden shows take place in middle March; try to make time to visit one.

Countdown to Spring

• One week to the first wave of blooming woodland wildflowers and the very first cabbage white butterflies

• Two weeks until golden forsythia blooms in town and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves in the wetlands

• Three weeks until the blooming of Middle Spring wildflowers in the woods

• Four weeks until American toads sing their mating songs in the night

• Five weeks until the Great Dandelion and Violet Bloom begin

• Six weeks until azaleas and snowball viburnums and dogwoods bloom

• Seven weeks until iris and poppies and daisies come into flower

• Eight weeks until the beginning of clover bloom in yards and pastures

• Nine weeks until the first orange day lily flowers

• 10 weeks until roses bloom in town and thistles bud in the fields

Almanack Literature

Shamefaced!

By Luella Franck, St. Henry, Ohio

I am in my 80s, and this happened in the 1930s when I was a young girl.

My mother was using an old black wood stove, and then she got this nice cream-colored wood stove trimmed in green with a warming oven on top. She was so proud of it.

And, as it was my night to do the dishes, the rest of the family left for the living room. We had a big family, and there were lots of dishes. I wasn’t too happy.

I stood in front of the oven door with my back up against it. I kept raising and lowering the door, and then I slipped and broke the door off.

Being shamefaced, I took it and showed it to my mother and dad, expecting the worst. But luckily, it was still under warranty.

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Follow the month of March in Bill Felker’s Daybook for the Year, available from Amazon.