Spring Is Here! Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day April 2017

It’s the most exciting time of year! It’s like Christmas, except instead of tumbling downstairs to see what “Santa” left me under the tree, I’m dashing out the door every day to see what’s blooming in each garden bed. Believe me, I know where to look, and I usually spot each emerging plant when its tip first pierces the surface. Yes, it’s spring! But you know, as the day wears on and I calm down a little, I realize that the display is rather…spotty.

I can see this bed from my kitchen door. I’m loving the colors, but everything’s dotted here and there.

Partly that is because, at five years old, this garden is young as gardens go. But it’s also because when you plant bulbs in the fall, it’s hard to remember where the other bulbs are. Even if you have a picture to help, it’s not easy to get them in the right spot.

What if I interplanted this glory-of-the-snow…

…among these earliest-blooming daffodils?

Even though they’d still be the same flowers in the same bed, they’d make a bigger impact when combined. I’m going to make a note to move them as they’re going dormant later on this spring.

I’ve already tried to do that with the ‘Blue Mound’ chionodoxa and the ‘Heart of Gold’ columbine. It needs a bit of tweaking, but it’s getting there.

And what if I moved this Primula vulgaris ssp. sibthorpii–the earliest blooming primrose I have–

–right in front of these early, miniature daffodils?

Right now, you can see that primrose behind the daffodils. Planted together, the yellow daffs would emerge in a froth of pink and highlight the eye of the primrose flower.

Even in the spring garden, there is always a way to make things better.

Sometimes to make things better you just need more of what you’ve already got.

A patch of this Puschkinia scilloides ‘Sky Vision’ would be spectacular. So far I only have one. I could buy more, or divide this one as it makes offsets.

I’m not sure if a big patch of the pinkish form of bloodroot would be an improvement. It just might be better appreciated in isolation.

It is not only flushed pink, but has more petals than the “regular” bloodroot.

Updates on previous blog posts

Two and a half years ago I planted a bunch of traffic-stopping daffodils.

Just like last year, they’re getting ready to stop traffic once again.

And those hellebores that I thought I ruined by cutting back the dead foliage too soon?

They weren’t totally ruined. ‘Kingston Cardinal’ looks the best, but all of them are flowering. There’s just not as many flowers.

After enduring three feet of snow in March, this spring seems especially sweet. But I probably say that every year.

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens. Check it out at May Dreams Gardens.

from Cold Climate Gardening http://ift.tt/2ozdXH9