Kept From Hibernation By a Lingering Warmth

And the bulbs in flower represent a fraction of the display of spring-flowering bulbs. The warmth will not affect the major show of daffodils, hyacinths and tulips, which usually begins in mid-March and lasts until the beginning of May.

Bulbs that will bloom in March and April need cold weather to form, and problems only arise when the bulbs are in full growth and then temperatures plummet to near zero. This can cause the foliage to collapse, because the leaves are more tender when fully grown than as shoots emerging from the soil.

Heath, co-founder of Brent and Becky's Bulbs, said that if people are worried about freezes, they can apply a light mulch of pine needles around the foliage. Or follow his tongue-in-cheek advice: "Take your thumb, put it on the top of the foliage and push it back down."

This floral display, Normandy points out, doesn't mean that the garden is going to be spent or destroyed by winter freezes before spring arrives. Many of the mainstays of early spring -- most bulbs and flowering dogwoods, ornamental cherries and crab apples -- are in deep hibernation and far from flowering.

The warm winter has also breathed life into the garden in other ways -- by keeping evergreen ground covers, such as liriope and cranesbill, looking perky, the lawn green and hardy potted plants in bloom, including heaths, snapdragons and violas. Freezes have a way of flattening and dulling ground covers and causing conspicuous shrubs, such as rhododendrons, to wilt badly.

Temperatures in the 50s and 60s also allow die-hard gardeners to get out and work, adding organic matter to their soil, making compost and finishing fall cleaning chores.

The warmth is not all good for gardens. Gail Griffin, superintendent of the garden at Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, said the wax scale insect is more likely to survive. So will spores of fungi, so removing diseased leaves of such things as lilacs and even tomato plants is important to reduce problems next season. But in the elaborate rose garden, Griffin and her gardeners cannot get the roses to shut down for the winter. Still in last season's leaf, they are harboring black spot. Dysart reports the same problem in his Arlington garden. Griffin is planning to strip the leaves off the roses.

Winter weeds, too, are growing robustly and need to be pulled, said Skarphol of Green Spring Gardens. She lists chickweed, veronica, bittercress and deadnettle. "And the ground ivy never slows down," she said. "It's just evil."

Then there's the psychological damage. Janet Draper, a horticulturist at the Smithsonian Institution, said: "I actually like this weather, but I know we are going to pay for it. If it's this warm now, what's it going to be like in July and August?"