A Heck of a Helleborus

The snow has been lovely and plentiful over the past, uh, four weeks.  Underneath are the wonderful hopes of spring.  Back in January I took these photos at the Cottage.  A very robust Helleborus foetidus was there, looking great, with these spectacular buds.  Maybe in just a month, I will see them again, preparing to bloom.  

This plant is tough, and despite the heaps of snow over it now, it should be happy as can be when things start to melt.  In front of it is a rather dead looking Eryngium. Hopefully the Helleborus will encourage it to live again.  

     Nearby, another Eryngium, or Sea Holly, is looking OK.  And the Snowdrops (Galanthus) are always fine, despite being heaved out of the soil altogether.

If your garden landscape looks like a snow covered wasteland to you right now, think of the impervious plants just waiting to arise.  

GBBD April 2014

'Inherited flowers' are a great thing in the spring.  We sold our house in January, and where we rent now is a temporary stopover. After such a transition, one never knows what will rise from the ground as winter ends. Very little looks to be planted here, but the crocus of a previous gardener lives on in a few places around the property.  

The leaves of a few tulips and daffodils are also emerging, but look too small to be the promise of blooms.  I'm guessing leaves only. 

It is not that many days ago that snow and Ice covered things. Out at the Cottage (which we did not sell) the last storm of the season piled snow in high banks... on top of the snowdrops that were almost in bloom back in mid-March.

March 29, 2014

March 29

These plants are so tough, as you, reader, know.  

April 11, 2014.  The yellow is Winter Aconite!

April 11

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day to one and all.  See many other flowers of spring thanks to May Dream Gardens.   

GBBD: April '13

Scilla siberica

As the second little wave of blossoms arise in Nova Scotia, the earliest flowers are still hanging on.  Ahhh... the succession of growth and blossom has begun, and will carry on into every month of the rest of the year... I hope!

Puschkinia scilloides

Eranthis hyemalis

Galanthus nivalis

There's something lovely about the early blossoms coming up through last year's unkempt grass and leaves.

Puschkinia and Crocus

Hyachinthus

My first shrub to come into bloom is a hazelnut.  This bush was a seedling from a friend.  It was a 'normal,' straight-twigged plant, growing beneath it's corkscrew parent, Corylus avellana 'contorta.'

Male catkins just opening up

Female 'blossoms' just emerging

The wild Coltsfoot is thoroughly enjoying the moments of sunshine, blooming long before the leaves appear.  See the stringy petioles from last year?

Tussilago farfara

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day to you all.  Check out everything and everyone at May Dreams Gardens.

Snow and Snowdrops

The snowdrops (two out of three of them) are blooming.  And, though one crocus is heaved right out of the ground, the buds are growing.  

Muscari - Grape Hyacinth

Just in time for the snow today.  The long range forecast is giving 20-30 cm for Tuesday!  That prediction will surely change by then, for the better, I trust.  

Snowdrop in the snow

I've been so out of touch with blogs and blogging this winter... I just realized today is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

I hope something is in bloom where you are!

Practicing for spring

February 23

It was late February; it was time to get spring started!

February 23

I brought in some promising twigs from a forsythia out in the yard.

February 25

In not time at all, spring arrived!

February 27

I could have trimmed this bush more, and had heaps of blooms now!

February 27

This vase-full is a delight.  Perhaps I'll bring some more in for a mid March display.

February 28

By then, the outdoors will actually be blooming.

Galanthus nivalis, February 27, 2013

At least, there will be one snowdrop blooming by then!

At the Cottage

So, at the cottage, where I do most of my gardening, I'm eager to see things growing.  Thankfully, some faithful friends oblidge.The Arum italicum seems to grow these wonderful leaves in the fall just to liven up winter.  This dear clump is surviving well under a couple Hydrangea macrophylla.  Gotta move those arums!  And the little heaps of Snowdrops (Galanthus sp.) are beaming through the uncleaned up perennial bed.

The daphne mezereum is about to burst forth.  My reading indicates Daphne was brought to Nova Scotia by the Acadians.  My plants  came from Parrsboro, which is strewn quite liberally with them, in gardens and in the woodsy wild places about town. 

  So many other things are silently waiting for more of spring.  I am excited about this Magnolia. 

Planted it a decade ago when it was but a seedling I'd got at a Garden Club Convention.  The grower said it would be a surprise what colour it would bloom.  It never produced a single flower bud until this past fall.  Maybe ten are on this bush.  Now, though it's great to see the buds, I'm waiting to see if they have all winter-killed.  That's what seems to happen to the end of every single twig on this bush every previous winter.  :(  Here's hoping that the blossom buds are tougher!

   And I had one strange sighting while at the cottage a few days ago.  It's a bird?  It's a plane? 

No... It's a bat, in broad daylight.  5 pm.  Lost?  confused?  Sick?  Coming out of hibernation? 

Whatever... interesting to see it.  Better there than in my living room fluttering by.  Or bedroom.  Had that happen last year.

  OK, a couple parting shots: some surviving Puschkinia scilloides, I think.  Striped Squill.  I say surviving because they are struggling to make it through last year's undergrowth.  And an out-of-focus Winter Aconite, Eranthis hyemalis.