JimS. wrote in message
Hi Allegra,
Seattle weather has been mirroring yours down in Portland....temps are
consistently around 50 these days, a few degrees cooler than Portland, but
not much sun here either. I saw quite a contrast this weekend, I went
over
to Wenatchee, WA area (the apple capitol of the world, in case anyone's
amused by such!) with a couple of friends to go skiing. Wenatchee is just
on the other side of the Cascades Mountains, from Seattle. All the apple
trees are still totally without leaves, an eerie knarled moonscape...it
looked like a nice sunny day was in-store. Everything is still brown from
winter over there. We came over Snoqualmie Pass to the Seattle side, into
the rain, and everything is green. Still not much sun around here, but
like
Portland not much winter either. All my roses are well on their way to
awake. A few have totally leafed out already. Two never went dormant
this
winter at all-- one even bloomed in January. Even the ones I orphaned to
the city parking strip are doing great. I suspect it's going to be a
sunny
and hot (for here!) summer....At least I hope so!

JimS.
Seattle

Well, what can I tell you? I went out of plant some cuttings in the back
patio, nice, Dutch windows everywhere up there in the gray, gold sky.
Decided to bring the Alice Dupont mandevilla I had cut down and
brought into the garage last November -she has grown two very long
vines already- to plant next to E.Veyrat Hermanos to climb up the
arch with a couple of pink and pale lavender clematis that have already
began to leaf out.

Put all the new rose cuttings' gallon pots with the obligatory plastic bag
hats up against the south wall, mesmerized myself at the sight to a couple
of ruby throat hummingbirds eating at one of the feeders ( Yes, Spring
must be here since only the Annas have been seen around until today)
Started to dig the area for the mandevilla, and hear this sound, sort of
like a tap, tap slowly at first and then in a matter of seconds, the Second
Coming materialized in the form of a halacious hail storm! I mean the
entire floor in the patio was white! I was dragging stuff all over the
place and trying to escape being pelted by the marble size hail.
It took about 15 minutes for the ice to stop coming -and about
2 hours for it to melt. Yesterday was 59, today was 61.-

All right, back to square one. I hope the Mandevilla makes it, after
I have taken her in and out for over 2 weeks trying to harden the poor
thing, only to see her slapped silly by hail when I finally planted her.
Is this a sign of things to come in the garden? I hope not.

Allegra