How do you know if you have Spring Fever?

For one thing you can not have Spring Fever at any given time. An age-old theory tells us that when the robins return and the average temperature is at or above 36 degrees F, you may be subject to Spring fever. So first: start looking for the robins. Second: look for the symptoms. Dr.Rosenthal of the Georgetown University claims that millions of people across the upper half of the Northern hemisphere begin to feel more energized, upbeat, sexually active and somewhat distracted, during Spring time! The word Spring comes to us from the Old High German language root word “Spreng”, which means “rapid movement”. The old English word “springan” meant “to leap”, and the current word “spring” means a place where water comes out of the ground. Scholars and poets have compared this to the time when plants leaped out from the ground. Indeed plants have been “leaping” out of nowhere lately. Have you been watching your Garden? Dr. Rosenthal claims that Spring fever is caused by the lengthening of the days and not by the warmer weather. Our eyes are transmitting this to our pea-size hypothalamus gland, which regulates our eating and sleeping habits. So if you feel good about Spring Fever here is a way to bring it on early and to make it last longer. Walk into your garden between January and March, look for a Forsythia bush, a Pussy Willow, a Flowering Cherry, a fruit tree or a Magnolia and cut some branches with flower buds on them. Bring them inside, put them in water and see what will happen after two weeks!

To make this Spring fever last longer, wrap some of the branches in plastic (to keep from drying out) and keep them in a dark and cool place, 32 degrees is optimal. A little bit of freezing is okay as long as they will not dry out. Make them think it is winter!! Then when you need more Spring fever, put them in a vase inside a warm room and they will bloom within a week or two!