Winter is now just a memory of deep snow and frigid nights – it’s truly amazing how fast we’ve flipped the calendar to April and all of a sudden spring bulbs are poking through no longer frozen soil and yes, there are even a few flowers in bloom. There’s enough happening in my garden today to join Jim at Garden Ruminations in his collection of six things happening in gardens around the world.
There’s Snowdrops:
There’s daffodils getting ready to bloom:
There’s tulips up an inch or two:
There’s lupin leaves starting to unfurl:
And allium leaves already half a foot high:
There’s also a few crocuses (aka croci) scattered about, remnants of the drifts that I planted in the previous decade, the survivors of two or three generations of marauding squirrels and chipmunks. These are a species crocus, ‘Prins Claus,’ which has luscious purple markings on the outside of its petals and a creamy white interior.
Throwback to April 7, 2018…one of the drifts:
It was a holiday in Canada yesterday, Good Friday, and it was sunny and broke temperature records all over (21 Celsius where I am, about 70 Fahrenheit). We’re back to more seasonal conditions today and a bit of snow is forecast next week – which is not unusual for April. But yesterday was glorious, and I was able to spend much of it outdoors, mainly pruning shrubs and trees and raking last fall’s leaves off the driveway edges. April, as always, will bring re-birth every day…fasten your seat belts!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Now what IS this imogee?? 👏🏼 (I could make a few guesses but… )
Applause! 🙂
🙌
Such welcome signs of Spring – love the pictures! ~ Rosie
Thanks Rosie!
Isn’t this wonderful! I laughed at your advice to faster our seat belts. That’s exactly how it feels here. Spring isn’t creeping, it’s roaring in.
It always does roar in, doesn’t it!?!? It’s the time of year when I take a walk through the garden several times a day just to see what’s emerged, and how much other things (like daffodil leaves) have grown…
Lovely photos of your spring beauties! To have snowdrops flowering at almost the same time as tulips is amazing. We could do with some of your warm weather, we have a very dull day today with gale force winds and drizzly rain, not Easter weather at all!
Ugh! I could certainly do without the high winds – had enough of that in the winter!
It’s enormously fun to see everything growing…my yarden looks similar to yours…but I don’t have any Lupin. Do you know who ‘Prins Claus’ was ? He was married to Princess Beatrix, eldest of the 4 daughters of Queen Juliana & Prins Bernhard. She became Queen of The Netherlands & her son, Prins Willem Alexander is now King. I lived in the Netherlands for 11 1/2 years.
Oh wow! What a fabulous history to this little flower… well, the purple on the outer petals is definitely royal looking, very velvety… I do remember hearing (or reading) about Queen Beatrix…and Queen Juliana before her, who started the tradition of sending thousands of tulip bulbs to Canada every year, as a thank you for sheltering her during WW2.
I’m pleased that all is thawed now and your garden certainly is catching up! Love the crocus especially.
Thank you! It really is a special Crocus and I’m happy that a few managed to escape and appear every year.
Good to see spring has finally sprung over there.
It’s so welcome after our really cold and snowy winter!
It’s such a lovely time when everything starts to emerge! Your crocuses are so sweet! I already miss them as they’re all finished here.
I really like crocuses and yes, it’s sad they only last a short while…pretty sure bees and other pollinators would be happy if they stuck around longer too!
Except for the lupine, these are a lot of bulbs for one garden. I suppose bulbs are more popular in most other climates. (They do not get much chill here.)
This early in the year, my garden would be virtually colourless without these spring flowering (and almost all non-native) bulbs!
Oh, you will overtake us very soon Chris at this rate! LOL! I am always surprised at how everything seems to flower in such rapid succession in your part of the world, while it is spread over two or three months here! Lovely to see so much ‘life’ in your garden!
It’s definitely like an explosion of growth here in April and May!
The snow seems to have melted where you are! It’s true, signs of spring are here. Plus, the temperatures are quite pleasant from what I can see. Happy Easter!
Hi Fred! Temperatures Were pleasant and will be again…but it’s chilly today and snow is forecasted for tomorrow!!!! Still…things are popping up😀