What a Difference a Week Makes!

We returned home from our Florida trip so late last night that it was dark and I couldn't see the flower beds and gardens. It was pretty quiet but there was a riot of activity going on out there. When I got up this morning and looked out the window, it was as if someone had photoshopped my view and had gone heavy on the green.

When we left a week ago, the grass was still brown with the slightest bit of green peeking through. There were a few bulbs shooting spears of foliage up through the soggy brown mud. And just one lonely crocus and a couple of snowdrops blooming.

This look out the window had both Romie and me donning our jackets and shoes (my new Puddletons!) and heading out to do a walk-through to see what was popping. And there was SO much going on out there that we were like two little kids looking for Easter eggs. "Here's one!" "Over here!" It was just too much fun, finding that all the bulbs I'd spent hours planting last fall had not only made it through the winter, but were strutting their stuff for us.



Spring is busting out all over, as they say, and so are my spirits. You just can't help but smile when you see the jewelled colors of the Iris reticulata, the Tete-a-Tete daffodils and the giant crocus. And some of the perennials are well on their way preparing for Act Two of the Spring Parade of Colors.








The lungworts (Pulmonaria sp.) have flower buds, as does Crimson Fans (Mukdenia rossi).













This was the first winter for my rock cress (Arabis caucasica 'Snowcap') and I am being blessed with pristine white blooms already.





And ... what's this? A hellebore bloom! That little trouper, which was covered by two feet of snow for so long in February, is laughing in the face of its brown leaves. One bloom open and two more coming, with tender green shoots poking out at its base. Not so tender, I think.



The Heucheras all have new growth, as do the Tiarellas, Coreopsis, Flax, Japanese Painted Ferns, 'Jack Frost' Brunnera, Jacob's Ladder, Japanese Anemone, Bleeding Heart, Columbine, Blue-Eyed Grass, 'Limelight' Artemisia, Hardy Geranium, Iris, Tiger Lilies... really too many to name them all.











Several of my mini hostas are showing nubbins of growth and the Lily-of-the Valley (white and pink both) are poking through everywhere, too. Usually, the pink ones are later in appearing than the traditional white, but they're in a dead heat this spring.

If I had known my flowers were waiting on me to go to Florida before they started blooming, I would have gone weeks ago.