We’ll start off with a first timer: Rhododendron ‘Janet’. She has taken a couple of years to settle in, and now is leading the way as the first of the Rhody’s to bloom.
More like an azalea, this unnamed variety from the big box store is blooming in its first year in the ground.
Several clumps of grape hyacinths have sprung up, unbidden, here and there. I like them so much that…
…they were included in fall’s bulb order.
Forsythia can turn into a big yellow blob in the landscape, but I like it now, when it is still trying to gain a foothold and is flowering sparsely and delicately.
A sprinkling of Anemones covers the ground.
Much as I love all the exotic new plant material, the old-fashioned bleeding hearts capture my heart every spring.
While others have been admiring their Hellebores for some time, mine are just coming into their own.
All of the Euphorbias are putting out their acid green bracts just in time for St. Patrick’s Day bouquets. I hope ‘Blackbird’ is not reverting to green. It seems to have more green than its trademark dark foliage and butchery would be required to get back to only the desired color (not sure I’m up to it).
E wulfenii always puts on a good show. I usually go for close-ups, but this way you get an idea of the size.
I’m going to leave it at that this time. As the season unfolds we must be more selective or risk boring our audience…not like the last few months, when we had to scrounge around to find anything resembling a bloom, inside or out. The whole world seems to be bursting out in blossoms nowadays. If you would like to soak up some of that, scoot on over to May Dreams Gardens for the magic portal to world-wide gardening.
What a wonderful northwest grouping! I wonder if your small dark pink rhodie might also be PJM: they are blooming all over the city now, and its reddish stems and leaves further the comparison. I like that wulfenii – it has presence!
Thanks for visiting! Love the rhodie, mine is sulking for some reason. Maybe I shouldn’t have pruned it so hard?
Careful of the euphorbia. I ended up in urgent care because I got some of the sap in my eye (long story; I wear glasses but got some on my forehead, and that washed into my eyes during the shower). The doctor there said they see it all the time…I have since removed wulfenii and only have a few little ones.
Jane~PJM~that rings a bell. Thanks for the ID.
Town Mouse~A couple of posts ago I wrote about a pruning seminar. There were many Rhodies there that had been pruned dramatically. I don’t think you need worry, although you might lose some bloom the year after a hard prune. I am very careful around the wulf…and my daughter-in-law refuses to eat at a table where it is part of the floral display. It does bleed profusely, but I could not do without it.
You thought my plants looked exotic, but I sure think yours are pretty unusual for me to see. Rhododendrons, especially, would have the neighborhood lining up for a viewing… Happy bloom day!
Lovely blooms! I am a big muscari fan too, I think I have that cutie two-tone one you showed, although the name is long gone. Oh, euphorbia stories scare me! I avoided having them for years but let one come to stay when it seeded. Now I wonder if I should have… so fascinating, but I don’t want anyone to get a toxic burn!!
Didn’t know you ‘bloomed’.
Know you’re blooming, judging from the picture with the cake, but..well, you know what I mean 🙂
I totally share your view on the scrambled-egg-on-a-stick shrub.
Unless you can find the dainty trailing kind, you have to enjoy it in the first few days.
Bleeding heart and Rhodies so early? That’s May for us.
Muscari needs moss to set it off, doesn’t it.
How come my comment gives the actual GMT?
Are the times related to the comment poster’s area?
Jus wondering.
Wendy~’That shrub’ is the controversial E wulfenii discussed above. I can’t do without it but others make a good case for outlawing it.
James~It’s like women and their hair: we got straight, we want curly, and vice-versa.
Karen~Muscari latifolium is the one with the top-knot. So many to try!
Jo~Luckily, I think everything looks better with moss. It is everywhere here. What is GMT? I don’t follow…guess I never paid much attention to the times, but they are sequential enough that it seems like they must refer to the time here.
GMT is Greenwich Mean Time, the zero longitude line through London. When I posted it was exactly my time here.whereas it should have been 9 hours earlier.
My time at this moment is March 17th, 2010 at 2:55 am.
We shall see what your programme says it is.
Beautiful shots, Ricki. I concur. Nothing can quite rival the charm of Bleeding Hearts. Love the anemones too. Your Rhodies are way ahead of the ones growing down here. I hate to say it but I think my ‘Blackbird’ is also reverting. It was so gorgeous for the first two years…too good to be true, perhaps. Don’t you love the scent of Grape Hyacinths? I like to pick them for small bouquets just for the fragrance, but the flowers are nice too. Cheers.
Jo~Now you have me checking the times, and finding lots of night owls and early risers. Sluggard that I am, I never get to the computer until after coffee and the morning crossword.
Grace~I always learn new things from you. My next action will be to pick a little posy of muscari and hold it to me nose.