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With the weekend spate of shirt-sleeves weather, some shoots began to pop out of the ground. At Shelter Gardens on Monday, there they were — shafts of green amid the bare and brown, an annual promise of spring for which, this year, Columbia residents seem more than ready.
The wait continues. The National Weather Service is forecasting an 80 percent chance of snow for the city Tuesday with a high of 32 degrees. But gardeners enjoying their bit of green probably shouldn’t worry that this return to wintry weather will harm their bulbs.
- After the warm weather over the weekend, many plants are beginning to sprout around Columbia, including these at Shelter Gardens. But experts say it's a freeze, not snow, that would harm the plants.
- Teeming with life in warmer months, the Shelter Gardens at 1817 W. Broadway presented a barren landscape Monday.
- Imminent snow shouldn’t threaten this budding rose stem, although experts say bad freezes could have dire results.
Carl Burkett, senior landscape technician at Shelter Gardens, 1817 W. Broadway, said freezes, not snow, are a threat. Burkett keeps careful eye on the bountiful roses at the public gardens, and last year many of them had to be replaced because they had budded before a late-season freeze hit.
“It can be a problem if it’s a real bad freeze like last year,” Burkett said. “Snow isn’t a problem because it provides insulation.”
Joy Long, grounds superintendent at the gardens, said she is looking forward to a change in seasons.
“I wish spring was here,” Long said. “Once the warm weather hits, we’re going to be busy.”
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