So, it's Presidents' Day. When I was in elementary school we had days off for Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays, whether they fell on a Monday or not. February 12 for Washington, and February 22 for Lincoln, although Washington was born February 11, 1731 under the old Julian calendar. In 1752 Britain and the colonies switched to the Gregorian calendar and his birthday was "moved" to the 12th. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect in 1971, changing some, but not all, federal holidays to Mondays. Lincoln's birthday was never a federal holiday, but was a state holiday in about a dozen states, including mine at the time, California. It still is a state holiday in a few. Some states treated it as a school holiday, but not an official state one. Getting on to the garden, here is what was going on yesterday. Autumn crocus, not actually a crocus, grows its leaves in late winter/spring, they dry up completely before the blooms emerge ...