Daffodils In The Rain

The early daffodils were up last week and lots of other things are starting to appear. The maple trees are blooming and leaves are starting to appear on willow trees. We had a fair amount of rain last night and it continued throughout most of the day. When I got home it had stopped raining quite so hard but everything was wet. Of course ”it isn’t raining rain, you know, it’s raining violets.” And more daffodils. This is a daffodil called ‘Marieke’ and it’s one of the best. Of course, the rain does tend to knock it down a bit, but it’s still beautiful.

Pink Hyacinth

After our brief Easter interlude, we now return to our regularly scheduled spring, already in progress. There are a few hyacinths in bloom in our back garden. I planted a dozen more last fall but those are a little behind, as bulbs tend to be their first year. The old plants are already blooming, though. There were originally three each of pink and yellow, although one of the yellows has died (or was dug up by a squirrel). This (for those of you viewing it in black and white) is a pink one.

Helleborus (Lenten Rose)

We drove back from Richmond this morning, having a much better time of it than the drive down yesterday. In the afternoon I went out back and took some pictures of a couple Lenten rose plants. This is one we put in when we first moved in and it’s doing really well (and probably needs to be dug up and divided). Lent is over and this plant has only just started blooming late this week, but we had snow later than is usual and that slowed it up a bit. In 2012 I have photos of this same plant blooming on February 19. Anyway, it’s blooming now and it’s lovely.

Chionodoxa forbesii ‘Pink Giant’

Today the ‘Pink Giant’ Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa forbesii) started blooming. This is a pale pink variety that I have growing amidst the pachysandra in the northeast corner of our front yard. In addition to being pink, as the name suggest ‘Pink Giant’ suggests, it is fairly tall for a Chionodoxa and holds its blooms above the pachysandra. Otherwise, it is similar to the blue flowers I posted a photo of for yesterday.

Chionodoxa luciliae (Glory-of-the-Snow)

Next up, after the early daffodils, are the glory of the snow (Chionodoxa luciliae), this little bulb native to western Turkey. I have a pretty nice little bunch of them growing on the south end of the house, which warms up before other areas, which helps get them up early, as well. As you may know, I’m partial to blue flowers and these, although early and ephemeral, are some of my favorites. They are such a lovely color and in quantity are quite striking.

Our First Daffodils

Are you ready for flowers? I hope so, because they are coming up relatively fast and furious now and I think I’ll most likely be posting them fairly frequently. If you’ve been following me a while, then they may look like photos you have seen before. If her are new, well, they will be flowers. You’ll see.

Today the first daffodils in our yard came out. They are called Tete-A-Tete and are small but growing in large clumps and are quite cheering.

White Crocus

It’s certainly starting to look a bit like spring. The trees are still bare and there are not a lot of flowers around yet, but they are starting. The snow drops (Galanthus) have been blooming a while. I had a single flower on the new Lenten rose and there were a few purple crocuses in the back yard last week. Today a few white crocuses have opened up in the front.

Spring is accelerating.

Galanthus nivalis (Common snowdrop)

The snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) have been out in our yard for a few weeks now but I haven’t posted any pictures of them this year. This afternoon I went out into the back yard and took a few pictures of a clump of snow drops growing in our back bed. They are pretty little things and their appearance so early in the year is their chief attraction. The flowers open during the day and then close up in the evening, as seen in this photo.

Spring it upon us.