Is it spring anywhere?

Around this time of year I have to remind myself that spring is inevitable. Happens the same way every year. I look at the calendar, see that it's March, realize that winter can't last forever, dash outside, peel back a corner of the blanket of matted leaves I raked over everything in the fall, and hold my breath. Then, having found some bright green pulmonaria or bleeding heart, I dash back to the computer and check in here to see if people have been reporting lily sightings. That's where I am right now. My fingers are still dirty.

We actually haven't had it so bad this year, but I know it's been an incredibly miserable winter for many who aren't used to it and don't deserve it. I assume Spring's running late in lots of places? I want to peel all the leaves off and throw them in the composter, but I know I should wait. Anyone got lilies nosing their way up?

It's always good to come back to Dave's! Laura

We've been having a 'heat wave' the past few days. I've been clearing and cleaning the beds. Some of my Asiatics are peeking out of the ground already. My coneflowers are shooting up new growths already and the buds on my hydrangeas are starting to leaf-out.

I planted a lot of Orientals and Orienpets yesterday and today:
Acapulco
Hot Lips
Cobra
La Reve
Beverly Ann
Purple Prince
Golden Stargazer
Triumphator
Tom Pouce
Bernini
Pink Heaven
Invasion
Debbie
Scheherazade
Friso
Sixth Sense
Scarlet Delight

Planted some Rubrum and Tigers too. Might have to plant more Asiatics tomorrow.
Trying to get it out of the way. I have a 2nd batch coming from B&D Lilies and thankfully the 3rd batch from the co-op comes in May.

Wickerparker, you're not alone. I'm smiling because I got dirty fingers today too. I pulled some little grass starts from the daylilys and found a couple of green sprouts. Then I found a few ladybugs and came back in to get the camera. I also have one daffodil sprout about an inch tall. We just had a 50° day and almost all the snow melted. March usually has warmer days than April. It's coming, that's for sure!

Tex68, I wish I could small your lilies! I have Acapulco and love it!

Spring is late here but finally arriving!!

Oh - you asked about lilies - there are some poking through!!

We are just melting out from under the 20 inches of snow we had after the big one hit DC.
There are 2 small plots that are showing life.Green shoots of the Dwarf Iris and tiny peeks from the Tulips and crocus.

SteveFtWorth, I love yellow daffodils and green grass! Beautiful! Lilies .... sigh....

Ge1836, yowza! That's a big pile of snow! I do have a couple of green shoots of border iris. No crocus yet.

It's 48° right now and we have some rainy days ahead. I heard it rain in the night. It's the Full Worm Moon this month. My favorite!

Rain will move melting along quicker than sun.

GE, that worked for us too. The frost will be moving out if it hasn't already. I don't see puddles in the garden, but it's wet!

Rain seems to permiate and disipate the snow.

Good thing about snow is, it has minerals that rain doesn't, so it has some saving grace for falling in the spring. I'm sure we're in for one or two storms yet, but it melts fast now!

Keep the snow I'm ready for tulips

Yes, spring is finially starting up here but unlike Steve in FT Worth, mine are just poking thru the ground. Most of my lilies have not started even coming up yet but there are afew here and there were there is a nose of green poking out of the ground.

I put in about 200 new daffodil bulbs last fall so am ready for the spring show. As to the lily bulbs, I lost count by now how many I added maybe 300? Lots of new ones for me as I finially got into the trumpets and hybreds as well as the orientpets. Thats why I am so impatient for things to start growing, I want to see all my new stuff, especially the lilies :-))

Me too.I have some nice ones planted last fall.
Elise
Angela North
Black Beauty
Nettys Pride
Eclipse

I can't wait to see pics of Elise, Jo. As you know, that's new to me this year.

I love seeing those beautiful daffodils! For me now it's all about watching the pot boil. From now on I'll be out there nose to the ground getting all excited about every millimeter of growth. Here's hoping for a sweet spring for all of us!

I have all kinds of things poking out of the ground. I am particularly thrilled to find that tulips that were close to the house (rabbits find cover there) and that I particularly love (Hearts Delight) that I put miniature tulips around are coming up - first time in years! They're not bunny food.

I'm avaoiding actually walking around because we've had both snow melt and rain, and I don't want to compress the ground, but we are going into the 50's. YES!!

We are going to have rain tonight and tomorrow then for the weekend they are saying big downpours so after today I will have to take a break from the gardenwork at least until Monday. Our snow is totally gone here, when I started punning and garden cleanup on Monday there was still some around.

Sloppy wet snow here today... >:(

Newyorkrita, all the bulbs you planted must be beautiful! I hope you post some pictures.

Ge, I have Black Beauty, but haven't heard of the rest. I need pictures!

Hi DonnaMack! I have been careful cutting down stalks for the same reason. It's so soft out there. The mini tulips sound adorable

Hi Moby! our snow is gone too. I hope your's melts soon. That's not to say it won't snow a few more times here. I hope not, and it can't stay!

The new bulbs that I put in last year really didn't put up that much of a big display. Lots of Orientpet, trumpets and trumpet hybreds last spring that either had afew blooms or many did not bloom at all. The bulbs were all nice ones though and I figgure I will get quite the show this year.

Some did bloom well like the ones I bought in more bulk were a bought 25 each of types like Red Alert and Blackout. I fortunatly already had lots of lily bulbs here from prior years so the lily displays were pretty good. But I just keep adding each spring so it gets better each year.

Had to move the entire row of Red Alert bulbs this past fall as I had planted them in back of a row of Fancy Face daylilies and I thought the colors clashed awefully. Moved them back towards the fence not so close to the daylilies.

Am currently working on my spring lily bulb orders, will be spending lots more of my money because I am just obsessed with my garden.

Plan to take lots of pictures this year.

I was looking at pics yesterday and found one of crocus and iris reticulata blooming last year on Feb. 15. Everyone keeps saying, 'I bet you're itching to get out in the garden!' grrr... I swear I'm getting grouchier by the day. Oh well, a few more days of snow-slop and it's bound to get better.

This week we have had temperatures in the 50's and the snow is melting slowly. Tonight we are getting rain to continue all weekend. February was terrible, 40 inches of snow in one month. We do not get that amount of snow in one month, maybe the entire winter...

I do have the tiniest crocus blooming at the top of a hilly area.

With all of the snow, the weeds continued to grow under it all. I was hoping that they might be frozen, no such luck!

Big foxgloves from last year, looking just fine,their leaves are green, a few wilted,new pulmonaria green and growing...

No lilies of any kind, the deer seem to look for the new shoots and eat them, at the start of spring.

Billi! My lilies
Bulbs that went in last fall as well as bulbs going in April
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgentle4/LILIESFor2010Bloom

Moby, we're about a month behind normal schedule too. Hopefully things will stay mild for you and you'll see some more activity soon!

Newyorkrita, I'll bet you get a nice display too. Lilies are so beautiful and smell so good! I'll bet your beds are wonderful! I'll be looking for pictures!

Moby, we had a couple nice days and I have to admit it felt good to get out and cut back stalks. I was gong to wait till it got drier, but I just stepped on the chickweed when I could. Needless to say, I could everywhere :o( I've got to learn to eat the stuff!

Obliqua, what suprised me is when everyone had snow at the same time, we all seemed to have the same snow. Really white and thick. I even ate some of the new fallen and I could almost chew it. Then we all had diamond snow. It's been a crazy year for all! Ooohhhh, nice place! Deer, I don't have even tho I am on the edge of town. Most of the timber lines have been cleared out for farming and the old railroad bed has no brush or trees anymore. Rabbits do me in for flowers, but pretty much leave the garden alone.

Ge, that was impressive!! Everyone of them are gorgeous! I recognized a few that I have, but wow! I've never seen so many at one time. I had to bury a tub of 5 trumpets last Fall that I didn't have a place for in my yard yet. I can't imagine your beds! I had ordered Jungs, 4 trumpets, the usual yellow, copper, rose and white. I didn't have any trumpets, so the colors and price were right. I think the 5th bulb that appeared is Anastasia!! Total suprise and treasured because it wasn't expected!

I love those surprises.

Me too. It's a huge bloom and smells wonderful!

Here's another photo of Anastasia. I love it!

Pirl, it's one of my absolute favorotes.

Wickerparker, our snow is almost gone. Peonies, iris reticulata and tulips have broken dormancy. And my fragaria vesca reugan, polemonium and arabis are growing. Surely you will get growth soon, if you haven't already, since you're half a zone warmer than I am.

Donna - I'm in zone 7 here and though my tulips are about 4" tall my pulmonaria isn't up yet. I'll have to check on the peonies. No signs of hosta here yet.

I'll bet you the little eyes on your peonies are up! My tulips are about 1/12 inches at best. I'm heading out later today to check for bulb heaving. I get a bit of that here.

Okay, you're breaking me down. I'll put on a jacket and go out to check the peonies, wearing my lobster pajamas. Don't be jealous!

It's an iffy answer: the buds are at ground level but they've been there since fall so do we consider that as a sign of spring? I did find some of the tiny daffodils that have flower buds.

Galanthus for me.It took 3 days for the drift to melt and expose them.
DL's are starting bent leaves due to the blizzard.

When I said I put in at least 300 lily bulbs the past three years I meant 300-400 each year for the past three years.

I have my lilies interplanted near and in my daylily beds and in my rose beds. I have had the rose crazies for years before my daylily crazies hit, which I started in 2007. So before that I would also buy lilies locally each spring and just get whatever appealed to me and plant them around the garden, usually in the rose beds. Roses and lilies look so good blooming together, the combo is just always so stunning. So after I got the dayliliy crazies I planned on adding lilies there too. I figgured as roses and lilies look so great together that daylilies and lilies should look great together too. So I have been working on that as well as still adding to the rose beds.

I was out looking earlier and I have lots of daylilies coming up and Triumphator has noses poking thru already. It is always my first lily to start coming up!

I have Triumphator starting to come up here also :-))

Any pictures of these lilies? in the Daylily beds

Wow, so much action out there! Sorry about the sloppy snow in Nebraska, though, Moby. Donna, things sound very springy for you. I've got some crocus poking up, some pulmonaria, some clematis, some geraniums sprouting up. No sign yet of the new daffs I put in, or any lily noses yet that I can see, though I've kept most of the lilies under their leaf blanket for now. No point encouraging them to grow just because we've had a few warm days. The good thing is that in a closeout sale last fall I got dozens of blanket--type things to cover up the lilies when they're up and it gets cold, as it will of course. I think they're meant to protect plants in containers, but I think they'll do nicely. Got enough for all my lilies, for less than a dollar total. The last of our snow melted just the other day. Good riddance!