Garden Bloggers' Bloom Week

Carol of May Dreams Garden has hosted Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for about three years now on the 15th of every month.  March is always an exciting month for this, because we in the northern climates are likely to have our first outdoor blooms of the year.  We get really excited over this and consider it to be an "event."

I'm so excited about what's going on in my garden right now that I'm taking horticultural license and declaring this to be Garden Bloggers' Bloom Week in my garden. To limit it to one day would be a shame, because the planets have converged and the stars have twinkled at the moons and the cats have declared a moratorium on spraying the Dwarf Mugo Pine.

All kinds of everything is popping, with something new showing color every hour, it seems.  The temperatures have warmed to the 60s F the entire week and those spring bulbs love it.  The snow is finally gone, leaving some damage in its wake, but plants are amazing and resilient and even the damaged ones will bounce back in time.

What's blooming now?

Crocus vernus

This is the first year for Crocus chrysanthus 'Fuscotinctus.'  I want more!  They're smaller than my other crocus and so cute, with their striped coats.

Looks like a nice place to nap!

Lily likes them, too.

The pussy willows have been blooming for some time now.  I kept thinking I'd bring some in for forcing, back in January, and just never got around to it.

Salix discolor

The double snowdrops are always the first things to bloom here at Our Little Acre, although the witch hazel gives them a run for the money.

Galanthus nivalis 'Flore Pleno'

Last year, Kerri of Colors of the Garden, sent me quite a few of her single snowdrop bulbs and after being covered by three feet of snow, they've emerged and are blooming such sweet delicate blooms.

  

 

And I do mean sweet! As I was down on the ground taking these photos,  I caught of whiff of flowery spring.  I looked around to see if there were any other flowers blooming, but there wasn't.  I got my nose right down into the clump of the snowdrops, and sure enough, that's what was smelling so good.  I had no idea these were fragrant!

Other than the witch hazel, which has been blooming for several weeks now, these are the only blooms I've got.  Oh wait, when the snow melted, there were still some hardy cyclamen blooms on 'Something Magic,' but I have a feeling those were ones that got frozen in time.

But as I said, this is bloom week.  By Saturday, I have no doubt that I will have the following in bloom as well:

• Iris reticulata 'Harmony'
• Chionodoxa forbesii
• Crocus sieberi subsp. sublimis 'Tricolor'
• Puschkinia scilloides 'Alba'
• Narcissus 'Rip van Winkle' 

I've got blooms inside, too. The amaryllis are between blooms, but I'll have one in bloom by the weekend, with others well on their way.  I've messed with their bloom times by getting them potted up so late that if I keep this up, I'll have summer-blooming amaryllis one of these days!

One of the Phalaeonopsis orchids is in the middle of rebloom.  I don't know the name of it, but the blooms are impressive.

The Clivia miniata is reblooming, too.  I kept it in a cool bedroom for about two months, until I saw the buds emerging.  Then I brought it downstairs to the family room and it's just beautiful. Between staring alternately at the orchid and the clivia, I'm getting very little work done!

The Streptocarpus I brought home from the Chicago Flower and Garden Show is still looking good and had several more flower buds forming.

Streptocarpus 'Savanna's Pink Satin'

The goldfish plant is still blooming...

Nematanthus gregarius

Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii) has bloomed sparsely throughout the winter:

The Oxalis that I've kept in the basement has bloomed a bit throughout the winter:

The aloes that I bought at the Fort Wayne Home and Garden Show are still blooming, too.

Everyone is a little wary of proclaiming spring to be here. We've been burned so many times before by late freezes, but every now and then we really do have an early spring.  I think maybe this might be one of those years.