Gardeners in colder zones or inland in my zone may be seeing early signs of spring, but here on the SE coast spring is excruciatingly slow to come. I love the Bay dearly but it does put a damper on temperature changes.

Hellebore 'Green Heron' is slowly opening.

My only bulbs showing are snowdrops newly planted last fall which are still rising out of the ground. Instead of showing closeups, which others have done well already, I thought I'd show some of the snowdrops in context. Here they're blooming next to euonymus in the area under the old white pine. The ferns have stayed green all winter. Those are solar lights planted in the garden to give a little light at night.

Not a crocus in sight, but I think there's going to be a nice digitalis (foxglove) path later on. These are all self-seeded.

Claire

Claire - the snowdrops look great next to the euonymus.

Here are my snowdrops - buried in the snow.

And tulips peeking out thru the snow.

Loved your pic of snowdrops, pixie-lou. I could almost hear them crying, "No, no! We just can't take this any longer!

I still have yellow berries on my Ilex opaca 'Goldie' and I figured they just weren't ripe yet. This may be about to change.

The squirrel is probably watching to see if I'm going to run out and yell at it. I didn't.

The red in the background is ribbons tied to the old white pine. I'll leave them up until I see more bulbs blooming.

Claire

Whoa! I was out this morning getting the mail and noticing a few more snowdrops had come up, when I looked over (again) to where the crocuses were absent (I swear they weren't there yesterday):

It's lovely and warm out and maybe I can begin to believe in spring....

Claire

Those are beautiful Claire! Photo is still on the camera but when I went to check on the snowdrops yesterday, a lone dark purple crocus caught my eye. In other years it didn't bloom until much later in the season. What a long-awaited, glorious color! Today's forecast calls for highs up to 68* so I'm guessing a lot more things will start to pop. It also wouldn't surprise me to see my first winter sown sprout of the year. My first lupine sprouts in WS years 1 & 2 popped on March 14 so it would be about a week early if any poked up today. It was already close to 50* at 7 a.m.

Things are just barely starting now. Crocuses are coming up.

This Johnny Jump Up is all by its lonesome in the back corner of the yard. I never planted even one of these, yet I get them all over the place. I have a feeling that the birds are helping. My son just loves them, so I decided to live with them.

The first of my crocus opened today. There are about 10 in bloom....

And my hyacinth are coming along - spirea in the forefront about to flower...

Allium and Poppies - I have other alliums peeking but the other poppies are so far a no show...

One of my hydrangea's leafed out a bit today

Boy it sure felt like spring today! Love seeing all these photos. Alas, I wish I had some crocus but the chipmunks eat them all. I have the fattest chipmunks around!

Claire, I really like that Ilex. I've read they get really big. Is 'Goldie' a dwarf, or do you expect it to get large. Love those yellow berries. Where is your "foxglove path" in relation to your house? I don't think I've ever seen that photo angle before.

thkyme2dig: 'Goldie' is not a dwarf and I expect them (I have two) to get small tree sized eventually. They're slow-growing - I bought them as tubes from Forest Farm about ten years ago. They were neglected for a while and then moved so they probably got set back a little.

The foxglove path is a route to one of my bird feeding areas which is on the other side of the big old osmanthus and winterberry that I show so often.

If you're coming from where I park my car next to the stumps:

The stumps curve to the right, while you bear left to get to the house.

Turn right at the stumps and that's the 'foxglove path' which leads to the back of the osmanthus and winterberry.

The other Ilex 'Goldie' is on the left side of the 'foxglove' path, with turkeys lounging underneath.

This is the osmanthus viewed from the street with some hollies to the left and two leucothoes in front. The big old winterberry is left of the osmanthus but without leaves and berries it fades from view.

And today, there's a turkey under the osmanthus too.

Claire

Pussy willow buds have been furry for a little while now, although so high up that it's hard to see them. The pussy willow has never been pruned and is a small tree now (dating to my parents' days). This photo was taken from the house at the limit of my 35X zoom.

Claire

Hi Claire, thanks for that mini-tour of the area. I love how natural your garden is and how you have so much planted for wildlife.

Claire: Well, at max range, I think that's pretty good. Slightly off topic (a cul de sac approach)do you know if yours is a salix discolor and if so, how tall would you guesstimate that it is?

I took pictures of the catkins in my yard today and noticed that although planted the same year, my Japanese willow has grown much taller at a faster rate than that of the salix discolor. Have read that salix discolor can reach 20 ft., but I don't know how fast their growth rate is. Any idea how tall and how old yours is, Claire?

Jane (now doing U turn back to topic)

Jane: I don't know which salix it is, but 20 feet looks reasonable for a tree probably planted in the fifties. When I said it hadn't been pruned, I meant not deliberately cut back. A relative regularly cut branches for forcing (which is probably why the buds are out of reach now).

Also, in the past few years, squirrels have been pruning all of the flowering branches as soon as they get to that pretty yellow flower stage. They do a trapeze act getting their teeth around the stems, then leave most of them on the ground. I grit my teeth when I see it, but the tree is too big to protect.

Claire

So nice to see all the photos! Today - the 15th - is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, so if you want to see photos of what's flowering now, all over the country, take a look at the May Dreams Blog, where all the Bloom Day participants post links to their entries for this month. Mine is linked below, and there's a link to May Dreams there.
Here are the first ever daffs I've seen in my garden blooming in early March:

And here's Cornus mas, not the showiest flowering shrub - or maybe just not especially photogenic - but very cheerful with its early yellow blooms:

This is really nothing to look at, Lonicera fragranissima, winter honeysuckle. It's a thug, and I have to be merciless when I prune it. But the fragrance is wonderful, so I'm letting it stay (for the time being, at least):

That reminds me, it's time to go see if my Corylopsis pauciflora (buttercup winter hazel) is in bloom. It's planted where I need to make an effort if I want to see it - worth the trip across the lawn, though!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cape Cod Garden: Bloom Day March 2012

Inspiring photos as usual, DtD! A fine display for the Ides of March (AKA Bloom Day nowadays?).

Claire

Love the pussy willow photo Claire. I bought a pussy willow last year. It is still really tiny, but no signs of any blooms. I just need to remind myself that you need patience to garden!

I planted winter aconite bulbs 2 years ago, but this is the first time I have ever gotten blooms. And only 2 at that. I thought they were supposed to be some of the first blooms to open, but I have had snow drops for a month now, crocus and reticulated iris for a few weeks.

mixed crocus blooming in the yard.

a nice dark blue reticulated iris - which I don't remember planting in the circle garden, but I must have.

a large cluster of white croci in the white garden (where else?)

The frist tete-a-tete daffodils of the year!

And lastly, my first vinca bloom of the year.

This morning I noticed the blossoms starting to open on my fumewort, corydalis solida.

I was just looking at the March 2011 thread - only photos of crocus, snowdrops, hellebore and winter aconite there. So many more things in bloom this year!

Beautiful Day Today!

This week I'm going to do some serious clean up. The down side of this mild winter is that all of my flower beds and the veggie garden have been invaded by wayward grass.

fixerupperinnh,

Not a Scilla, but a Chionodoxa = Glory of the snow.

Here's one of my favorite hellebores. Carousel strain.

Hey, pixielou, thank you for mentioning the pinwheels in your garden. I think you saved mine. --I have a dozen protecting my plants now.

Scilla siberica

Crocus t. 'Ruby Giant'

Claire

You turn your back on them and they suddenly leap out of nowhere! I went out on the deck as the sun was going down to check on a wind toy, and I saw daffodils in the middle of some junipers! I raced out with the camera to catch the last light (not enough light for a good closeup):

N. 'Jetfire' and Juniper 'Gray Owls'

And on the way back into the house I looked at a bed from a different angle and saw another daffodil near the house foundation!

N. 'Lemon Glow'

Claire

leslie6ri - Thank you! I love those little things and I found them buried under a jungle at the back of the bed, right at the foundation. Now that I know what they are, I can try to do some homework and see if I might be able to relocate them.

Garden clean up is underway. I spent all day out there and really didn't get a lot done. The grass really got a foothold over this non-winter.

Some great blooms in these pictures. We finally got some of our own today.

Helleborus 'Golden Showers'

This PJM Rhody looks ready to bust into bloom. Perhaps tomorrow.

Forsythia in full bloom.

Narcisus Dutch Master

N. Ice Follies

Peach Blossoms

Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel'

N. Christmas Tree Shop : )

Pulmonaria 'Tevi Fountain'

Steve

Ooooh, love 'Green Heron' and 'Golden Showers' hellebores. (And that fat and happy squirrel.)

Here's a lavender blue hepatica...

Jeffersonia dubia...

Magnolia 'Leonard Messel'...

And the first small blossom on a still small Helleborus Double Queen plant. I have an older white-flowering Double Queen and thought this was going to be white also. But it's pink!

I'm jealous of the hellebore photos. I bought some hellebores last year - I'm seeing new growth, but no blossoms. Just a reminder to myself that gardening requires patience.

My favorite daffodils - Mt Hood - standing proud behind some white hyacinths

I think this is arabis rock cress.

And a bit of leaf burn on the azaleas - caused by the freezing temps the past 2 nights.

Love all the Leonard Messel shots - I lost one, and still miss it. The Hepatica is beautiful, I'll have to look into that.

Blossoms on my red maple tree. Still no sign of winter moth caterpillars - this tree was totally defoliated by winter moth caterpillars last spring.