Gradually Greening Up ...

The real warm up finally started happening today! We hit 72 this afternoon and I was able to open some windows to let in the fresh spring-ish air and the furnace hasn't kicked on all day ... I'm ready for lots more weather like this after this past winter! And ... *drumroll* ... I spotted the first golden crocus in bloom today!! By the time I finished work and was able to get out with my camera, unfortunately they had closed up for the day. But, in the meanwhile, those naturalized clumps of Snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii) I posted recently are doing quite well, despite the return to frigid weather right after they first started opening up ... fortunately, no harm was done by those several near zero nights we had last week. I was a little worried there for a couple of days because they didn't look happy at all in the cold, but they looked quite perky today....

Here's the same clump as above, but now you can see where the clump of golden Crocus is in relation to the Snowdrops ... unfortunately I was only able to get out about 5:30 (after work) so they had closed up for the day, but click through to the larger photo and check out the neat stripes on the petals of this particular variety ... they're quite striking. I'll try to get out sometime during the afternoon tomorrow when they're open to get some better shots ... You can also glimpse a bit of some of the other three clumps of Snowdrops behind the largest one ... they have spread out quite a bit over the years and it's a good thing they bloom so early, because in a mere month or so, they would be completely obscured by the purple and red bee balm among which they grow. In fact if you look really hard (and know what you're looking for) you can see that the Bee Balm is already starting to come up in spots. Now it's time to get out and clean out the beds so we're hoping the weather holds up through the weekend (supposed to be in the low 50s then) so we can get started on clearing out the brown out front and rake a bit so we can throw down some seed that needs to get out early....

Here's a closer shot of those crocus (click to enlarge and see the stripes!) ... if I recall correctly, these are the only crocus in this area of the garden, but I may yet be surprised ... the majority are out front in the parking, along the walk and in the main beds, where so far, there are no signs of them appearing. But this is one of the sunnier areas of the gardens and is where the bulbs always first make their appearance....

Nice patch of muddy looking dirt, eh? Look closer (enlarge to see) ... there should be Crocus coming up here (just planted last fall) but none have appeared yet, but something is stirring in the ground! If I'm not mistaken --and Fernymoss planted some larger bulbs here-- this would be one of the 5 new peonies we planted in this area last year! It seems unusually early to be seeing peonies breaking ground, but odder things have happened in the garden before. I looked for signs of other peonies in the usual places and didn't see any yet, but there's a lot of leaves and detritus to get cleaned up ... but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Bleeding Hearts are starting to come up, because they are protected by the house and usually start growing pretty early on. Now I'm starting to get excited about Spring growth ... because when it finally does get going every year, it seems like every day there's something new to discover ... I'm going to take a closer look tomorrow after work, so I may have some more news to report.

At least I've seen my first Crocus of the season and know there will be hundreds more to appear soon ... I hope that little Iris I posted yesterday reappears, but I have my doubts, so Iris, go ahead really make my day!