The good news is that we're past the official first day of spring; March 20. The bad news is that we still have six weeks left before we can actually plant most things. May 15 is the official "kick-off day" in our area. That's when we can (usually) safely plant out annuals.

Who knows what April will bring this time as we've all seen some that were very mild and others that were just plain nasty. Keep your fingers crossed.

Many of you start your own vegetable plants indoors. This is a great idea IF you have the right conditions. In order to produce nice stocky plants, you need both a very cool room and a whole lot of light. A temperature of 50 to 60 degrees is about as warm as you want. Either a very large south or east window or a hanging fluorescent light fixture are needed. Too warm a room and too little light will cause those baby plants to get tall and gangly.

The "cool" weather crops enjoy an early start. These include cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. You'll be able to plant them in the garden in late April The "heat lovers" such as peppers and tomatoes can be started in April but not put outside until the end of May, sometimes early June, depending on weather.

Don't bother starting any of the other garden seeds indoors as they all do better when just planted directly into the garden.

Dahlia growers are pulling their tubers from storage and potting them up. These need to put on substantial growth before going outside once the nights get warmer. If we skip this step, we'll be lucky to see any flowers before late August.

Tuberous begonias should also be started indoors as they're not the fastest growers either. Nothing else puts on a show like they do, and in such a small space so they're well worth the effort. Barely cover the tubers with potting soil and put into your sunniest window.

We have lucked out with some recent rain, but this has been a mostly dry winter. One of the plants that really suffers when dry is the rhododendron. When you look around, you'll often see those bushes with their large leaves hanging sadly down. They're trying to say, "Please, somebody, give me a drink!" If it gets bad enough, they can drop their buds.

It may be tempting to get out there and do a little pruning, but be careful. Any spring bloomer will lose its flower buds. For instance, you will get no lilacs. These plants all need to be pruned right after blooming, never before.

It won't be long before those adorable little hummingbirds arrive for the summer. In order to make sure that some will hang around your yard, you need to have your feeders filled up and put out by April 15. If you're late putting them out, chances are they'll find their sugar water elsewhere. These little guys are creatures of habit and will visit the same feeders all summer.

April is the month we usually prune back the hybrid tea roses. Miniatures can be done earlier as they're grown on their own roots. It's not a good idea, however, to do the hybrid teas in March for one big reason ... they are grafted.

This just means that they're two pieces, grafted together. The top part is from a fancy flowering rose, usually not hardy. The bottom part is from a very hardy rootstock, usually Dr. Huey. When a plant is pruned, that tells it to start to grow. If you do this too early, that new growth can get hit by a sudden late blast of winter, killing your fancy rose on top. All the growth that comes later will be from that rootstock and will produce only ugly dark red roses.

Commercial rose growers have recently had some luck growing a limited variety of the hybrid tea rose bushes on their own roots. You might want to buy and plant these instead. The Rosearium in Spokane is one local source.

If you're interested in hearing a great (and funny) speaker, be sure to stop by to hear Phyllis Stephens talk at the River City Garden Club meeting at 7 p.m. April 15. Location is the Post Falls Senior Center at 1215 Third Ave. I guarantee you will enjoy listening to her as she is a real hoot.

By the way, I hear that in our area, we aren't going to have a summer this year ... April Fools'!

Elaine Cerny has gardened most of her life, starting in 4-H. She has belonged to garden clubs in three states and is currently serving as secretary for the River City Gardeners Club in Post Falls. Her column appears in The Press every other Sunday from early March until late October.