Flowers this weekend!

Blooming signs in force now

If you have flowers to plant and live where it’s safe to plant them or you can protect them in case of a late cold snap, then this is your weekend so head out to the garden center, pick your plants and have at it.

The moon is in the light phase now and will remain there until the full moon comes to rule on April 22 at 1:24 a.m. While I’ve never been too concerned about whether the moon is in the light or dark phase when it comes to flowers since you’re not eating the blooms, it’s nonetheless in the light phase this weekend.

What is important is that the blooming signs Virgo (bowels) and Libra (the reins or forearms) rule through April 20. It just doesn’t get better than this so have at it.

I caution about planting veggies, however, when flowering signs are in force because veggies tend to spend more time blooming and less time setting fruit during flowering signs.

I’m reminded of that man who wrote me several years ago to say this is a caution worth heeding. It seems he planted cucumbers in a flowering sign before he was paying attention to such things. Here’s what happened:

“The plants came up,” he said, “and grew vigorously. They bloomed and bloomed – the most beautiful blooms you could imagine. The problem was they never ‘set’ any cucumbers so all I had were vines and blooms – and that’s not what I wanted!”

In short, narry a cuke!

So, flowers now and wait until April 21-23 when the fertile sign Scorpio (the secrets) comes into force for those cucumbers and other above-ground producers on the 21^st. Then plant those that develop below ground on the 22^nd and 23^rd after the moon has moved to the dark phase.