After a fairly mild winter with very little snow, our first 70-degree day in my garden was April 4, 2023.  The autumn before, I had left five dahlias in the ground because I hadn’t liked them the previous summer.  But, by the end of the month, they all sprouted in the garden!  In my area, Zone 6 north-central Connecticut, that had never happened before!  I could only surmise that the ground never froze in the winter of ’23. I had never seen dahlias winter over before.

The Roses Awaken

We did have one huge glitch in February…for the first time, the temperature fell to -9 degrees.  All the canes that had been green burned black to the ground.  This is why when I plant my roses, I always make sure my bud unions, or crowns, are 4-5” below soil level.  In April, I pruned most of my roses down close to the ground.  The new growth surged up because of the five inches of protected canes below ground level.  I worked the gardens every day and was pleased with all the beautiful, healthy new growth.

Wildfires in Canada and the Western US

By the first week in May, there was an eerie orange glow in the air and sky that blocked the sunlight.  This was smoke and very fine ash that descended upon us from wildfires in Canada.  These wildfires started in forests suffering from a severe drought that was struck by lightning.  There were 242 active, uncontrollable fires across Canada and 90 active fires in the western United States.  They continued to spread until October, and every time the prevailing winds brought the smoke here, we were covered by the smoky haze and for many days, we could smell the smoke.  It was awful. There were many toxic chemicals in that smoke:  ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and fine, particulate matter.  This fine particulate matter is small enough to be inspired deep into the lungs and causes a lot of physical problems to people and animals.

In my rose garden, my plants grew tall and leggy because they were reaching for the sun they could feel but not reach.  The buds grew huge, and when the roses finally bloomed, they were gigantic, but the colors failed to be as true and saturated as they normally are because of the lack of direct sunlight.

July Flooding

When July arrived, so did torrential soaking rains.  Normal rainfall for us in northern Connecticut in July is just over 4”.  By the end of the month, we had received over 12”!  The abnormal precipitation continued for the rest of the year.  Streams and rivers overflowed their banks, cars got stranded, and mudslides happened in some spots.  The gardens were inundated.  When it wasn’t raining, it was so hot and steamy that fungus took over in my garden.

Despite the mulch in the gardens, weeds took over, and they grew huge!  I’d go out to work but never got to finish deadheading or weeding because the relentless rains would begin again.  By August, the heat took over and the gardens were pretty much trashed for the year.  2023 was the third wettest year in history.  In Connecticut, our average rain/snowfall is 47”.  Rainfall here in 2023 was 65”.  It was also the hottest year on record, worldwide.

Other Strange Happenings

Usually, my hydrangeas begin their display in June.  Some of them are older cultivars that need two years of wood to form blossoms.  They grew and grew, and the leaves got bigger and bigger, but no buds formed…until the end of September!! I had gorgeous Nikko Blues and other varieties of mopheads in October.  They all got killed off by the frost in November.  In August, all the leaves fell off my lilacs because of all the wet weather.

In September, my lilacs put out some weak growth and bloomed for a second time in 2023.  Everyone knows that lilacs usually bloom for Mother’s Day around here.  This is very weird stuff.  Part of me hopes that Garden Year 2023 was a freaky glitch, but in my heart, I believe that climate change is happening.  It is real and we should all do what we can do to help to reverse it.  Everyone should write to their senators and representatives and ask them to please work together on this most important issue.  Earth is crying out for help, and we cannot survive without her.