Nothing, everything is still buried. It is snowing again, but next week is supposed to be gorgeous. Latest spring ever around here. Things better start smartening up, I have run out of space under the lights and would love to move some stuff out to the unheated greenhouse, if I could only get the door open. C

Mostly everything here is still under at least two feet of snow, too. Some places 3-5 feet.

Thanks goodness for the overhang and the raised planter.
It gives me a glimmer of hope =:)

A couple tulips close to the house and lots of dog poop. Guess that's my next job. Really look forward to it every spring.

Beegood - that's hilarious !

I didn't even think of dog doodoo. I did see some rabbit droppings though.

LOL @ poop, I've picked up 3 bags already. I thought I was pretty diligent with it this winter but it looks instead like we've been importing poo. :P

I was surprised to see tulip shoots coming in my driveway garden literally 2 days after the snow disappeared from it.

So far the only green I've seen is a scabiosa that's remained green since last year and a few weeds. I've seen a few insects flying about so at least that's a sign that plant life will soon follow.

I planted lots of bulbs last fall (squill, crocus, tulips, chionodoxa) so I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival!

So far all i can see are the tulips on the southwest side of the house. In other places, i can see bergenia and pulmonaria foliage, but just from a distance. Waaaaaaaaaaaay too much s***! (it's a bad word now that it's April!)

O.K. Way off topic, but don't you gals have your DH or kids trained to do the dog pickup? =:)

Sorry, couldn't resist, LOL !

No husband no kids, Dogs refuse to pick up after themselves. Typical teen agers. Even took away their cell phones and stuff. The husband always had been useless.

So far I don't have any tulips up, but all of my irises that aren't covered with snow - including my TB's - have an inch or two of growth. I'm sort of worried about them, it would be very "Saskatchewan" to have a big blast of winter now for another week or so.

Nothing coming up here yet, but at the rate the snow is disappearing it won't be long. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly mountains of snow can melt!
So far, scooping poop is my outdoor activity also. My little dog is a poop machine. Though both my DH and I pick it up regularly, I find by spring that we've missed lots.

Just some daffodils that had sprouted forth last fall and a few clematis are beginning to peak up out of the soil next to the house. I have a yellow climbing rose that I lifted up today, didn't want any stems to rot with being under the wet soil ... but, they looked really good with a few small sprouts already showing, though these will probably freeze off.

Up are lots of weeds already! The good stuff seems to have gone missing. None of my tulips have sprouted (yet?) and none of my glory-of-the-snow are up either. I do have one plant that is sprouting but I forget the name of it!

Checked yesterday and so far the only new growth is Lady's Mantle and sedums. No bulbs yet.

I now have a couple of inches new growth on some irises, I also have evergreen scabiosa, and the giant alliums are up too.

I just noticed that my chives are coming up and also my daughter's green onion she planted last year!

I have some of my new tulips coming up around the new amur maple tree we planted in the fall.

I just spent a few hours shovelling snow from where a lot of my new bulbs still have two feet of snow covering them. I don't want them to rot.

Although it feels good to be out in the sunshine getting some exercise, I sure wish I were shovelling dirt or compost instead of snow !!

Interesting how, although we're almost all in the same "zone", different things come up at different times. Even though our zones are the same, our climates are quite different.

I found my new alliums, Purple Sensation, poking out of the ground. I think. Can't find my detailed map of what I planted in the front yard =:(

Hey, pretty soon we can start the "What made it and what didn't" thread =:)

Some tulips were up yesterday, and while I've been cutting back perennials and tidying things up I've noticed lots of stuff that has started growing..my mums for one thing, a number of my sedums, chives, daylilies, columbine, liatris, salvia, and I'm sure other stuff that I haven't got to yet.

NAF - yes, definitely..though I'm certain I'll have less "didn't make its" than last year. We had such good snow cover all winter as long as we don't get a bunch of bad weather, we should be good. But I may loose some more things to rot. :(

My tulips on the south side of the house were up 6" by the time I could get to them. I had to get the mulch off them quickly. Some of the bulbs must be more than a foot deep. I've dug them up a couple of times and replanted and I still get masses of tulips in places.

Other than that I have some plox, sea thrift, fever few, and day lilies that are showing signs of life.

I was thinking the same thing, Weeper, that things should have made it this year with all the snow cover we had. As long as there's no more really cold weather, we should be okay.

On Saturday i went around back, but was sinking into snow up to my knees at some point - it's still deep where it was shovelled off the roof over the winter. Anyway, the bed back there is baring off nicely and while i didn't see any new growth except for tulips and crocuses, there's lots of green. There's something else coming up there that may be irises - i planted a bunch of Dutch irises that someone gave me, but didn't hold out much hope for them. I also found little pink peony nubs poking out of the ground - Mollis is always very early.

The rain yesterday got rid of a lot of snow, but there's a lot more to go!

It almost feels like spring here. I know it is too early to take off the mulch of oak leaves that we leave on the flower beds over the winter but the rose beds by the front door where looking messy so I scraped off the leaves and found campanulas and gentians are staring to show and the Lambert Closse rose that is marginally hardy here and was still green when the frost came is showing lots of life and very little winter kill. It was encouraging and exciting also the Tiger Tail chrysanthemums and Praire Sun rudibeckia look like they made it too.Even the dirt under the fingernails felt good again.
Leo

It was so nice out today that the snow is taking a further beating. I got around to the back a lot easier and found lots of green, including some of those irises, as well as a couple of iris reticulata that are about to bloom. Very encouraging!

Things are finally looking up here too. Creek is flowing, the forget-me-nots are nice and green and to top it all off a robin has been singing. How great is that?

Our creek is flowing too, and the ponds are open. I expected them to be a lot fuller with all the snow we had, but they aren't. Guess we need a beaver or two to move in!

Still lots of snow in the yard, but I had a roam around and was surprised to see growth in the flower beds, even though they're mostly still covered. I can see grape hyacinths poking through, there's new growth on the centaurea montana, bergenia is trying to stand up. Somethings come out of the snow green and alive looking, but I'll wait a bit before I'll know if they are truly alive or just freeze dried in that state. But so far it's looking good and made me happy.

I have two white crocus BLOOMS this morning =:)

I think we made it !

It also looks like 119 of the 120 bulbs ( I think that's how many) planted in the fall are all up or just starting to poke through.

North53 - You grow grape hyacinths in Zone 1b ? I didn't even think they would grow in my zone, so I didn't bother buying any. Hmmm.

Naf, The grape hyacinth or muscari is very hardy. I bought a variety of bulbs from my niece who was selling them as a fundraiser with guides.......the muscari is the only one that made it and continues to come up.
Now there's probably a thousand different varieties, and lots that aren't hardy, but whatever I have is.

I thought that too NAF, but my neighbour has tons of grape hyacinths so much that she has to thin them periodically. One time she gave me some but they didn't grow. Oh well.

I have some TB irises that look like they did well their second winter (yay, now hopefully they don't get borer or drown), fully evergreen dame's rocket, columbine sprouts, peony sprouts, and glad to see my sea holly survived being transplanted and is sprouting. I thought I'd killed it for sure.

Where did i just read that sea holly is terrible invasive? Can't remember offhand, but after i read the article - it wasn't just about sea holly, but a lot of other things too - and it was written by someone is zone 5 or 6. So i guess we're safe from that here! LOL Of course, there are one or two other things i could mention....

I haven't visited the back of the house since all the snow on the weekend, but anything that was up in front is still there, just a little sad-looking. I don't know if the yellow mammoth crocuses will bloom, or if they're freeze-dried in the bud stage. :(

Nope, not invasive here. It just sits there with one taproot and doesn't move. I do collect seeds from it though so maybe it's seedy if you leave them on?

I am finding columbines really seedy lately though. They're everywhere...

April 20---I have peonies about 4" up and my early tulips are up but I dug them out and potted them as we are doing a big reno and their bed will be destroyed soon (I moved everything else last fall). Bachelor buttons are up as is my artemesia, chives, allium and muscari. All are right around the house.

Marcia, I think I read the same article about sea holly. It must have been a gardening magazine. I don't remember either. I check out magazines from the library..it might have been in one of them.
Anyway, I have sea holly and it does re-seed. But I wouldn't say it's a huge problem. Some people hate any plant that doesn't stay exactly where it's planted, though. It would be an issue for them. After all it is a prickly thistle like plant!