Sedum, columbine & Montauk daisy have been sending up new growth for the past couple weeks. Lady's mantle has pretty new leaves on it and the Lenten rose is up about 4-5 inches. Lungwort has new growth on the east side of the house. Daylilies, Siberian iris and bleeding heart are up too. The armeria stayed green the whole winter inside the garage. Peonies, gentian and clematis are showing signs of life. Lilac is covered with leaf buds.
Welcome, Spring!

Dame's rocket is sending up stalks. Daylilies are up. Sedums too. Montauk is filling out. Reseeds are popping up daily. The daffodils are in between finished and just getting started with early to late bloomers. I have two tulip buds on bulbs planted 2 years ago. It was a cold winter. Butterfly bushes are putting out lots of new growth. The red clover looks like it's going to take over some areas. Coreopsis is getting larger. The peach tree is blooming. Bees are buzzing. It's going to be 78 today.

I've been foraging around my garden like a squirrel because I *CAN'T WAIT* for the plants to grow! I do really love winter here and am sad to see snow skiing season end, but this week's warm temps have been exciting! All my peonies have little red buds, including the one I was sure I'd killed All the irises are sending up green shoots. My tall phlox 'Orange Perfection' and 'David' are putting out brand new little shoots just now at the base, waiting on 'Blue Boy.' One lady's mantle leaf to see. I have about 17 perennial jugs sprouting and 2 lettuce jugs (and I just sowed the lettuce on Monday!). In the last two days I dropped two jugs, so I don't know if my silene orientalis and johnny jump ups will make it. I spread the dirt over a fluffed up garden area, so let's hope the seeds sprout there. And, many trees and azaleas are sending out their leaf buds. Lots of beginnings here! The sedum has very healthy stalks coming up. I'm surprised at how early it sends out shoots since it doesn't bloom until fall! Didn't expect that.

I love sedum.
I have 2, that I've had for about 8 years.
Such undemanding plants.
No pest or critter problem.
Each year they come up and do their thing.

Last year I collected seeds, but then I wasn't sure if they were seeds or chaff, so I tossed them!

Have got to figure out what the seeds look like.

Lillies are up, but I covered them up with mulch so the flower buds dont freeze off.

Smaller daffodils are just starting to bloom.

Ive got sprouts on some asters and peas.

What's up?
Daylilies,
Lysimachia
Phlox Paniculata
Sedums
Peonies
Columbines
Aruncus Doicus - Goatsbeard
Crambe Cordifolia
Lynchnis - 3 varieties
Thalictrums
Marshmallows
Aconitums
...and probably more. Most of these should still be under a foot of snow and in the frozen ground at this time of year.

Gardeners in our area are getting really worried. At this time of year we usually have a few inches of snow still on the ground. We've had no snow on the ground since the third week of February, no snow or rain in over two weeks, and record breaking high temperatures for a solid week. There is definitely reason to worry. :O(

Planted some fig cuttings in my containers, kale, beets and spinach seeds in the garden today is get moving on some tomato seeds in containes and trying some directly sowed in the garden under a milk jug cap. I so hate transplanting so fingers crossed this works as well as winter sowing does.
ML

Happening now in my garden: Daffodils are in full bloom, crocus in mid to late bloom. The Jack-in-the-Pulpit is coming up! I thought I had lost it when the woodchucks dug a new tunnel right in the spot where it was, but it seems to have survived and is strangely coming up in a new spot. The woodchucks must have chucked it sideways.

The tall/garden phlox, bee balm, asters, wild columbine, obedient plant, blazing star, and coreopsis are sending up their leaves.

Tulips, day lilies, Asian lilies and iris are coming up. Just pruned off the dead wood on the hardy mums and they are leafing out from their bases. Asian bleeding hearts are popping up...one survived in a patio container all winter. Green & gold and heucheras stayed pretty much evergreen all winter but in a kind of flattened state. They are making new leaves now and getting bushier again.

Many sedum are doing their thing in my garden too...I'm not sure what kind I have...they're the tall/upright kind and get pretty pinkish-purple blooms in the fall. They are amazing and always seem to have babies every year.

Hello Spring and thank you to all the winter sowers on this forum! I think I'll have many new things to plant out this year from my winter-sown containers.

Did some clean-up out on the terrace yesterday (71°F!) - what's back:

sedum
columbines (from last year's sowing - yay!)
clematis
asters
malva (from last year)
yarrow
mums
perennial BB's
white coneflower (no sign of anything on the purple coneflower; fingers crossed that they made it!)
lamium
lilac (budding out nicely)
hosta
weigela (budding)
california poppies (reseeds)
snaps (never died down completely?)
dianthus
dusty miller (never died down)

Tiffy - does inula die back totally, without a sign of where it was? If not, then it looks like my inula isn't coming back.

This year's cauliflower is starting on their true leaves, as are the feverfew and the prairie smoke. Put out some osteospermum and more petunias yesterday. Still have a couple more tomatoes to do, and spinach too (hope it's not too late, what with this weather warming up so quickly). And still a ton of annuals to do. I've got enough soil to do the rest of what I plan to sow, but I've got to get more soil for planting out and freshening up existing pots.

PV

Ellen, until recently I turned my nose up at "boring" sedum. Now I'm really getting interested in it. One reason I didn't like it was because the ag dept at my school (possibly doing sedum research) planted them everywhere...and I mean everywhere. I missed having summer color and those varieities just didn't give any punch to fall. Now I'm really seeing how a few sedum can look so beautiful in a garden. I do very much like their winter profile up here in the beautiful snowy (except last year) winter. (And, let me say to all you Southerners, I am NOT pleased that you saw fit to steal our snow. Maybe a couple of inches, but did you have to take all of it?!)

So, I'd like to know what your favorites are and why. I'd like to explore Sedum World more.

It has been warm all week, the last two days were almost 70F. The crocuses and reticulated irises are blooming, daffodils are up, and most perennials are showing new growth. I have several wintersown things that have sprouted including: godetia, alyssum, siberian wall flower, even my flowering quince (yeah!). Today I woke up to.... snow. Here are some pics from the last couple of days.


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PV,

Yes, the Inula does die back right to the ground. No sign of life in mine yet, but I know those monsters are there!!

I think Token has said that his have broken ground - about a week or so ago.

Let me add Bleeding Hearts and Hostas to my list.

Wayyyyy too early for me.

à ¹Âà ¸³It's snowing right this minutes. :-)
Wet, heavy snow is covering up my daffodils, snowdrops, Eranthis, Iris, and all the sprouts.

I was so happy to see Dicentra shoots and many other perennials.
I planted many Mertensia babies, 3 - 4 clumps of Epimedium and a couple clumps of Wild Ginger last year. I am hoping to get a good stand of them this year.

Went to visit a friend's garden yesterday. Her Bloodroot has spread. Woo hoo. She said I could get as many shoots from her this summer. Rubbing my hands with glee here. :-)

Happy Spring, Everyone! It's been very cold, and sunny here the past few days - supposed to get snow. Coming up from last year:
pulmonaria (lungwort?)blooming!!
oregano, parsley, chamomile, in pots
jacobs ladder
butterfly bushes making new growth
agastache new growth
woodruff
no signs of the lilies yet
coral bells new growth - will trim off old growth in mid april
crocuses blooming
OMG, just looked - new growth on the, not sure of the name, elder berry shrub/bush - thought I'd killed it!!
not much going on with the WS containers
Have a great weekend! Shirley

Covered in snow now, see tiffy's GRRRR thread. In recent days noticed delphs up, veronica, creeping phlox (evergreen), Siberian Wallflower, tulips, crocus, hyacinths, lycoris, coreopsis, new small iris leaves, buds on some spring-blooming roses, even on canes I thought were too damaged. No sign of daylilies or regular phlox yet. My other roses took a real beating though, other than a bit of green at ground level, all dead except Thomas Affleck, Veilchenblau, Bleu Magenta, one White Dawn, and one remaining Gruss an Aachen.

Oh, the clematis had new leaves, thought I'd cut off the nasty top stuff and do the rest of it the proper way later. But I came in and looked on the clem forum; people in my zone are pruning now, so I went out and finished.

Today, it's 73 already. Peach blossoms on a tree I planted late last spring.

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I hope to get a few peaches this year. I love fresh fruit.

Peaches, wow! The blooms are so pretty...

About sedum: Here's a photo of some of my sedums from last year. I think they are some variety of Sedum telephium but not sure which. They're kind of similar to Sedum 'Autumn Joy' but the color of the blooms is a little more lavender than the 'Autumn Joy'.

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I think it was around last August when I took this picture? Wish I took a photo in September/October when they were blooming. I love them because they seem to thrive in either sun or part shade, dry or damp soil. I planted the ones in the photo near Heuchera, hosta and coleus in a partial shade area. Easy to root cuttings of them too. They are pretty much indestructible in my garden!

Things are slowly waking up here.

Early daffodils (Cassata, my favorite) in bloom.
Grape hyacinths just started blooming.
The first sprinkling of blooms on moss phlox.
Forsythias just breaking bloom.
Redbud has the beginning of blooms.

Lots of things are up, but it's still early and I have some holes. I know the echinacea will be later, but I'm currently a little worried about Rozanne Geranium. I planted 10 last year and don't see a sign of any of them yet! I don't know when to expect them...

connietn, no sign of my Rozanne yet, but I'm two zones lower than you. I only planted one last fall. Those are expensive; maybe there's a cheaper source for them. Mine bloomed one beautiful bloom last fall before it was too late.

If mine doesn't come back (with this snow, maybe it's a good thing that isn't up yet), it's possible the vendor will make good on it as I planted and mulched with extreme care, even covered with a chair so apples wouldn't fall on it.

No wintersown sprouts yet, except for the tomatoes that I have been bringing in at night.

But I can tell those jugs are ready. They probably know we have some cold nights ahead.

snow drops and christmas rose blooming for the past 2 weeks...

Dutch crocus just opened today. Earliest daffodils blooming.

Buds swelling on shrubs, peeper frogs in the swamp, bluebirds building a nest...

And a very tired gardener spent the whole day building a raised bed for all those plants she knows she will have from wonderful seed trades.

Lois in PA

Not much above the surface yet.
But the iris and rhubarb have graced us with their presence.

Everything is popping here in the pacific northwest (zone 8). Lots of my shrubs and trees are busting bud. 35 jugs of wintersown are sprouting. I've got muscari
daffodils
forsythia
stream violets
purple violets
crocus all in bloom.

Coming up
ferns
agastache
geraniums
sedum
daylillies
columbine
bleeding hart
dianthus
hosta
jacobs ladder
delphinium
and countless others I've yet to identify.

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So happy to see these happy fellows! Bleeding hearts, tulips at about 3", delphiniums up in bud, alium.
And the sprouts in bottles! Achillea, lupin, salvia, echinacea...wow wow! All too early!
Are we going to be socked with a nasty cold spell and lose them all?

I have so much going on in my garden, I don't know where to begin.

Starting in late January, we hired a contractor to basically raze the entire backyard to the dirt and redo it, new patios, new paths, new empty beds, a water feature. We went whole hog! Now I have lots of huge empty beds to fill up. I finally started WSing last week (just in time to actually call it WSing!) Today I saw sprouts (Dianthus, Lupines). Came in and told DH, and he said I was smiling with my whole body. I did a little wiggly, puppy dog happy dance too!

I spent a lot of time last week planting a bunch of PNW native shrubs. My plan is to put a mixed shrub screen as a buffer between us and the neighbors, so I bought a bunch of small shrubs from the local conservation district sale a few weeks ago, and now I have to figure out where to put them all!

I have lots of stuff popping up in the front yard too, including some daylilies I WSed last winter at our rental house, using seeds that came from my daylilies back in Massachusetts.

Today I fluffed up some of the soil in our brand new raised veggie beds, and sowed some shell peas. I've never grown them before, I hope they do well.

wow - so much going on.
And snow!?
I had to make a peek at my forecast, cuz sometimes we get the snow from you guys in the midwest, and it looks like it will be rain for us.
I am sure you are ready for the end of snow!

Yesterday I worked hard, I moved my compst around, and found some delicious done compost on the bottom, which I added to a bed.
I have a section of the garden that has been sunken lower than the surrounding for years, that I finally started to add soil and compost to.
I pruned the butterfly bush. A big job! I can see why some people don't like them, they grow and grow and grow.
I do enjoy the butterflies, but to tell the truth, if I were to do it again, I wouldn't have it. BB is good if you have a lot of room, but not at my plot. Still I'll enjoy it when it blooms and the butterflies arrive.

I dumped another bag of humus on a bed. This year I have more money to spend on my garden, so decided to spend it on building my soil. I am gradually raising my beds by adding humus and soil.

Thot I'd be the earliest worker at the community garden, but no, someone else was there too. And a couple biclying by stopped by to look around and talk gardens. Nice.

Gee it doesn't seem like much when I write it down, but I did accomplish a lot yesterday. really. :)

Some winter sown stuff that I did last winter has
come up, as reseeded itself in my garden. Larkspur
and Black Hollyhock, which should bloom this year.
The Larkspur which I had a terrible time getting going
planting by normal means in the garden really took off
the WS way. Now I have so much, that I have had to dig
some under! I hope it is not a nuisance.

I have tulips and daff's up, Tarda tulips but not yet in bloom.
We had snow on Friday, so things are
just getting started in my neck of the woods.

So far this season, I have not WS one single thing.
I will start some tomatoes & pepper seeds soon though.
Gotta have my veggies!

Mary

I am going to WS my perennial blue salvia today.

And I just did something brilliant! lol
My WS containers are on planks along the wall of the aprtment building in the driveway.
I have the planks on buckets so, a- they are off the hot driveway, and b- less bending for me.
well duh, just realized if I put them on TWO buckets, they are almost at eye level -
this is very important - as I look at my babies several times a day, :)

No more bending!

My hands froze taking these pictures this morning.
Boy is it cold out there. I might go out to shoot more this afternoon if the snow melts.
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gasp.- those are beautiful!

thanks for suffering the cold to share your pics with us. :)

Pit,is that an Iris blooming?
Your in Chicago, and i am only a few hours away, nothing blooming here,your pictures are always so beautiful,thanks for sharing them.
cAROL

Thanks for posting some more beautiful pics, pitimpinai, can relate to your hands freezing and just for us! I wear a heavy glove on my left hand and have a pair of Hello Kitty "half gloves" where I can expose my trigger (and other) fingers lol. I used to have a pair where I could feel and work the controls, just need my RH for most of that. I've been out there shooting where it was near 0F, it was worth it. But I don't think I could have done it if I couldn't have warmed up in my car when I got too cold.

You can also cut out the tips of cheap gloves which I've done. Then wear a heavy glove over them when I'm not shooting. I shot for over an hour in the cold right here at home in the middle of winter, and I did think I risked frostbite but was fine.

Anyway, I fairly recently learned that galanthus are hardy to our zone, and you have proven that. So pretty. I don't get the iris either though.

The warm weather that we had the past few weeks made me anxious, because I thought it was way too warm for March. My Eranthis was in bloom then faded right off.
The snow relieved me of anxiety. :-) This weather is more like March. :-D

That iris is Iris reticulata, cAROL. It's a miniature iris that blooms very early spring. Here's a long shot of them to give you its relative size to the surrounding. It is only 5 - 6" tall.
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aliska, thanks for the tip re photography. I am trying to use the camera more instead of letting it sit gathering dust. I also need to gain more skills using it. I am yearning for a specific type of landscape photography. This is my feeble attempt:
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Ooooh. Blurred water effect. Good job! I haven't had a chance to try that technique yet, as I can't think where there is a spillway, waterfalls, etc., close to me.

I think you are making a lot of progress, takes a lot of practice, trial and error. Remember there are many, many with better skills than mine. I try to learn from them at my own pace.

I've tried a lot of tricks like falling petals frozen in the frame with a motion trail, so neat, just couldn't get it to work for me. Also falling snow, haven't gotten just what I want yet.

I'm finding that birds in flight are almost the hardest even though I have a good lens for it, won't give up.

Spring has arrived to the South, and my first show is happening. The purple fence is ringed in hot pinky purple phlox, with bright yellow pansies and grape hyacinths and loads and loads of daffs. Just armloads of them this year. Inside the fence, the orange pansies are finally blooming after our cold winter where they remained so shriveled against the cold. The Ogon Spirea is bursting into bloom, and the shrubs are putting out leaf. There is a carpet of thyme and beautiful blue veronica everywhere.
After the cold winter you can see where the loads and loads of seeds I planted in the fall are coming up! I can't wait for the earliest of spring shows sown in situ. Perennials have multiplied like rabbits with the rain we've had, and the irises are budded up.

So much going on out there!

The crocuses are in full swing. The tulips are up, but no blooms yet. Same for daffodils.

The sedum are all coming back, even the October Daphne I thought I killed. Gotta love sedum. They're serious survivors, like Hostas.

Which brings me to...Most of the hostas are poking up through the ground now and my sweet woodruff is greening up.

The shasta daisies are starting up again and so are the rudbeckias.

Also, the roots for the red bee balm that another member sent me last November look like they made it afterall. I found one little bee balm leaf. (fingers still crossed on this one.)

The herbs are doing great. My chives are all about 5 inches tall and my parsley decided to live. The mint is coming back already (I couldn't stop that mint if I tried!)

And I bought a rosemary seedling yesterday. I put it in a pretty big blue pot that I set out in the middle of the herb garden. That way I can bring it back inside this fall. I'm tired of starting over with the rosemary every year.

I'm sure there's more. If not, there will be by next weekend!