What's your type?

I seem to have a type of spring-blooming flower.  I wasn't intentional about this when I've planted over the years, but seeing them all together makes me so happy. See if you can guess by the photos below:

 

 The bees seem to like them, too.

Do you have a type of spring-blooming flower?

This is April

I'm starting to sound like a broken record - strange weather this winter meant strange bloom times for the garden. I'm afraid that this is the new normal.

My creeping phlox started blooming the last week of March. It usually blooms in May.

April 10

February was warm this year and then March was cold. Some of my tulips and daffodils that had buds on them when the cold weather hit came out a little wonky.

But these late-blooming daffodils made it and look lovely.

My eastern redbud, also known as the slowest developing tree in Philadelphia, had more blooms on it this year. Last year it had four. This year half of the tree was covered. I'm hopeful that next year we'll see the whole tree in bloom.

April 12

One of my peonies is already ready to bloom.

My zizia aurea is blooming for the first time.

I was certain my lilac bush was not blooming this year because of the warm-cold-warm cycle. It budded in late February/early March and has not done anything since then. Today, I noticed one of the buds opened so I think all systems are go.

 I love spring, but I'm not pleased with the drama that keeps coming with it. I'm looking forward to the more stable days of May.

The anxiety of early blooms

February 2017 was warm. We had about ten days where the temperatures were in the high 60s to 70s (our average historical temperature in Philadelphia is 44 degrees). Cherry trees erupted in blooms and I saw a dogwood already flowering by my bus stop. Bulbs got the go-ahead to erupt out of the ground and some started to bloom. Up and down my block, daffodils burst into flower last weekend.

I had a few early bloomers. I watched them carefully, and was then dismayed when they all (including the hundreds in other neighbors' yards) flopped over after one cold night. I kept expecting them to right themselves but they haven't yet. So, I cut mine and brought them indoors.

There are many more that are thisclose to blooming. With freezing temperatures and snow/rain forecast for the weekend, I want to run out and protect them. If the internet is right, though, they should be okay on their own. I hope.

Do you have anything blooming now that is really early for your garden?

The first crocus of 2017

In what is becoming an annual tradition, I'm recording the first crocus bloom of the year. I noticed this on Monday. It's roughly the same time the first one appeared last year, and a month earlier than the first crocus of 2015. 

It would be nice if this weather stuck around, but I'm sure we'll have freezing rain, hail, and diving temps again during a fickle spring. I'm also worried about the pest population this year, as it hasn't really been cold enough to kill the bad guys.

Trying to get my groove back

2016, I wasn't sorry to see you go. It was a tough year for many, myself included, and for a variety of reasons. I started a hundred blog posts in my head and never put any of them to paper the keyboard. I still puttered in the garden but not as much. I made a thousand excuses for why I'd rather sit inside and play on my virtual farm game (seriously).

I lost "it". I lost a lot of the joy I get from gardening.

I saw weeds and felt humidity and was annoyed that the garden is not the way I want it to look in my head, and yet I didn't want to put the work in to make it that way.

And yet, the garden does what it does. Flowers keep blooming, plants keep growing. It's amazing, really. You don't feel like doing much and yet you're rewarded by so much beauty.

The one spot I was really happy with all year, and I didn't even really plan this.

There are always lessons to be learned for a control freak like me. Gardening is an exercise in patience and letting go, as so often things don't go as planned. But it's often the unplanned that is the most rewarding.

Also unplanned, but I love this color combination!

I'll sit here in the winter and plan for spring. I'll order my seeds, get inspiration from magazines and blogs, and try to make a plan, though I know that so much in 2017 will not go as planned, even outside my garden. Most of all, I want to get my groove back.

Flowers still blooming in November