spring flowers

The Daffodils are almost done blooming. Most are faded now. This was my favorite clump; it grew along in the back of the yard. I marked it with sticks hoping to remember to dig it up and move in the fall.

Now the Tulips are brightening the yard! My favorite is still this solo pink one with wavy leaves.

I also like the purples.

Some are opened so wide they look flat like saucers.

The yellow ones with flame centers are striking.

The reds are so bold they remind me of poppies. Their color steals the eye from the rest.

spring

Poking through the yard, looking for growing things. Quite a few Crocus under the front-yard trees, but only yellow ones. Where are the blues?

The Parsley plants are all growing lush through the leaf cover.

I found one Rhubarb unfurling its weird fat red shoots! A second one I can see the rosy nubbins just below the surface. Pulled the leaves back and gave them glass cloches. The other two plants I'm not sure if they will come back. One spot has blackened stumps- from flower stalks? but I thought I'd removed those, maybe I missed them- and the fourth spot, nothing.

The other plant I've seen very few signs of are my Daylilies! The Daffodils in their corner are bursting with buds, but I don't see any daylilies. I noticed this because in a neighbor's yard her whole bed is full of daylilies several inches high already. I pulled back the leaf mulch and found some green shoots coming through, but not as many as I expected. I'm hoping it's just that her spot gets a different amount of temperature/light and so hers are emerging earlier? but I don't know.

snow flores

We finally got some snow- just two inches, plus plenty of icy rain. So I tramped outside this morning to take some pictures of plants in the snow. Yellow Crocus that emerged just earlier this week:

and stubborn Daffodils still growing through the mulch I tried to suppress them with.

early shoots

I threw a pile of dry leaves over the daylily corner, to shield against frosts- it's only halfway through january, after all. But a few stubborn Daffodils are still sending shoots up through the leaf cover.

odd timing

I have noticed signs of spring. Fat buds on the trees, and robins in their branches. A neighbor's forsythia down the street trying to bloom, yellow clumps on the ends of its bare branches. And in a public spot where daffodils always bloom, I saw bunches of fat shoots coming up through the mulch. Curious, pulled aside some of the dead-leaf litter around my daylily corner and yep, mine were trying to grow too.

But the coldest part of winter is still around the corner. Did the freak october snowstorm and then this mild, warm weather convince some growing things that it was spring already? if the real cold comes, will these plants go back into their dormancy and sleep, or will they suffer. I can only wait and see.

daffodils...

Daffodils are blooming in the yard! I don't have many, and .... I don't actually like most of them. They have these extra frilly faces, which to me often just look messy.

I much prefer the plainer, traditional kind. But I have even less of those, scattered here and there.

Two by the front steps.

I think I might dig up the fancy ones after they're done blooming and have them out.

daffodils

Look like they're almost ready to bloom!

new life!

The weather so nice and warm today couldn't resist doing a bit of gardening. I cleared out all the leaf litter from my "daylily corner". There are definitely Daffodils coming up!

 And not far behind them these little green shoots that will be the Daylilies.

Now I can look out my corner window and feel cheered by their progress.

signs of spring!

Little green shoots are emerging from under the mud, melting snow and fallen leaves in the corner near the house and driveway.

I think they're either the Daffodils or Tulips, heralds of spring. (My Crocus bed is still under several inches of snow). They make me feel so cheerful, these little green shoots!

ruffled

I have some very weird Daffodil blooms in my yard. The previously pictured one, that looked scruffy? Looking closer, it appeared to have two flower centers, right next to each other.

This one seems to have two flower centers, one superimposed upon the other. I don't know if this is a particular fancy variety of daffodil, or if mine are freaks. From a distance they look pretty, but up close they're kind of strange.

I prefer the more standard kind of flower, in all its varieties, but apparently the people who planted these bulbs (before we got the house) liked them fancier.

daffodils

The Daffodils growing in daylily corner have a tattered look. I don't know if it's a different variety from those in the front yard, or have they suffered from being moved?

flowers

Crocuses are almost done, starting to fade and look shabby

Daffodils are in bloom!

Grape Hyacinths are beginning to come up

and Tulips are sprouting all over the front beds

daffodil

The Daffodils are beginning to open!

While the Daylilies in that planted corner are already a good six inches tall and lush

the bunch growing through the fence, and the ones in back corner (from where I dug up the plants for my corner) have barely begun sprouting.

flowers

This little group of flowers is growing in the same spot where I took a picture of the first Crocus bloom last year. I think it's the same one- already spreading into multiples.

Some of the plants I moved into the Daylily corner (now bursting with greenery!) are forming buds. I think they're Daffodils, not tulips.