Much to my surprise as my wife and I walked out of the house this morning we saw our first flower of spring opened up and shining brightly in the warm sun. What an excellent surprise! I love this part of our garden because it truly is a unique microclimate. Southern exposure, got to love it :) anyone else have any joyous heralds of spring? Posts your pics!
Edited: my iPhone won't let me upload my pic :( I'll post it when I get home from errands
This message was edited Feb 22, 2014 11:31 AM
FIRST FLOWERS OF SPRING Post Your Pics!!
I knew the crocus blooms were hiding under all that snow. As soon as the snow melted the crocus popped open!
My black Pussywillows are starting to open. Will get a pic of them later.
Ok, technical problems aside, here's the valued crocus!
Snow Drops!
Daffodils up 2-3"
Kerria and JM buds
Elderberry buds
My Mock orange has the tinest green leaves showing! Many of my Heucheras have kept their color. Hellebores should bloom tomorrow. I swear I saw a bee nectaring on my snow drops.
Red twig dogwood
Autumn fern stayed green all winter
Hydrangea buds
WOW!!!!!! I don't have any pics to share, just wanted to 'wow' out loud at what you guys are sharing. Those crocus(es?) are BEAUTIFUL!!
All you southerners and your more advanced plants...lol
Hey, Jeff, just remember that Spring moves North at about 5 miles per day!
And I'm the one with 234 days between last and first frost
I am a bit surprised at the 'leafing out' on JMs and Mock Orange . wonder if snow cover made light more intense as signal? This does seem a bit early
5 miles per day sounds like forever at this point. First step is to get rid of this snow but the weather next week doesn't seem like it's going to help that much. There are quite a few of our snow crocus starting to poke up though and I suspect that there will be more when the snow clears the ground in other spots. Our Arnold's Promise Witchazel should be starting up soon too.
I have some shoots coming up through the mulch, but no blooms yet. :-(
*sigh* I wish I could participate in this thread but I can't yet. :(
Nice to see everyone else's, though!
Coleup, I thought it was nuts that your JM was budding out already so I checked on mine. Well, they're waking up, too! I wish they'd wait a bit, though. There's a JM I need to move and I was hoping to do it while it was still completely dormant.
What's your earliest thing to bloom TYP?
Last year it was the yellow crocus. I don't have any warm microclimates, just cold pockets. My hellebore set buds in January this year but I think it got hit by the polar vortex and got bud blast. I think that the crocus need a few more weeks here!
Things are coming back to life, but not blooming yet. Seeing daff and tulip tips peeking out, but turned purple from cold stress. Hydrangea leaf tips swelling. That's about it here in my 7b garden. :)
Editing to add the indefatigable sedum which has little purple-blue rosettes all around the base of each plant.
This message was edited Feb 23, 2014 4:05 PM
my tommies are up!! Not a bloom in site yet but they're up and they're GREEN. Daffodils are up to but no flowers yet. Peony buds just popped out from under the snow and a couple of Hollyhock leaves. And just think we're going back to freezing!
Now the good thing I checked all my potted lillies and hellebores in the garage. Tiger babies had babies over the winter. All of the ones I checked are hard as rocks. The hellebores are just putting up a baby leaf. They're babies themselves. I potted them up from newborns around my mother's hellebore. I have not the faintest idea how old it is. We lost her over 20 years ago so I know the plant is several years older than that. I'm scared to divide it so I'm contenting myself with the babies.
Springtime please, please come, I can't take it much longer!!!
I'm surprised the reticulated iris isn't up at the same time as the crocus. I thought they'd bloom together. They're just now coming up but probably won't bloom for a couple of weeks.
In my yard, my one Danfordiae iris blooms with the tommie crocus. Not yet though.
edited kind of iris
This message was edited Feb 24, 2014 8:54 AM
saw some of spring bulbs at church beginning to emerge!! maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to look around our yard to see what may be sprouting.
We have lots of broken tree limbs yet to clean up. One pine branch is too huge for us to handle. guess, we'll be calling a tree service eventually.
And, we were shocked to see a chipmunk today too on our porch!! shouldn't they still be in hibernation?
I love chipmunks! I wish our yard had a few but I've never seen one in the 4 years we've been here.
I decided to stomp out to our larger Arnold's Promise Witchazel and after getting shoes full of snow, it looks like the blooms are beginning to open up. Perhaps in a week or two it will be in full bloom. I love being in the yard when it's blooming because it's fragrance is intoxicating.
After three days of fairly warm temperatures, the snow is finally starting to melt. I went outside looking for signs of hellebore and snowdrop blooms, but didn't see much happening. I did have one surprise - helleborus foetidus, aka stinking hellebore. I bought three of these a few years ago. Two of the three died off, but the one that survived is really thriving. It was in full bloom. I hadn't done any research when I bought them, so I had no idea what to expect. The foliage is nice, but the bloom is kind of well, different. Anyway, I was thrilled to see a bloom on something, even if it was a little bit ugly LOL.
Oh well Aspen, at least the foliage is really nice!
Reminder
North Creek Group Buy still need to complete some flats for ordering for delivery by Spring Plant Swap
Goldenrods and Asters
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=9772998
Other Native or Nectar or Host plants
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=9773013
FERNS (4 plants of 6 different ferns)
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=9775679
Please indicate your interest. Thanks
I'll take the ferns, all 24 of them unless someone else wants some.
I have a bloom!! My mother's hellebore! I looked out the kitchen window and the flowers are up!!! Haven't been out to see them yet the back yard is so soggy but there they are all pink and greeny.
Nothing stops that plant! Its been hauled out of the ground and dragged across country so many times I can't count. Its been through drought, flood, squashed, jumped on and slept on by dogs, run over in the driveway (don't ask) and buried under snow and she keeps coming back just like my mother did. L-rd she really gives meaning to "where there's life there's hope".
Yehudith.
Yehudith
love that Yehudith! ...always hope ^_^ you'll have to post a pic of it
I'm headed outside now to look around our neck of the woods. I'm especially curious about our black pussywillow since Holly said theirs is starting
Here is a link to DG Plant Files picture of helleborus foetidus. See what I mean about the flowers? What do you think?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/180777/
SS--I just want to say that each of the photos you posted above is like a poster.
such a beautiful composition and colors. Mother nature IS an artist!
You could blow these up and frame them--call it your "Spring Series"
I would need to go outside with a lens in hand to find anything blooming....
I know my hellebores have buds--but they are still hunkered down near the soil.
I have seen Daffs up about 3" or 4"--seems a bit too soon.....just b/c of the weather...
Terri--You have a Stinking iris?????? Now i am not the only one!
Mine has been hiding behind my bird bath for years! I just 'discovered" what it was
in 2012--b/c I saw all these bright red seeds in and out of the pods...
Green thumb asked for some seeds--but i also dug up s clump and separated it into
3 pots and will take it to him this weekend.
Yes! The bloom id nondescript!
If indoor spring flowers count--my Clivia is blooming away--and the other one has
two bloom stalks ready to pop. Will have to go outside and check to see if anything
else is worth noting....
--Stinking iris bloom from last year
--My Clivia
Terri--
we cross-posted....
The pictures in the PF link look different than mine.
Might be a different variety???? Mine re not "cupped".... G.
Mine is a stinking helleborus not a stinking iris. Both are very strange, kind of a novelty type thing for the garden.
OOOPS!! I misunderstood---
More like my brain had a "burp"......Sorry!!!
I thought that your pictures looked more like Helebores...but, decided,
it must be another form of Stinking iris....
G.
G. clivia is gorgeous
and I kinda like the green blooms of stinking helleborus
our rosemary looks awful after this winter. black pussywillow is starting to bloom! our snowdrops are up too full of buds; expect them to open today
so nice to see the ground and snow finally melting. if I heard correctly, it sounded like an inch of snow headed our way for Wednesday!
Interesting color on that pussy willow, never knew there were black ones.
Thanks, Gita! I love having crocuses in between sedums.
I hope they survive the cold this week. :(
sequoya---
Holly and Ric are the folks who have the Black Pussy Willow and often share cuttings.
They live in Dover, PA and will be at the Seed Swap...
Dianna--
My Rosemary looks just like yours....all gray. Mine is in a big pot...
I plan to cut mine back pretty low and let it re-grow fresh. I know it can do this....
G.
SS--It is the dried leaves that give the pictures the most character...
Long time ago--in a Dr's office, I saw a poster that I have never forgotten.
it was a woodsy, shady scene, much like yours, and under a shrub in moss and dead
leaves was a single, beautiful bloom of a small flower.
The caption read: "Bloom where you are planted".... It really touched me......
Of course, we all know, you have a great eye and a great camera....
G.
"Bloom where you are planted..." Man I love that, thank you Gita!!!
We will have some rooted cuttings at the swap. They are very pretty.
Speedie---I tried to look for this poster-did not find it--BUT---there are huge numbers
of products available all over the place with this as a motif.
Just Google "Bloom where you are planted".......
G.
When I spotted it in a shop I bought it immediately!
Oh Pirl, that is wonderful! I should find one of those and hang it outside for my plants to see... to give them a "hint"! (they need it, they don't seem to be heeding the suggestion just yet - I guess I need to plant earlier bloomers!) ;)