Spring is Early 2016

Our SE Nebraska winter was pretty mild, and spring seems to be coming early.  I didn't get the blues I normally do at the end of winter, where I just want it to be over, so I can get back out and work in the dirt.  There is cause for concern, though, because shrubs and fruit trees are blooming early, and a freeze could cause them not to fruit this season.  

More of the early bloomers in our yard are not native than other times of the season, but there are some natives at least getting ready to bloom.  Prairie smoke geum is native to areas near us.  It gets a cool looking fluffy seedhead, which explains the name.

Hellebores are one of my favorite non-native spring bloomers.

There are several kinds of pussytoes.   I believe the link is to the kind this is.  The conditions are not as dry as they prefer, so they do not spread as much as I thought they would, but I'm pleased to see them continue to survive.

 I didn't realize when I added more pasqueflowers that not all are native.  I think this may be one of the native ones, though. 

When I took photos for this post, I went in the order of where they were in the yard, and did not organize by the types of plant.  It would be cool to have more clumps of hellebore in one bed, but this way, when they are finished blooming, the taller plants in the bed will take up the space, and hide the plants.
 

I have to protect the woodland phlox (and garden phlox) from the rabbits.  They eat them to the ground when they get a chance.

The hellebores sure are cheerful!

I haven't planted any bulbs for a number of years, but most of the ones I did plant have continued to come up and put on a show.

I needed some vegetable seeds the other day, and when I got to the garden center, was sidetracked by the pansies.  I forgot all about checking to make sure they were not treated with pesticides.  I need to call and find out.  I think if one cuts off the first blooms, there will be less of it in the next blooms.  Have you ever heard of that?  Our granddaughter, Ruby helped plant and water these.

The Heuchera, I'm pretty sure, richardsonii, is a native coral bells, and pretty much evergreen here. 

I was thinking this may be bloodroot, but AScott let me know in a comment it is sharp-lobed hepatica, which I do remember planting some of.  Thanks AScott!

This is a golden alexanders seedling.  I'm wondering if it is OK to share some of these, considering they had a disease on the leaves last year.

More plants have come up since these photos were taken a few days ago.  My husband does not like the flower beds in the winter, and does not like leaving leaves on in the spring, but he held back and did not try to get every leaf out of the beds.  I didn't even rake some of them.  I want to see if the plants can grow through them, and let them use the leaves for mulch.  When I was cutting the grasses back,  I put them in the path in the area where the tree used to be.  He doesn't like that, either, but I am hoping he'll get used to it

I hope all is well with you.  Spring is here for some, and on it's way for others.  I am pleased!

April Flowers

While we are having some April showers, we are also enjoying April blooms.  I just put up a post that was a few days in the making.  I don't know if I've ever put up two posts in a day, but I am excited about the flowers that are blooming, and want to show them before or expected frost comes.  I'm not sure how they will fare.  So, here's post number two for the day:

I planted bulbs a few years when I first put in some of the beds, but haven't for some time.  I like the pops of color, and am thankful these have come back, but I don't have enough room to have many.  I can't remember what this one is.  Please let me know if you can identify it.  (Thanks to Glenda the first one, and others who identified this as Siberian Squill.)

These flowers are in different areas, and did not show up in order, so I'm just going to post them this way.  I'm only going to label them if they are not daffodils.

Grape Hyacinth:

Hyacinth:

Prairie Smoke geum:

Grape Hyacinth, and do you see the Hellebore?

Here it is!

Hyacinth:

I'm not sure what these beauties are, either.  (Glenda and some others also reminded me these are Chiondoxa, Glory of Snow.  Thanks!)

Have I mentioned that I love Hellebores?

I think this one is my favorite right now, and look how well some of the blooms are facing out instead of down!

There are Pasque Flowers in several beds, and they are blooming at different times.  These are another favorite of mine.

The Virginia Bluebells on the east side of the house are doing well.  I hope they spread more next year so I can divide some of them to put in other areas.

Again, happy spring, and I hope it comes quickly to those of you farther north than here.

Waiting for Spring

I feel I did a pretty good job accepting the coming of winter, but my longing for spring has taken over the last few days.  Winter has been pretty mild, but we have had some cold days.  The Dec. snow is almost all melted.  Today's high was unseasonal, in the 50s, so Heidi and I went out and took some photos.  The cold is expected to come back tomorrow.

Over the last few years, I've decided that I like plants in the winter, even if they are dormant.  Can you see the hellebore that is not?

Here's a closer view.  I'm pleased that the snow did not damage the flower buds that were already forming.

I hope we get some more snow before spring gets here.  Even with the little bit of rain we had yesterday, the soil still needs more moisture after the dry summer we had.

I am excited about seeing whether my newly planted seeds come up in this and other areas this spring.

The switchgrass bunches were pretty bent over with the snow, but are recovering nicely.

I didn't take as many photos along the east side of the house as I had planned, so I am showing the wide views.

I did get a couple close shots of the hellebore that is near the barbed wire that is on the left side of the area above.  It is amazing to me that a clump of ice is near the plant, but it is still holding on to its blooms.

It looks like some new ones are also forming.

I plan on making some changes in this area, taking the quaking grass out, and moving some plants from down the way, to tie the areas together more.

Heading back to the vegetable garden, there is still a bit of snow for Heidi to run through.

 I didn't get the soaker hoses removed from the vegetable garden.  I wonder if they will be OK.  Can you see the kale down the way?

Today, we made kale chips in a domestics special education class I am a para educator in.  I didn't think any of my kale would have survived the cold temps and snow, and some didn't, but the newer growth looked good enough to pick, so I did.  I got them washed and in the refrigerator.  Hopefully, I will get some chips made tomorrow.  Most of the students thought they were pretty good, as did the teacher and I.

I had hoped to get some blogs visited this evening, but it's getting late.  Hopefully, I'll find time this weekend.  I hope all is well with you.  I know spring is in the air for some of you, and I am looking forward to experiencing it with you, as I wait for ours.  Have a great weekend!

More Blooms than Last Year for GBBD

A number of us gardeners have declared it is spring.  Here in zone 5b SE Nebraska, our temperatures have been 20 degrees above normal this week, and now, my garden has also declared it is spring.  I looked back at last year's March, and found we really are about a week ahead of last year.  In fact, some of the crocuses have finished blooming already.  This is one of them, that I got a photo of last week.

I am pleased to have more blooms than last year for this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol, of May Dreams Gardens.  I started at the front of the house, and went around the yard.

I wish I could do a better job keeping track of tags, or just remembering the names of my plants.  There are 2 hellebores that I didn't get moved out of the south facing planter after the tree was cut down.  They both survived the summer sun, and it looks like only one of the ones I moved survived, so I will just keep these in place, and figure out what to plant that will give them some shade in the summer.

I also have a clump of daffodils on each side of the front planter.

I think this is Helleborus orientalis.

These are the pansies our 4 year old grandson picked out, based on the red one.  His almost one year old brother ended up with the first red flower in his hand while watching his big brother plant them, and I was pleased that he did not get upset.

I am pleased that several of the pasque flowers I planted last year are up and blooming.  The ones that are more established will be blooming soon, too.

I have been doing lots of yard walks, and greeting lots of plants out loud.  I was very excited to come across these little beauties a couple days ago.  I sure carried on, telling them how sweet they are.  I did have the tag near them.  They are liverleaf, Hepatica acutiloba.  So far, two of the three are up, and there are no leaves yet.

This is the last crocus clump to bloom.

This is the only hellebore that seems to have survived after being moved last spring.

I planted several hellebores in the east front yard bed.  A couple are not yet blooming. I sure like this one.

This one looks like the picture on the 'Yellow Lady' that I have next to the house, which does not look like it.

This is the 'Yellow Lady'.

There are some little buds on the Virginia Bluebells.

Next to the garbage cans, is our son's favorite of our hellebores.  I kept forgetting to move the taller dead foliage that was hiding it to see how it was doing, until our son asked about it.  I went ahead and cut the grass off of it, and cut back the other dead plants that were around it, and it looks very happy.

I love hellebores!

(Added 3/15:  I was looking at photos from last year to try to figure out what a few plants are, and came across this photo of the above hellebore.  I need to go look at last year's posts, but I'm pretty sure I had mentioned that this clump was a different color the previous year, its first year blooming.  Have you had any experience like that? Oops, the yellow photo must have been from 2010, because I went back and found a photo in a post from last year, and saw where I had said it was yellow the year before.)

Here's the photo from 2010:

Here it is last year, still lighter than this year:

I have been having so much fun raking the leaves out of the flower beds, and discovering what all is coming up!  Larry even helped me Wednesday, although, it started out a bit dicey.  He thought I should have finished cutting everything back before asking him to help rake.  He didn't like it when I asked him to be careful of a certain plant.  He pointed out to me that where I like "this stuff" and find it fun, to him it is a chore.  We smoothed things out, and he did a great job making trips to the compost pile with the leaves and such.  I even got some potatoes and onions planted.   The lettuce and such that I planted in January are coming up.  Yippee!

I hope spring comes your way soon, if it hasn't yet.  Folks at church were saying it could snow yet.  I don't think it will, and I hope I am right.