It's Beginning!

 Almost a full month later than last year, but finally there are some things starting to bloom. All but the last of these are in the rock garden

This is an early minuature daffodil, and now that the bulbs aren't all crowded by weeds, they have started to show up in several places again. This is Tete-a-Tete, and they are about 4 inches tall.

The pasqueflower is reliable. There are actually two clumps in bloom right now

Here is a really old leftover from the original rock garden. This is a squill, some species of Scilla. They were purchased so long ago, they aren't even in my plant spreadsheet. Maybe my mom gave them to me. They need to multiply significantly to look like much. That's probably too much to ask, but I'll take one tiny blue flower for a smile. The picture is about twice lifesize.

I'm not going to start a rock garden tour just yet, but I have to show you this. It's always interesting to see how the various sedums and sempervivums change color through the season. For example, the Sempervivum 'Gold Rush' is, right now, a dark maroon. It apparently needs to be warmer to turn yellow.

But I will show you this one. This is Sempervivum 'Black' that I purchased last year. I've been pretty unhappy with it because it never got dark enough to look anything approaching black all the rest of the season. Well, look at it now! I think it needs some pink friends around it that will bloom early and showcase it. I need to think about that.

And who says you can't still have surprises in a familiar landscape. I discovered a few days ago that a clump of the double daffodils (which all came from Grandma Leary's flowerbed) has popped up in the old lilac hedge. Wow!

I was very naughty today. I worked on one of my pet projects all day. OK, I went shopping, but I didn't do anything else that I was supposed to.

See one lone crocus