Signs of Spring in Tampa

Spring is rapidly settling in here; my neighbor Helen's maple across the street has been blooming and leafing out for about two weeks now, more and more of my roses are budding and blooming, broccoli heads forming daily, baby sunflowers and nasturtiums emerging from the cool soil in several beds, and I've begun a few pots of heat loving crops and flowers from seed (like Ichebana eggplant, Salvia patens, Ashwagandha, Zuchetta Rampicante, Night Phlox and more) and yesterday divided three big clumps of amaryllis that had stopped blooming two years ago due to being too deep in the soil due to my annual mulchings.....I separated the big mother bulbs and replanted them MUCH more shallowy as a border in my mailbox bed. Today I made two rose cuttings rootings areas (see my roses blog for details) and finished painting a section of fence out front. Certain edible weeds have leapt into growth out front due to the chilly rains, so I am daily pulling them to feed to the chickens and quail. Very soon Tampa will be awash in species amaryllis, citrus and azaleas in bloom, and flocks of ibis probing lawns and gardens with their long curved bills for bugs. Each late March when they return to Paxton Avenue in earnest is when I feel that spring has arrived, with another summer of glorious subtropical gardening just around the corner! John