the jerusalem artichokes are unquiet

over that past ten years or so the jerusalem artichokes have broken soil surface in the first few weeks of may...this particular specimen was up at the perennial garden project at iun on the twenty-first of march 2012...that was an exceptionally anomolous month in terms of weather with consistent warm temperatures, at times reaching into the eighties ( fahrenheit ) and was followed by a seasonable april and a summer long drought which did not do this plant much good at all...up early and starved for water...at least in terms of rain...and the heat radiating of the nearby ( within ten feet ) walls of hawthorn hall didn't help much either...in 2013 the sunchokes were back on their usual schedule of appearing in may...

out this morning rooting around with marigold...

i discovered that, in the past week, not only have the tubers continued to root...

the have clearly begun to sprout...perhaps a sign that the inordinately warm winter wil have them making an early breakthrough...there are still a little better than thirty-two days until may and they were not usually up on the first...we will see what happens in april.