Spring Magic!

Color is gradually returning to our spring garden, and each daily walk brings new discoveries.
There's not a great deal of warmth in the air yet and it seems to me I could count the sunny spring days on one hand.

Today's weather brought a mixture of rain and wet snow, with cold winds persisting, as they have for most of March and these first few days of April, so my exploratory walk this afternoon was very brief.

This past weekend brought sunshine though, and Sunday was the warmest and sunniest day we've had so far this spring.
Naturally the plants were calling out to be photographed, and how could I resist?

Snowdrops/Galanthus opened their diminutive blooms to the warm sunshine.

I found only one bright little Winter Aconite/Eranthis hyemalis blooming for a
 second season, but there are babies surrounding it! If you click the photo for a larger view you'll see that there's a busy fly on the flower.

Jasmine was happy to be out in the garden soaking up the sunshine.

Crocuses were just budding in the early morning but popped open for the first time in the warm afternoon sun. Daffodils are shooting up next to them.

These little purples are always the first to bloom.

Larger purples next to them are usually a day later

As are the whites.

Here are the large purples late Sunday afternoon.

And the lovely whites with the sun shining through their petals.

In the spring of 2008 there were still 2 nice clumps of about 30 of these golden yellow crocuses, but they were nowhere to be found in the spring of '09. Vole tunnels told the story of hungry little rodents, but this one tiny bulb was apparently overlooked, and happily, here it is making an appearance this spring. 

Nearby are a couple of nice clumps of this lovely lavender with purple stripes.

Daffodils in the Clematis Garden have big fat buds and are usually the first to bloom.

I love the coloring of the tulip leaves.

I was surprised to discover the Scilla siberica had tiny blue buds at the base of the leaves. I've been watching carefully for them to appear, and on March 30th suddenly there they were! I've never noticed before that the buds appear with the leaves. They bloom with the Daffodils so I wasn't expecting to see buds this soon. 

Bluebells are popping up beside the scraggly Primrose foliage.

There are Snowdrops to be found in several garden beds as I keep spreading them around. They can be moved at any time during the gardening months.

Lilacs are budding.

The Silver Maple is loaded with buds of burnished red. This tree is beautiful in spring, summer and fall.

And here is the most exciting discovery of all (at least to me)!

It's not much to look at yet, but the buds on this Hellebore have been long awaited. The plant was labeled as "Hellebore mixed" when I found it in my favorite nursery in the summer of '07, and this is the first time it's produced blooms.

After 4 years I finally know the color - it's pink and I'm so happy about that!

I'm keeping a close eye on those buds but they're not doing much yet, so I'll just have to be patient.

Happy spring to all who are emerging from a long winter!