Isn’t it amazing how quickly life emerges when the snow recedes?! I knew, of course, that the hellebore was green underneath all that snow. I planted this specimen (Painted Strain) late last summer and am anticipating lovely white and deep purple blooms.
But the hellebore isn’t the only thing that stayed green during the long winter. The various heucheras also seem to merely nod off during the winter. And there were times when we had three feet of snow covering these guys. These coral bells grown in the front garden, right behind one of the benches. In fact, the benches always blow over during even moderate winds and they stayed blown over for at least a month. There was too much snow accumulated on top of them to set them right. So, not only were there three feet of snow covering these heucheras, but there was a wooden bench.
I walked through the Secret Garden, too, this afternoon. I needed that walk after a long and boring meeting at work. In fact, I left early because I couldn’t quite sit still when a very nice woman from FTLC told us we could assess rubrics with a rubric. Since I find rubrics annoyingly idiotic in the first place, the idea of a rubric for a rubric just about made me spontaneously combust. So I left.
The slightly warmer temps and longer days have coaxed the lilacs into green buds. This is a Mme LeMoine French Lilac that has wonderfully sweet scented flowers. The Esther Daley French Lilac and the President Grevy aren’t quite as far along.
The beds have quite a bit of leaf litter in them, and a few pieces of trash that blew from somewhere. I can see a Long John Silvers giant beverage cup lurking out by the caryopteris that will have to be picked up as soon as I finish this post.
There is one flower, of course, that is about to bloom. The crocuses. Perhaps tomorrow will bring the first flowers of spring.
Garden 337 