Goodbye Winter!

Winter is officially over, and it really was a decent winter horticulturally speaking even with all the snow and ice in January.  No hard freezes - just an unusual occurrence in January where the temperature stayed in the upper 20's for about 36 hours.  And other than this past week, it really hasn't been incredibly rainy or stormy.  All my valuable zone 8 plants look very much alive.  I even have a couple zone 9 plants like Strelitzia nicolai (Giant bird of Paradise) and a Philodendron bipinnatifidum that were kept outside all winter and are still alive.  They both have quite a bit of leaf damage but I think they should make a full recovery once we start getting some warm weather.  So, thank you, winter, for not being as bad as you could have been.  May you rest in peace.  Now, spring, learn a thing or two from winter and go easy on us!!