After our unseasonably warm early spring, we returned to some frosty days (and nights). Some early risers got nipped. The Dutchman’s Pipe lost some new foliage, but it will bounce back with a vengeance. I’m not sure about the old cherry tree. It’s too soon to tell whether the frost killed a lot of “cherry hope.” But things are still ahead of schedule, so April’s Bloom Day is bountiful compared to last year’s. A year ago, only the heather and a few brave violets were blooming.
The heather still gets the early bloomer prize. But the brunnera macrophylla are blooming, too.
There are a few white daffodils, planted last fall, that are hanging on, but the early spring woke them up far sooner than I anticipated.
Also blooming are the Bleeding Heart. They look like little Christmas ornaments. 
I’m not sure why I don’t have more Esther Staley French lilac blooms, but the three lilacs I planted in that area never seem to do as well as I would like them to. The President Grevy French Lilac only got one bloom last summer. It’s a later bloomer and I can’t tell yet whether it liked the pruning I gave it last summer. The Mme LeMoine French Lilic is doing ok, but I count only about 10 blooms. The James McFarlane lilacs continue to do great, though. And they are just starting to bud out.
The new trellis now stands at the entrance to the Secret Garden. I’m hoping the clematis bounces back and covers it by the end of the summer. 
Garden 337 