New adventures in gardening and garden design, plus various other musings.
Precocious Bloomers
Welcome to the Precocious Bloomers Gallery. All of the plants featured in these images are not afraid to stick their heads out of the dirt and bloom in late winter or early spring here in zone 5B/6A. Whether they’re evergreen, deciduous, or herbaceous, they all have one thing in common: they’re happy to perform in frigid temperatures. If you’d like to see more finery from my garden during winters past, please feel free to read “Spring and Summer’s Path Through My Garden,” written in late summer of 2021. That feature contains loads of pics of green and flowering beauties doing their thing through not only late winter, but through spring and summer, as well. In the meantime, I’ll be adding more images to all of the photo galleries – including this one – on a (hopefully) continual basis, so please remember to check back in from time to time. Please enjoy the pics. I freely admit that I’m nobody’s photographer, but I think the subjects here do a pretty good job of speaking for themselves. Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
My baby hellebore, a Lenten Rose, arrived on Good Friday, 04-07-23. It's called Dashing Groomsmen (Helleborus x hybridus 'Wedding Party® Dashing Groomsmen'). It was transferred to a temporary pot immediately, and planted on Easter Sunday (04-09-23). It joined my two established Molly's White Lenten Roses (Helleborus x hybridus 'Frostkiss™ Molly's White') in the shadiest section of my garden. The Dashing Groomsmen's double, dark blue flowers will provide a fabulous contrast to the white blooms of the Molly's Whites. The next four pics tell the story, and also show why hellebores are in my "Precocious Bloomers" image gallery. The Molly's Whites push up through the snow and frozen ground during winter's coldest days, and have green leaves and flower buds set by the middle of January, here in zone 5B/6A.
Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) waking up and setting buds. They're coming up out of the ground in a steady wave. This image, along with the next six, was taken on 04-06-23.
Double white cottage primrose with a slightly dirty face. (Primula vulgaris 'Double White.') These are always the first of my primroses to bloom.
Forgive me, but I can't get enough of my Molly's White Lenten Roses (hellebores). Soon, another will be joining their ranks - a dark bluish double-flowered variety. It's a baby and it's arriving here any day now.
Super-hardy pulmonaria and violas are basically evergreen, and flower early every year.
My Molly's White Lenten Roses (Helleborus x hybridus 'Frostkiss™ Molly's White') are blooming beautifully on March 27, 2023.
My two gigantic old fashioned white bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba'). They wake up in early to mid March every year.
Crocus chrysanthus 'Prins Claus.' These little guys have been blooming for weeks. When the temps are really low (below freezing), they button themselves up against the cold. They re-open when conditions improve.
Clockwise from top left: 'Prins Claus' crocus in a better mood, pulmonaria setting buds and sending up foliage, viola 'Northern Lights' setting buds and gathering steam, sedum sitting pretty.
Clockwise from top left: daffodils, 'Molly's White' hellebore, more daffs, cottage primrose, Primula vulgaris, loving the cold weather.
Primrose thriving in the snow (left) and grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) getting ready to set some buds.
Primrose (Primula vulgaris) blooming on March 24, 2022.
Primrose (Primula acaulis) getting ready to bloom on March 30, 2022. The vulgaris and acaulis primroses bloomed even earlier in 2021.
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