Friday, January 18, 2013

Signs of Spring!!

Today was the first day we've seen the sun in quite a while! We've had so much rain, sleet and ice that my yard is just wet and mushy. I was so excited to see and feel the sun that I went out in search of signs of spring. The signs were there, I just had to look closely to find them. Here's what I found.....

 The daffodils in this area are always the first to bloom. They are almost ready to make their appearance!

The Clove Currant is starting to get buds. When these open they will be yellow and have the wonderful fragrance of cloves.
 
My spring blooming Camellia has had buds for quite a while. It is between two Azaleas and when they're all blooming it's just beautiful!

 The Dianthus is starting to bloom. Since these are low I plant them along the paths.

 This is my "Nikko Blue" Hydrangea. I'm always learning new things about gardening. In this case it was that this plant blooms on old wood. Now that I've learned this lesson I'm getting some really pretty blooms!

I have several Peonies in the garden. (It's practically a law that you must have Peonies in a cottage garden!) All of their 'eyes' are looking for spring!

New growth on one of my Carpet Roses.

Here you see some of my Violas, some new growth on one of the Veronicas and Poppy and Larkspur seedlings.

One of my favorite evergreen vines, Carolina Jessamine, has a flower peeking out from the leaves.

Flowers are starting to open on some of the Viburnums.

My Caryopteris has new growth. This bush has amazing blue flowers!

One of my many Oriental Lilies. Even they are excited about spring...poking their heads up waiting for the right time!

The picture above and the next three pictures show some of the Poppy and Larkspur seedlings coming up. I will have quite a job thinning these when they get a little bigger.


 

Look closely and I bet you'll see signs of spring in your garden.

Happy Gardening!

Words and Photos Property of Christy's Cottage Wildlife Garden.

12 comments:

  1. Well happy gardening to you too! Can't wait to see and smell your clove currant as it sounds most interesting!

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    1. Hi Tina....The fragrance is wonderful!! It grows in full sun or partial shade so maybe it would grow in your garden. I can give you a piece and you could try it if you like!

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  2. One thing about gardening, there are always surprises. In blogging, it never ceases to amaze me how different areas start growing so early. Did you not get lots of snow this week, or were you west of it? We got snow after all that rain and it looks so peaceful in the landscape, but not a bud or shoot are to be found. Speaking of surprises, I am doing a post with another blogger on a big garden surprise. It will not be posted until I get back from my trip, but since you are deep into birds, you might really be interested in this unusual find.

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    1. Hi! We've had a lot of rain, sleet and ice and just a little snow. In fact, this morning there was still a lot of ice on the ground. Thankfully the sun was out and it got up to 52 degrees, so I think all the ice finally melted. Thanks for the heads up on the surprise. I can't wait to see what it is!!

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  3. Plants are always growing we just have to look closer at times. I love all the shapes of new buds.

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  4. Hi there! Welcome back from your cruise! I read all your comments on my posts and I really appreciate all of them. Yes, the plants are always surprising us! For example, I didn't think my helleborus was blooming yet, but today I pushed the leaves aside and saw a bunch of blooms under there! I was so excited! Thanks for visiting!

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  5. As beautiful as those early spring signs were, I found them a little depressing, knowing it will likely be two month before we see similar sign here in the Gopher State... Oh well to early for me to get "spring fever.".... :)

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  6. Oh...it's never too early to have "spring fever". I start coming down with it around December :-). There's just one problem with early signs of spring....last night was 16 degrees, so I'm afraid to look at my garden now. I'm sure the new growth on some of the plants will be ruined. I guess that's part of gardening!

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  7. Your fear is also my fear Christy. With the blooms coming out early we have happiness from within but then when the freeze hits again, we cringe with fear for our beauties. I hope all of our plants stay warm enough to flurish for us in the coming weeks...

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  8. oops. I forgot to mention the bluebird on my post is a mountain bluebird which I spotted on a fence in the Black Hill of South Dakota last summer on our way to Montana...

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    1. Thanks troutbirder....it looked pretty big and I didn't think I'd ever seen one.

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