Suddenly Spring.... Part 1

Winter seemed to drag on and on, teasing us with 8-24 inch snowfalls followed often immediately by 40 - 50 degree F days and snow melt.  Still, during the coldest weather, much of the garden slept under a generous snow cover, a welcome change from last year.  Our garden suffered tremendous damage when unprecedented warm weather kept the ground from freezing.  The resident moles and mice enjoyed a generous buffet of rose and hosta roots, echinacea and other perennials, and almost all of our crocus and tulip bulbs.  The cost to replace the lost plants was staggering.  (A total of 26 roses, almost a dozen hostas, most of our echinacea, and nearly a thousand bulbs was lost to the critter buffet.)

Spoiled by such an early spring a year ago, when I flipped over the calendar on the first of March this year, I was ready for some color.  Last spring, the snowdrops and hellebores had already been in full bloom for a week when I photographed them on March 9th.  This spring, it was the end of the month before we saw even our first hints of color.

The calendar said that spring was officially here on March 23rd, but it was another full week before spring truly arrived in this little corner of New England.

When I photographed the garden on March 30th, the snowdrops were blooming but the hellebores had barely poked their heads through the detritus of last year.   But once they started to wake up, almost overnight, they were standing tall, their cheery faces open to the sun.

This year, for the first time in several years, we have crocus popping up everywhere, singly and in large clumps.  Over the past few years, the mice and voles had eaten the many hundreds of bulbs that we had planted many years ago.

Clumps of purple, yellow and white giant crocus had slowly diminished and by last spring, except for a rare single bloom here and there, they had all but vanished from our garden. And replanting had proven futile.  After the passing of our cat, Frieda, the voles had claimed the garden as their own. 

This past fall, having finally gotten some measure of control over the critters that had been damaging the garden during the winter, we replanted many of the bulbs.   When we finally decided it was safe to replant, it had been too late to acquire the giant crocus I favor.  Since the smaller variety was in plentiful supply, we opted to try them to see if in fact we had the upper hand and we were not disappointed.  Planting nearly a thousand bulbs acquired at an end of season sale, our minimal investment blessed us with loads of springtime color this year, something we had been missing more and more over the past three years.  And it gives us the confidence to plant more of the varieties we love this fall.

Here in New England, April flowers brought May showers.  Despite unseasonably cool temperatures  and a lack of early spring showers, the several late season snowfalls were apparently adequate to meet the needs of all of the early bloomers and since the beginning of April, there has been a steady rainbow of color.

April 9, 2013:  Within days, the hellebores were blooming en mass.

April 9, 2013:  The last of our original purple crocus.

April 9, 2013:  We breathed a sigh of relief when the first crocuses pushed through the soil.

April 9, 2013:  The miniature iris are often one of the first things to bloom, but even these little gems took their time showing their vivid blossoms.

April 9, 2013:  Miniature Hyacinths sprouted en masse.

Mid-April, 2013:  The forsythia is in full bloom, as are the cherries and creeping phlox.  The hellebores have continued to grow and bloom, and daffodils and grape hyacinths can be seen poking out from behind other perennials as well.

Mid-April, 2013: The saucer magnolia was stunning, and beat the star magnolia by a full week.

Mid-April, 2013: A gorgeous saucer magnolia blossom, sprinkled with raindrops.

Mid-April, 2013:  Usually the star magnolia is the earliest of our magnolias to bloom.  This year, the star was the johnny-come-lately, blooming a full week after the saucer magnolia, with the blooms opening at almost the same time as the leaves.  Although the tree seemed heavily budded weeks ago, the bloom seemed lackluster and short-lived this year, possibly due to the weather.

Mid-April, 2013:  Usually not in full bloom until a week or two after the saucer magnolia, the buttery blossoms of  the yellow magnolia Elizabeth opened even before the saucer had reached its peak.

Late April, 2013: Usually the daffodils are a week or two or more ahead of the tulips.  I plant them together because they give extended color in each spot when they bloom sequentially, but even more than that, I hope that the daffodils will discourage the voles from eating the tulips.  When we planted these bulbs last fall, we mixed an assortment of bulbs in pink, yellow, and white blends, planted 15-30 bulbs together, and left it to luck to see what would bloom in each clump.

Late April, 2013:  An assortment of pink tulips grown together makes a bouquet too beautiful to cut and bring indoors.

Late April, 2013: Tulips and daffodils are abundant throughout the perennial and cottage beds. The grape hyacinths, which had been blooming for weeks, were still in bloom for World Hyacinth Day (May 7th), although the common hyacinths were a few days late for the party.

May 8, 2013:  The grape hyacinths have been blooming for weeks, the perfect early spring  ground cover.  We have them planted around most of our spring flowering trees.

May 8, 2013:  Although we have lilac varieties that bloom early, mid, and late spring, the common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, is going to be in full bloom for Mother's Day this year, right on time.  Since I was a young child, I've always associated Mother's Day with lilacs.

The color parade continues.  Tomorrow, for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, I'll post photographs of the garden as it looks this week.