Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 2018

Hyacinth

Happy Ides of March! After record warm temperatures on Monday, it's definitely feeling like spring. A lot of winter blooms are still going strong, but spring is ready to shine. I seem to acquire a lot of blue and purple flowering plants, and this week the bulbs have been really glowing in the sunshine (and not phased by the rain either).

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this monthly roundup of blooms. There are plants blooming somewhere every month but now they're really taking off.... at least in the northern hemisphere. 

Hyacinth

Crocuses are starting to fade

Crocuses

Grape hyacinth popped out suddenly

Newly planted corydalis

Rock cress just starting to bloom

Helleborus x hybridus 'Black Diamond'

Helleborus x ballardiae Gold Collection 'Maestro'

Fading camellia 'Yuletide'

Fritillaria meleagris

Newly planted Saxifraga 'Touran - Deep Red'

Sunset maple

Cyclamen coum

Sunny daffodils

Daffodil

Forsythia in front of pieris japonica

One of my baby osoberry bushes has a bloom!

Indoors, one amaryllis is blooming for the second time this year. Also my Christmas cactus has had a few blooms at a time since January but I keep forgetting to get a picture. 

What's next? Flowering currant and Oregon grape are so close, plus a lot more daffodils.

In bloom this week: March 19, 2017

Forsythia! - and pieris japonica

Spring officially arrives at 3:29 am tomorrow and it's finally starting to feel like winter is over, with a glorious sunny day today. Average last frost for my location is March 24, although I won't trust that this year.

My favorite area right now - hellebores and crocuses in bloom and aquilegia is growing

Crocuses

Anemone blanda

Hyacinth, so close

Unknown bulb in the bottom corner of the yard, finally not covered by weeds

Cheerful daffodil

This may be cheating since I just planted these, but I'm enjoying them and hope they'll spread.

Snowdrop

Fritillaria meleagris - see the colored bloom on the right

Here's a couple of weeds, but I'm even happy to see them after a long winter.

Purple dead nettle

Dandelion at dusk

What's next? 

My favorite spring shrub, our native flowering currant

In bloom this week: March 11, 2017

Crocuses are finally starting to bloom! These were a surprise, they're in the bottom corner of the yard where we planted bulbs our very first spring in this house, 13 years ago. We didn't realize how many large invasive plants were in that area that quickly grew over the bulbs. Now that the area is cleared out, apparently some of the crocuses managed to survive.

I planted more crocuses around the yard over the last couple of years and those are getting close to blooming. The squirrels really love to dig them up, but I've been sprinkling stinky cat litter around all of my bulbs and that seems to help.

Crocuses and aquilegia

The pieris japonica and hellebores continue to bloom, they are definitely the winners for long lasting flowers this winter. I'm slowly, finally, starting to find the early spring plants blooming.

Helleborus 'Cinnamon Snow'

Unknown variety of cedar

A pretty weed - lamium purpureum, purple dead nettle

Finally found one flower on the hazelnuts!

What's next? It's so hard to tell, the flowering currants are close, but I'm betting on the forsythia.

Forsythia

Hyacinth

Flowering currant

In bloom this week: Feb. 9, 2016

First crocus!

We went away for a few days to play in the mountains, came home this afternoon and this crocus caught my eye as we pulled into the driveway. It could be the only crocus in my yard right now. Reminder: plant more crocuses!

I walk past this lily-of-the-valley shrub every day without noticing, I'm so used to it being completely overgrown by wisteria in the summer. But it is a nice looking shrub in the winter, and hopefully will be more visible all year now that I've cut the wisteria back.

Lily-of-the-valley shrub

The hairy bitter cress is blooming nicely, of course. I'm fairly certain that's what this is, not chickweed, because the dried seeds will explode all over when you touch them. It will grow pretty much everywhere in my yard, so I just try to keep it out of the planned beds. I'm trying to adjust my perception of what a weed is, and have to admit this is kind of pretty in the lawn.

Hairy bitter cress in the lawn

Otherwise, February fools me - as usual. The month starts with such hope for spring, which takes it's own sweet time to arrive. The Oregon grape bushes are still not quite in bloom, the forsythia has buds but no yellow visible, the daffodils look like they could bloom - any day now. Is there a saying about watched buds not blooming?