This time of year is really difficult… Facebook and various other bloggers are all showing photos of their Sarracenias coming out of dormancy and starting their spring growth. Me I’m showing photos of snow finally melting away from the bogs, showing nothing but burned leaves! One of the joys of living this far north I suppose!
This year I’m particularly nervous! It has been the coldest winter around here in over 20 years! Just took a quick look at February temperature stats, the warmest day was 8C – 47F with an average daily high temp of +1C – 33F. The coldest night was -23C or -9F with an average low of -8C. Not that “normal” for these parts. I tried to find the stats for January but weather.com didn’t have them… I can say that January was even worse. The extremes were pretty much the same I think, but on average it was colder during the day and colder at night!
So now I sit in anticipation. As I like to say, the glaciers are now retreating! I’ve been preaching the gospel of growing these plants outdoors year round in cold climates for a while now… and this season really put them to the test! It won’t be long now before we get to see how they did! I’m very confident all is well… but there is still a part of me that wonders! I planted a large number 1 and 2 year old seedlings out there last year and I’m hoping they’re OK. I will certainly report any casualties should I find any, large or small.
I’m hoping to get the pine needles off by the end of the month. Remember, its important to get them off fairly quickly. Warmer days, and cold nights promote mold and rot. Its very important to get the needles off so that the plants are open to free flowing air and the moisture isn’t kept in close the plants.
Not too much longer!
CJM
Zone 6b 
Here’s hoping when you remove the pine needles that the plants will have survived this nasty winter. If so, this will be something to talk about. Good luck!
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