My shade garden, of course, is a couple of weeks behind everyone else, even here. We were out this evening looking for flowers: the London Pride is barely budding, so are the perennial violets, the lily-of-the-valley, the Dutchman's breeches and the pachysandra. The hostas and the astilbe are just leaves, so far. The ground covers, periwinkle flowers and dead nettle have a few blue and yellow blooms. And the native bleeding hearts are opening. There's no sign of the columbines at all.
The rhododendron has buds. That's all, so far.
Even the weeds are slow. I pulled a couple of baby buttercup plants out of the lawn. And a dandelion bud showed up. Just the one.
I compared with last year's schedule; the bleeding heart and the Dutchman's breeches were blooming nicely in March. So we're a good six weeks late this year. I wonder why. The wet spring, the too-long, too-mild winter? Something else?
But the hellebore is still holding its own; that's almost two months of blooms, now. I think I'll plant more.
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| Way to go, hellebore! |
Lovely shots. With a brand new property, I am finding brand new plants I didn't know were sleeping!
ReplyDeleteThat's always so much fun! Surprises all spring and half the summer!
ReplyDeleteOurs are late as well ... the tulips are just now coming into full bloom, and there are still a few straggling daffodils (usually full bloom in March, completely gone mid-April). My native bleeding hearts just started blooming last week, and the columbines are finally putting up new green ... no flowers yet.
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