4 sure signs of spring

1. Eranthis.
2. Galanthus.
3. Adonis amurensis.
4. Hellebore (almost) ...

And so it begins for another season ...

We are also in spring mode.
Photos a bit dim, I took them just now and it's getting late.

Looks like you've got a lot more action going on! I had to be practically on hands and knees to find anything. The overall vista is still dead brown leaves everywhere. But it makes the rest of winter more tolerable knowing that things are waking up under there!

Thanks for posting those pics! Offers some incentive to tough out the next month and a welcome break from white, gray and brown here.

Cindy, you guys are having a much rougher winter than us. Hope you're holding up!
And I hope I didn't just jinx us...

I was definitely jealous of your weekend temps, wee. We were happy to see the 40's. Can't complain though as it's not as bad as last year and certainly not as bad as the weather in the NE.

Yep! Things are blooming and will be going down in the teens this week. Pooh!
Helleborus
Camillia

More beautiful hellebores. Single digits for a couple of nights this week for us. Sigh.

SPRING??? What the hell is that? We've had 73 inches of snow the past 2 weeks ( a record), and it's piled 10 feet high all over the place, including in my yard. And more to come plus freezing weather. I can't imagine when my plants will begin to see the light of day - July maybe? - after the snow melts and floods all of the basements around. The biggest thickest icicles I've ever seen are hanging from houses and ice dams are invading the walls and windows. Oh to see even bare frozen ground would be a thrill....

Ouch! I know you guys are getting hit over & over this year.I almost feel guilty that we've escaped with a mild winter so far. I hope you guys catch a break from the weather soon.

Thanks, Weerobin. Please send some of your warm spring breezes our way.

I see the pics every morning on the weather and can't imagine what it's like living inside an igloo. Saw pics of roofs collapsing under the weight of the snow as well. Saw a clip of a snow blower being used on a flat roof. Based on the weather systems here for the next week, I don't see any relief for the NE.

Sad to say, but our recent warm weekend was just a tease. Supposed to be 14 degrees tonight, 7 degrees saturday night. Not quite spring yet after all!

I'm a little optimistic as Chicago's supposed to go to -4 or -5 and we'll be 10 degrees warmer. I'll wait until the end of Feb to get spring fever.

So, after posting my 'spring is surely here' pictures, we've basically had continuous snow cover since then. The last 2 days, the snow has finally melted and, lo & behold, my adonis is still blooming, fully a full month after it first opened. OK, so it looks a little ragged. But it's usually just in bloom a few days. I guess the snow cover caused suspended animation. The ferny foliage is just getting ready to unfurl. I'm thinking spring is really here this time. I suspect things will really start popping in the next week or two. I'm ready.

Nice! Enough snow has melted that I can see the flattened last year's foliage on the hellebores. Another day or two of melting and I should be able to see if there are any flower buds ready to pop up. Waiting for the patches of crocus and snowdrops to be released from snow cover.

Fully 6 wks after my first post announcing the arrival of spring, I think it has arrived for real this time. We had a month or longer revival of winter which has finally given way to spring-like temperatures. My woodland is beginning to pop. I have several corydalis species starting to flower (pics #1-3). Eranthis started 6 wks ago in some parts of my yard, just re-awakening this weekend in other areas (#4). A nice carpet of cardamine heptaphylla is blanketing an area of my woodland in lavender (#5).
#1 Corydalis nudicaulis
#2 Corydalis malkensis
#3 Corydalis solida Dieter Schacht
#4 Eranthis hyemalis
#5 Cardamine heptaphylla

And then there are the hepaticas just getting started.
I have several special varieties which are just too beautiful.
#1 is a double pink called hepatica nobilis rubra plena.
#2 is another double called Shirin.
#3 is a 'reddish' colored single simply called 'red seedling'.
It's a nice distinction from the usual blue/white/lavender palate.
#4 is an odd shade-tolerant perennial called scopolia carniolica.
#5 is anemone blanda just getting started.
It will soon light up broad areas of my woodland in bright purple.
I presume we're sending our warming weather north & east so hopefully you guys will soon be seeing spring too!

Weerobin, I always admire your plants and pictures, but Scopolia carniolica is new to me. Tell us more, please!

I've only had my scopolia a couple years. Last year, it either didn't bloom early spring, or I didn't notice (the latter is more likely). Later in spring/summer, it's blooms are similar to those in the post, but they dangle downward with a distinct two-toned look to the dangling bell flowers (yellow/brown). The foliage is coarse and big; nothing wimpy about it. Mine already has a baby next to it - not sure if seedling or rhizome or what. My plant is only 1ft tall, so leaves seem disproportionately large. Don't know what ultimate height will be, thinking 2-3 ft, not sure. Mine is growing happily in ordinary soil in part shade.

Wow, that hepatica nobilis is sure good looking, same with that 'red seedling'

This is the first I've checked out this thread and I can't believe you had Eranthis bloom already, not to mention all this other stuff. I'm sitting here almost mad that you're that much warmer. I have Eranthis too and they haven't come up yet. I just looked at my pics from last year and it looks like they were up on 3/31. Crazy. When the heck are we going to get a nice winter?!?!

I do like Hepaticas. Thanks for posting more pics. After yesterday's snow and below freezing temps last night, the pics are a promise. I did finally see hellebore flower buds emerging from the ground over the weekend. Seems like they're really late this year. The 'Sunshine Selections' sure seem more vigorous than my nameless 20-year old white ones. Sure wish I knew how to invigorate those.

Spring keeps rolling along ...
1. cardamine concatenate - a little weedy, but I like it. Nice cutleaf foliage and early blooms in wooded areas.
2. Leukojum just getting started. Not dangling yet.
3. A double hellebore - lost it's name tag.
4. Hacquetia epipactis. Looking a little ragged this year.
5. Trachystemon orientalis. Very early blooming shade perennial with electric-blue blooms before the big/coarse foliage emerges.

1. Pachyphragma macrophylla.
2. Our ubiquitous bloodroot - just getting started. Native - I didn't plant it. It's everywhere.
3. Puschkinia. Just getting ready to unfurl.
4. And my best surprise discovery of the spring, the fabled 'pink' bloodroot.
I've grown a few over the years, always with the faintest 'pinkish tinge',
frankly a little disappointing. They are fairly pink in bud - not so much in flower.
Still, I must say, from the right angle, they can be very, very beautiful.
Here are some of my pink bloodroots blooming today. I think they look great.
Maybe not quite as fabulous as my double bloodroots,
which aren't up quite yet. They should make their appearance next weekend?
We'll see.
I love spring!

This message was edited Mar 30, 2015 9:42 PM

Beautiful pics as usual! The pink blood root sure is pretty. Hellebore 'Sunrise Selections' finally forced some flower buds up but not open quite yet. Bulb foliage and buds coming up and snowdrops and crocuses have been blooming for about a week. Just beginning garden cleanup (groan) and I know I have the little bulbs trying to come up under last fall's leaves.
Have to admit the "my" first sign of spring is when the little spring peeper frogs start singing, which they did yesterday.

I like that pink bloodroot!

Weerobin-I love your spring photos, I actually look forward to them every year. I planned on more photos myself this year, but I have been so busy weeding I haven't taken many!

more:

Pistil, what the last one the silvery green leaves? So pretty!

Pistil, what are the 3rd and 4th ones in the first pic set?

#3 - Fritillaria meleagris, Checkered Lily http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1088/

#4 - Sisyrinchium species, Blue-eyed Grass. Many species and difficult to tell apart. See http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher[common]=blue-eyed+grass&searcher[family]=&searcher[genus]=&searcher[species]=&searcher[cultivar]=&searcher[hybridizer]=&searcher[grex]=&search_prefs[blank_cultivar]=&search_prefs[sort_by]=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search

Very very nice, Pistil! SSG wanted the name of the last one - looks like a fragaria? And looks like you have my favorite epimedium warleyense - a great orange color. I think you should put your weeder down and pick up your camera more often! What other beauties are blooming now?

Thanks GT.

I am getting an E. warleyense this spring, good to see it in a pic here.

ssg- That silvery bun is Potentilla atrosanguinea argyrophylla. I got 3 from Bluestone in 2011. It's sort of a yin and yang plant-in spring it is this perfect little soft bun, with leaves oh so soft. No spreading or seeding about here, and every one of the three is still here, despite dreadful neglect- it's clay and builders rubble, often dry as a bone in summer (last year it wasn't watered for well over a month) then soggy for 6 months- but comes back like this every year. Then in June, it sends out sprawly stems that scramble around into neighbors and over the sidewalk and flower in an intense psychedelic yellow with orange-see here just as it's getting sprawly, and then in a flaming hot combo. I cut it back when the leaves look tired late summer, then here the leaves start in fall and grow all winter until it is like this today. Oh I just realized we are in the shady forum, this is in mostly sun here oops. I looked in PlantFiles, I need to upload my photos there.
#1, #2 taken today
#3 May starting the sprawl
#4 June with daylilly

Seq- Greenthumb is right about the Fritillaria, I got one tiny bulb years ago, each year the clump grows a bit. The first year the flower was tiny, now they are about an inch. Easy to just walk by, unless the sun hits it just right. I planted it on a 3 foot wall so it is easier to notice.
However, the little blue one is not Blue-eyed grass. I wish I could grow them but they never make it through the winter here for me. That is Ipheion uniflorum 'Wisley Blue'. The blue is hard to capture and here are a few more photos, taken today:

Wow-Wee You nailed it! That is E. warleyense. I have one clump. I think it is my favorite Epimedium too-Seq you will love it, the flowers are miniscule, but they do show up because of the brightness. Not brassy at all though. My E. colchicum ssp pinnatum is a bit too bright and brassy for me..

OK I took your advice, today no weeding (except the Shotweed that was invading my photo).
#1 Iris foetidissima Iutea I planted outside in pots 2 years ago, sprouted in Jan!
#2 volunteer violet maybe I should weed them out...
#3 neighbors Spanish squills
#4 Impatiens omeiana
#5 E. colchicum ssp pinnatum

#1 Erythronium 'Pagoda'
#2 best of all-the neighbor kid who totally got into taking flower photos with my cell phone!

Thank you, Pistil! I love the silvery leaves. Bluestone is no longer selling it, so I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Pistil - sorry for my error on the Ipheion, it sure looks like the Sisyrinchium growing in my yard. I don't understand why Blue-eyed Grass does not overwinter in your garden. It grows fine for me and I am an entire zone colder than you. I have a flat I started from seed last year, and when the snow finally melted off it in the last couple of weeks each pot was full of lush, green growth.