The Progression of Spring in Southeastern Iowa

Is this spring earlier or later than usual? When is the best time to plant? If the ground-hog comes out of his hole today will he see his shadow? Questions such as these have stimulated people to look for and record the occurrence of natural events either as hobbies, rules of thumb for farming or as methods of predicting and recording the arrival of spring. Natural events such as general thaw, leafing of trees and shrubs and plant-flowering have been used in the past by Jaques (1924, 1944), Dodd et al. (1934) and Hodson (1951). In many instances one biological event can be correlated with the occurrence of another natural event: the flowering of a plant with the arrival of a migratory bird or the advent of a destructive plant or animal species. This paper deals with the progression of spring in Henry County of southeastern Iowa. The first-bloom of a flower served as the gauge of seasonal progression. The study covered the period from 1946-1957 and included both native and cultivated plants which have been grown outdoors