Blooming Today

This is a late spring, much later than last year.  I know this because I keep bloom charts, carefully charting each species with colored markers.

On April 8, 2010, the following flowers were in bloom: chinodoxia , crocuses, tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, periwinkle, scilla, Virginia bluebells, pansies, puschkinia, anemone, lungwort, dwarf iris, and grape hyacinth. The back yard was awash in color. The smell of hyacinth wafted down the block.  By this time last year, the snowdrops were done blooming.

This year, with a late March blizzard, early April is much different.  The only blooms so far are snowdrops, crocuses,  dwarf iris, and just a few periwinkle.  The garden will eventually catch up.  The hyacinths and daffodils are in bloom, and one solitary scilla is in bud.  I hope to have flowers to take to church on Sunday.

The sturgeon guard is likely to be later as well.  Last year, we were called in three days before what was supposed to be the start of the spawn.  This year, with snow still melting and running into the rivers and streams, we wonder if we will be guarding on the 17th as planned.

I can't rush Mother Nature, but I am pushing her a bit, by raking leaves out of the flower beds, exposing the plants to the sun.  I urge Gary to rototill the vegetable garden so I can get the pea and onions in.  I planted seeds in flats and tenderly water them each day.  

By mid-June the garden will be gorgeous....just in time for me to leave for the West Coast.