Last week, I wrote about the blooms on Arnold’s Promis Witch Hazel. It’s looking better than last week with flowers continuing to emerge.
This week I’ve got a few more things in bloom. Nothing is knocking it out of the park but need I remind you it’s early-March with temperatures going down to the twenties, and sometimes teens, at night.
My Lenten Rose has a few small flowers. I don’t remember the cultivar so we’ll call it Helleboris sp.
You have to look through the foliage to see the flowers. I had to kneel down to get this picture. There’s one flower in the middle with two other stalks flanking it.
I have a couple of clumps in the shade that aren’t as far along. They’re significantly larger clumps and put on quite the show every year. Every bit of purple you see is going to be a flower stalk. Green are the leaves emerging.
My Japanese cornel dogwood, Cornus Officinalis, is going to be in full bloom in a week or two. Even though the flowers aren’t fully open the tree has as much, if not more, color than my Witch Hazel.
The last flower in bloom is Crocus. About 8 years ago Crocus clumps started showing up in my side yard. Every year I find a few more. You have to be within a few feet to find the clumps but they give me something to look at as I wander the yard on warm days.
As I write I’m reminded of one more early blooming plant I’d like to add to the garden. Snowdrops, or Galanthus nivalis, have small drooping white flowers this time of the year. They only grow a few inches tall and form spreading colonies in humusy soils.
What are your favorite late-Winter blooming plants? Do you have anything in bloom?
Comments
12 responses to “Early-March Blooms”
YES! We’re a lot warmer than you here in the Pacific Northwest. My most exciting discovery is a little patch of Trillium. The first year I began to care for this garden, there was one plant. Four years later there are NINE, from the oldest plant whose creamy white flower is just about to open, to the youngest whose emergence looks like a large green knuckle pushing up out of the ground. In a day or two the whole plant…stalk and leaves…unfold/unfurl from this tightly bound package into an announcement that Spring in all her Beauty has miraculously arrived once more.
Sounds beautiful Lauren. I rarely see Trillium unless I walk into the forest and find the right conditions. It’s interesting how we each have different plants that signify spring is here.
Still trucking thru snow in the yards here, but can finally see the curbs along the streets. A couple tulips peeking out on the west side of the building. It will be awhile before I get back to work. Tools are clean, sharp and ready to go!
Kay, have you ever considered moving south? Your climate sounds downright inhospitable! We’re back to the 30’s today with gusty winds. For southern New England, it’s cold. Are the tulips in bloom or just poking through the snow?
Just poking through, and because it is so early (for us) we could get another really cold spell that will do them in. It has happened before.
I thought that’s what you meant. I think we’re in for another round of cold before it stays warm over here.
John your idea of planting snowdrops reminded me of the farm I was raised on in New Zealand. alongside the driveway we had a row of Lombardy Poplar ‘Populus nigra cv Italica’ which was used as a wind break. mum planted around the base of these snowdrops ‘Galanthus nivalis’ and a type of Daffodil ‘Narcissus’ which I have not seen anywhere else (compound double with an untidy head) these were my greeting as I walked the 200 yards to catch the school bus. I returned to the old farm a few years dack to find that floods and neglect had killed of all the flowers and a type of fungal blight was attacking the poplars. The new owners had never seen the flowers where they were so they must have gone some years in the 50+ years I was away.
Mark, that sounds like a beautiful view! I can see the yellow daffodils and snowdrops with the poplars rising straight up for the sky. I got my love of gardening from my mother, perhaps that’s where everyone gets it from.
Good morning,
I have 2 snowdrop plants in my CNY yard, the first to bloom on my property. Yesterday, when dinner guests went out to look at them, they spotted honey bees on the flowers.
March 8th at 5 pm in 60 degree weather, highly unusual for Syracuse and a big surprise to see honey bees pollinating on the snowdrops. Just goes to show, if you plant it they will come :0)
I enjoy your posts John, thanks for sharing!
‘rae
I really need to get some snowdrops this fall! This winter has been the mildest I remember. I haven’t seen any bees yet down here but I’ll keep my eyes open. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Speaking of honey bees, there was one crawling on the inside of my sunny patio window yesterday. I just left it alone thinking it might find my orchid that has 15 blooms on it, three stems, one brand new one, one blooming for the second time and one blooming for the third time. The blooms have been there for over 2 months. It is a white Phalaenopsis, it was a gift when my Bill passed away and it bloomed constantly until the first anniversary of his passing. Then started blooming again a few months later.
11 degrees this morning, but the sun is warm.
Sounds Beautiful Kay.