Spring, Spring, Where Are You? Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2011
This slow, cold, cloudy spring is sorely trying my patience. It’s taking forever for anything to bloom. But then, looking over past GBBD posts, it’s really not that far behind other springs. It’s just that last year, spring came earlier than usual. Somehow that became the new normal, just like that. How soon we forget.
The Crocus Bank was robbed of its glory by the erratic weather. The first flush of crocuses were knocked back by several days of snow and lows in the teens, and they were completely gone by the time the later crocuses got going. It is the overlap of many species that usually makes the Crocus Bank so resplendent. 
At least the hepatica is blooming right on schedule. (That’s last year’s photo, because it was too windy to get a good shot this year.) And two hellebores I received as seedlings bloomed for the first time this year: 
The ‘Josef Lemper’ hellebore that I got last year as a trial plant from Skagit Gardens has been blooming most of the month. 
It had buds last fall, which persevered through the winter. It started blooming shortly after the Helleborus niger ‘Thanksgiving Bloom’ finished up in March. Providing the last blooms of fall and the first blooms of mud season, this hellebore species is becoming a favorite of mine. And take a look at the new foliage on this hellebore: 
This was also a trial plant from Skagit Gardens.
After reviewing the previous April bloom day posts, I am forced to conclude that spring is more or less on schedule. The early daffodils are blooming. 
I wrote about these heirloom daffodils previously. Siberian squills, glory of the snow, and the last of the snowdrops are all blooming. The Cornelian cherry is in full bud and the ‘Meadowlark’ forsythia is on the verge of blooming, as are many of the corydalis. The peepers are peeping but I have yet to see any coltsfoot. I think what has really been missing from this spring is sunshine. It has been more than usually cloudy, which dampens one’s spirits and makes you think it’s cold even when it’s in the 50s.
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- Spring, Spring, Where Are You? Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2011
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- Mudseason Miscellany
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