Scanner art by Craig Cramer, gardening & more
What happens when. ‘Today the first snowdrop flowered.’
I was hoping to do a series of my favorite early spring bloom, starting with this spear, then moving to this partially opened flower from early last week (apologies for the lousy focus) …
But then Friday, we got this …
The heavy wet snow bent Katharine over and she’s now a soggy mess. Oh well. But it looks like there might be a second bloom coming.
Some ephemerals on campus stood up a little better:
When you don’t have much going on in the garden, you can always move in close and make the most of what you’ve got.
I was hoping that Iris histrioides ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ would make an appearance today. Close, but not quite. Here’s the same plant in flower last year.
Eranthis is coming on strong.
Tulips emerging.
Something emerging. Not sure what.
‘Floral frost’ on the coldframe this morning.
Forced daffs inside.
The buds that have been on this cyclamen since November finally opened yesterday. Lots more buds to come. I also bought a couple new cyclamens from John Lonsdale, Edgewood Gardens (west of Philadelphia) at his rock garden society presentation last weekend.
Below are some more eranthis I discovered yesterday. I raked too many leaves on top of the bed, and I noticed that they were heaving in spots. I cleared them away and found the chlorotic eranthis. I wonder if they are buried under too much mulch if they have a feeling like we do when we’re underwater and running out of breath.
My scanning efforts to make bloom day deadlines were pretty lame. So I thought I’d do a couple more with some buds I found this morning. (Lame x 2 = OK?)
There was a lot of it.
An interesting couple of days here with freezing rain, heavy rain, high winds, power outtage overnight, a little snow and then some sun with everything still iced over. Page on down and you’ll actually see my first flowers of the year, too.
Frozen bittersweet berries. (Click images for larger view.)
Get up close and personal with the 2200-pixel version.
Heavy rains Saturday pushed our little stream over it’s banks.
I was worried about how the beaver dam would hold up during snow melt. I should have more confidence in their construction skills.
Fog over the ridge provided some drama.
Frozen aconite flower bud ready to pop.
Cyclamen in bud, but they’ve been in bud for about three months now.
Some sun on Sunday morning.
Gratuitous doggie pix, Fred:
And Jade:
Close up of the willow in the background above to give you an idea of how much ice is coating things.
Snow-capped monarda and some more bittersweet.
