Very nice, ladychroe. I'll bet you're loving the scent of those hyacinths. Out here, the hyacinths are gone already. Anyway, I love garden photos! Good job.

Thanks for sharing, that brightened my dreary, rainy day :) (we need the rain, though, so I'm not complaining....it's my mood that's more dreary than the weather).

Hyacinths are my favorite spring bulb - the fragrance!!!

Those phlox are beautiful!

Gorgeous pics! Need these on a rainy day. My Hyacinths were duds this year. Hoping they'll do better in the future. Love that color combo w/the yellow & red tulips! Daffs are my favorites, they signal the start of spring for me. My Phlox is getting ready to bloom, cant wait!

Jen

What nice pictures, all the flowers are beautiful, that indeed is Spring.

Beautiful photos and garden ladychroe!

I am amazed that your iris is open already. Isn't it a little early for NJ?

Thank you! I was hoping some other people would post their own pics so we could have a pretty thread to look up on dreary days.

Eigdeh, that's a dwarf iris there. Although my unnamed purple bearded irises do have two scapes coming up already. Brent and Becky's describes these as "very small", but they bloomed bigger than I expected - probably almost 3 inches wide.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf Iris - Iridaceae

Hey, if you'd like to see some other pics, I'm more than happy to post! Here are some highlights from this spring in my garden:

Mixed tulips and pansies:
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Ultima Morpho Pansies planted in the fall (I love how they live through the winter and perk up in the spring!):
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Granny Smith Apple blossoms:
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And some Grape Hyacinths (Muscari):
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I love spring photos!

Wow, gorgeous! I really like the pansies used as shoes-and-socks plants. I don't like the bare dirt showing in my gardens, but it's too early and complicated to mulch now that the bulbs have sprouted everywhere. I may do more underplanting next year, either pansies or forget-me-nots or muscari. The anemones might work too, if I can get them to grow again.

You say pansies live thru the winter in zone 6? Will any kind of pansies do that? Do you buy flats of them or grow from seed?

Will bulbs grow up through dense spring phlox foliage?

Very pretty! I planted over a hundred heirloom daffodil bulbs in my garden last fall and this is the prettiest spring my garden has ever seen (one of these days I'll figure out how to take digital pictures and post them on the site).

I was surprised to see phlox blooming with your daffodils! My Phlox (David and Bright Eyes) don't bloom until August! Must be the cultivar...

I love spring! So full of birdsong and possibilities!

Yes, I think all pansies are cold hardy. It's the summer that seems to kill them. I bought mine in six packs back in September or October and planted them out then. I learned this about pansies from the gardens at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. In the fall, they plant pansies, wallflowers, stock, Iceland poppies, dianthus, and others. You can read how they do it in this great article I just found online, excerpted out of a book called "Temple Square Gardening". You should give it a try -- I think next year, I'm going to include Iceland poppies and wallflowers in my fall planting.

As far as growing bulbs through phlox, I have a few that are accidentally doing that, because the phlox spread further than I expected, but I don't think they don't look very good. The phlox is so thick that it kind of pulls up with the tulip or daffodil as it grows through and it looks kind of messy. Basically, it looks like an accident, which it is! I suppose if you worked on it a bit by smoothing down the phlox carpet around the bulb stems, it might look OK. I do think it would be hard to fertilize those bulbs after their bloom, since the phlox will be in the way. But it might look good with a little work!

Thanks, Stevation... that was a great resource. I will try some of their ideas. Though it seems so mean to pull up all the bulbs and throw them out every year when they're done blooming.

Yeah, well they're gardening for tourist attraction, so it's more extreme than you'd do in your own yard! I certainly leave my bulbs in the ground from year to year, but they have to start putting in their summer flowers soon and yes, they do rip out all the winter stuff to do that. I wonder if they give them away when they're done? Don't know if they'd be any good if they pull them out before the foliage has had time to replenish the energy in the bulb, though.

ladychroe,

That "Dutch Iris" you posted a picture of is actually something a bit more special (at least in my view, not that Dutch Iris aren't wonderful themselves), it's Iris bucharica, I'm almost certain.

--Ron

Ron, you are spot-on... I got the iris from B&B and they have them listed as 'Iris-Dwarf - bucharica'. Very pretty plants:
http://brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/productview/index.php?sku=28-0110

Debgrow, there are several different kinds of phlox. among them are garden phlox (paniculata), which you refer to, and creeping phlox (subtulata), which is pictured here. The creeping phlox is a very short, creeping mat with evergreen foliage that is covered with flowers in spring. The garden phlox is the tall, rocket-like plant that blooms in late summer.

I can't even tell that they are related, if they are, because except for the flower shape and size they are so very different. They are both gorgeous and I love them.