It's Finally Here

4/22/14

    

Yoshino cherry

     We had two 80 degree days last week and everything that had been holding back suddenly bloomed.  Here is what happened in the yard this past week.  The Yoshino cherry trees in the yard finally opened their buds.

All the hyacinths bloomed.

Then we had two nights of below freezing temps with rain/sleet and wind.  All the hyacinths were blown down. 

The cherry trees lost half their blossoms.  They were beautiful for two days.

The pink dogwood tree buds looked like this a week ago.

Now the pink dogwood is in bloom.

The grape hyacinths just bloomed in the tulip garden.

And three tulips just opened today in the tulip garden.

     I am waiting and watching for the rest of the tulips to begin opening.  There is much more activity in the back and side gardens which I will tell you about in the next post.  So much happening at once.  The garden centers finally opened around here on Easter weekend.  They are bursting with gorgeous flowers.  I went over today to my favorite garden center just to look around and get ideas.  I just couldn't leave without buying some flowers.  I ended up with 18 plants when I left there.

Just Getting Started

4/12/14

tulips

     I was so tired of the cold and snow after that last unexpected snowstorm two weeks ago that I bought a pot of tulips at the grocery store.  Finally all this week we  have had warm weather in the 60's and 70's.  What a treat!  Blooming is slowly getting started here.  Everything seems to be two weeks or more late.  The Bradford pear trees and magnolias in the neighborhood  finally bloomed about five days ago.

      Here are some photos of what has emerged in my garden so far.

My first daffodil bloomed a week ago.

The first hyacinth bloomed a week ago also.

This primrose is in full bloom.

The Brunnera macrophylla are coming along nicely.  I have four of them in the garden.

The sweet woodruff has emerged.  I have three clumps of these in shady areas of the back garden.

Also appearing is the first fern.

The tulip garden is taking its time and still not in bloom.

This branch on one of my Yoshino cherry trees is just about ready to burst onto bloom.

     In the next day or two,  the cherry trees will bloom, most of my daffodils will open, and hopefully a tulip or two will show up.  I am hoping that the possible frost/freeze for the middle of this week doesn't materialize.