Daffodils still flowering and the tulips are in bloom. Also double spirea (prunifolia), crabapples just starting, phlox subulata, euphorbia polychroma and violets (I love the combination of acid chartreuse euphorbia and lavender violets and phlox), bleeding heart, pulmonaria. Am delighted to see gas plant is up and so is gypsophilia - something I've tried to grow a half dozen times and finally got a plant to survive. Some of the roses are coming back from the base.
Big star of the garden right now is peony obovata alba - single white blooms. Peas and broccoli raab are up and I dug some Egyptian onions to use in the kitchen. Two of the buddleia appear dead but the rest are coming back. Chocolate eupatorium is up - Carolina Allspice is flowering.
Epimediums are flowering - youngianum is very showy as epimediums go, lily of the valley are in bud.

Your gardens sound wonderful. I have a handful of things blooming in my yard today:

Daffodils: Actaea, Mt Hood, Obdam, Fortisimo, Manly, Ice King, Ice Follies, Dutch Master, Acropolis, Stainless, and Sir Winston Churchill just opened today. (My Cassata, Wild Carnival and Curly just finished)

Muscari: Raisin Blue, armeniacum, along with Blue Spike just opening.

Scilla: Sping Beauty- nice cobalt blue.

Tulip: Corsage, Calgary in bloom, others in bud.

Fritillaria: melagris mix and Persica 'Ivory Bells'.

Creeping white phlox. Bleeding hearts, white and pink. Virgina Bluebells, Tiarella Wherri, Arabis Snowcap, Lamium Shell Pink and Beacon Silver, Hellebores Niger (almost done),Leucojum Gravetye Giant (these are so cute), many pansys. My dwarf iris' will probably open tomorrow: Gentle Grace and Jazzed Up. Cushion Spurge and purple and white violets. My Camassia are in bud, along with my allium Christophii and my lily of the valley.

Shrubs in bloom now are my flowering Quince Cameo, flowering almond, and my viburnum Carlesii. Double white lilac will probably open tomorrow. One or two of the buds are popping. My white azalea is about to open too.

I don't count the new stuff I put in because it is blooming out of season. I have a few annuals in bloom, but I bought them that way.

Some of the foliage plants that are showing their stuff are: Numerous hostas, several sedums, a few ferns esp ostrich and harts tongue, My Japanese Maple, actually too many foliage plants to mention.

As for what's up, that list is waaaayy too long to go over.
I didn't realize how much was in bloom until I sat down and wrote it tonight, and here I was looking foward to May because of all the May flowers.

Did I say a handful? I must have big hands! (I'm sure as soon as I hit the submit button, I'll think of something really cool that I overlooked. Thanks for the opportunity to see my obsession in print.

I knew it, not so cool, but overlooked: My plum tree and vinca vine.

Columbine is sprouting, azaleas have flowering buds on them, especially the red ones. Roses have red leaves all over them, mini roses are looking healthy, tulips and daffodils are out and about, Day lilies are poking up to grab the sunshine. Astilbe is growing like wildfire, no flowers yet but looking healthy, Clematis is climbing up my light pole! It is so wonderful to look out every morning and see how everything is doing, Can't wait to start w/the colorful annuals. I am trying to be patient, I know it is still a little too early for that.

Giniene - I couldn't wait and put in a few colorful annuals - snapdragons and pansies, and got most of my winter-sowed annuals and perennials into the ground too, since they are already hardened off. Just checked the azaleas - they started blooming this morning.

Just noticed small white violas dotting the lawn (I think they are violas - have never figured out the difference between violas, violets and pansies except I think pansies are larger).

Oldroser - I had never heard of Chocolate eupatorium - went and looked it up, do you know where I can get some? Did you grow it from seed?

JustJoeyGirl - your garden sounds awesome - definitely more than a handful!

Dee

I guess with it spread out in borders beds and islands it doesn't look as full as it does in print. I keep adding to it each season, trying to get each one to bloom from March to October. Slow but sure.

Our first bearded Iris, the dwarf Pumila Atroviolacea opened during the current heat wave. It's pretty and smells nice, though to my taste the flower is way too big for the height of the plant. It looks chopped off. Everyone's a critic...

There's lots more going on, but I'm feeling too lazy to report. I'm waiting for my greens to do more, because many of them have to be gone in a month when nightshades and cucurbits need to get in the ground.

Rosa hugonis is showing lots of color and should bloom any day now...

Got the chocolate eupatorium from Green Mountain Transplants - a great mid-border plant with chocolate leaves and sprays of fuzzy white bloom the vey end of the season. Claire's might have it.

Thank you oldroser - will look for it.

As of today - lilacs are blooming - and I find that I have 3 colors - white, fuschia and lavender. Wonder when the wisteria will start?

Dee

Dee, that must be exciting not knowing what you have until it opens. It does sound like fun. Wisteria too? Cool.

I had planted a wisteria when I first moved here, A week later it was gone from near the base of a huge red oak I planted it by. I figured it just died or an animal ate it. We live with neighbors on both sides of our property and woods to the rear. Just last (it think it was) June I kept smelling this really sweet beautiful smell, but I couldn't identify it. My husband noticed a very large Wisteria growing in the woods behind my neighbors house about 20 feet into the woods from their proprty line.

My bet now is that an animal took it and wherever it left it, it just grew. My neighbors on that side are not gardeners and leave for work from before dawn and do not get home until after dark. I do not think they planted it, especially in the woods. It wasn't here before, we couldn't have missed that. I heard it takes like 7 years to flower, since I have no first hand (I tried) experience I don't know. We will have been in this house 10 years come August. That makes it about the right timing, with it being in some shade I guess. Too bad it wasn't behind my house, but at least I get to smell it. I am looking foward to it too. JoAnn

Lilacs huh? They're not quite blooming here yet in Northern Dutchess. Clermont is always a little ahead of us. We thought of stopping there on Saturday, but now that it costs money to drive in, we decided to wait until we were more confident something would be going on. Within a week, they should have a riot of Lilacs, along with the most amazing rose you'll ever see around here.

Our 'Daphne Lilac', Syringa microphylla 'Superba', is getting ready to bloom. Like 'Father Hugo', it should be any day now.

JoAnn, I will be sure to take some pics of the wisteria - it is huge - looks like a giant anaconda snaking its way up upwards. Thankfully I stopped my husband from hacking it down with a chain saw - he thought it was a poison ivy vine strangling the tree. Interesting about your "animal transplanted" vine. Can you get some of it and re-plant from the runners? I'm not sure about how you propagate wisteria.

Estevinho, I haven't really had a chance to enjoy the lilacs yet - this rain is sure to damage many of them :(

Father Hugo sounds interesting - do any of the nurseries around here sell it - or do I have to mail-order?

Dee

I have not seen Rosa hugonis sold locally. Landscapers use it in commercial plantings, but I don't know their source. Ours hasn't really bugun to spread, or I'd offer you a piece.

I wouldn't worry about the Lilacs; they can handle some rain.

Crabapples are in bloom and so is kerria japonica- the single one. Double bloodroot finished up after 10 days but phlox subulata and euphorbia polychroma going strong and so are the lavender violets. The double daffs - Cheerfulness and Winston Churchill are in full bloom and filling the air with fragrance but my favorites right now are the lily-flowered tulips - White Triumphator and Marilyn. Also in bloom Happy Families and Weisse Berliner tulips planted last fall - these are cluster flowered and make quite a show but I suspect they are not good perennializers. The white bleeding heart is in full bloom and very effective - for some reason a bigger, showier plant than the pink. Wild plum is blooming and so is the sand plum - daphne Carol Mackii is in bud and will pop any day now - it generally starts just as the flowering currant finishes. A really exciting time of year - I hate leaving the garden even for such necessary items as grocery shopping.

Took a walk out to the back this morning and I realize I'm going to have to do some studying - lots of things were blooming I couldn't identify - with the exception of at least 15 or 16 dogwood trees which looked glorious, and lots of honeysuckle which is just beginning to open.

The wisteria has started blooming too, just as the lilacs have reached full peak, and some lilies of the valley have opened up as well - I'm drowning in scents and I love it!

Oldroser, I share your sentiments about not wanting to leave the garden. A family of mourning doves has made a nest in a yew by the house and their soft sounds and the scents are heaven on earth.

Dee

Ugh. Don't talk to me about Honeysuckle. That destroyer of sawblades has got to be the bane of our existence.

Anyway, yes this is a very busy time of year. Lilacs are in full bloom. The S. microphylla is amazing right now. One bush is about ten years old. The others we picked up at the WFF tent sale a few years ago, and they are really hitting their stride.

Early rose season is here. Rosa hugonis is in full bloom. William the Pretender is getting there, and Mary Queen of Scots is starting to bloom. Mary Queen of Scots was a tiny little thing from Sequoia a couple of years ago, and it is still pretty small. At this size and age, the flowers are lasting about a nano-day. Blink and you miss them, but the buds are real pretty. They look like purple pink paint brushes.

We don't have any Daphne, though there are several I'd like. The garden at Blithewood had a bunch of Daphne Caucasicum, which were not at all hardy enough for this location. Those walled gardens near the river like to think they can do zone 6, but then reality intrudes.

I have a daphne Carol Mackie, here in z5 which is blooming and smells incredible. Alas the lilacs are waning. My tree peony is in full bloom, wow! So is my Gibralter azalea which is brilliant orange ans also smells sweet. There's so much blooming now, it's hard to keep track. I have camassia Blue Danube planted next to the peony tree which is Godaishu (white) looks nice together, I added some red gerbera daisies. I always loved white, lavender and red together. The clematis are about to burst as are the herbacious peonies. The white camassia is in bud, as is the mock orange. My iris are about to open also. I see color at the tips. What a tease. This is like fourth of July, everything coming up and then bursting into color! I just hope I planned enough for July and August....

Yeah, Carol Mackie and other Burkwoodii are hardy. I've seen it thriving well outside of Burlington, VT. D. Caucasicum is its more tender parent.

Right now the lilacs are blooming and their smell is permeating my whole yard! The columbine buds are just opening up, my daphne burkwoodi is blooming and smells amazing, the daffodils are pretty much over, but I have a few that were planted in shadier places that are still gallantly hanging on, the violets are pretty much done (but what a show this year! My whole yard was carpeted purple). The grape hyacinth is still going, the bluebells are just breaking open, the wood phlox is blooming, my crabapple is waning, the magnolia tree has a few blooms left on it, but has mostly gone to leaves now, the frittilaria persica and snakes head frittilarias are still hanging on (though looking a little spent). My azaleas would be blooming if they hadn't been pruned by the deer this year (grr). Nelly Moser Clematis is budding out, my sweet autumn clematis is climbing my porch like a crazy thing. The peonies are budding, as are most of my roses (I think Cardinal de Richelieu will be the first to bloom this year). My hydrangeas are all getting nice fat leaves, the bees balm and echinachea are coming up and crowding out as many plants as they can. The scrubby honeysuckle bushes are blooming. Oriental, Tiger, and Asiastic Lilies are coming up everywhere, some even getting buds, too. Daylilies have leafed out. I have two little tiny redbud trees that I planted this year, so no blooms from them yet, but everyone else seems to have gorgeous redbuds right now! The bleeding hearts are still looking great, the forget me nots (both blue and pink) are looking a little scraggly but still blooming. The flowering quince is pretty much done blooming. The bearded irises aren't quite blooming yet, but I can see the color of their buds, so they're close. The catmint is sprawling everywhere, but no blooms yet. Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought annuals - most of the local farms have already seeded their cosmos and zinnias and tomorrow there's going to be a bunch of tomato and pepper start sales, so I'm figuring that I can trust their judgement. I put in pansies (double ruffle and antique shades) and violas quite a while ago, but yesterday I added nicotiana, lilac and dark purple salvia, verbena, snapdragons, purple and white sweet allysum, pinks, and my favorites - which I was SO excited to have found - stock and annual phlox! The stock is in a light pink color, dusty rose, lilac, dark purple and sort of a brownish red (that doesn't sound very pretty, but it looks amazing - very old fashioned looking) and it smells wonderful, like sweet cloves! I planted all the annuals into containers along with some miniature roses and rosemary. But it's the tulips who are the crown jewel of my garden right now - providing most of the color. Last fall was the first year I really went all out and planted them and I was a little worried in early spring when the first ones started - they looked so cultivated and fat compared to the whispy growth that was going on around them -but now they're all up and blooming and they look like balloons floating over the garden - I planted peony tulips, parrot tulips, early and late ones - they're all blooming together right now in dark purple, dark red, lilac, sunset pink (sort of a light pink with yellow and orange smoothed in) muted yellow, lipstick pink, and cream with soft pink streaks. I'm definitely putting in more next year. They're giving me an amazing show.

Whew! I'm sure I missed something - oh - the ox eye daisies are getting ready to go - and the oriental poppies, too! And my sweet peas are up and growing and also my snow peas and sugar snaps, too. And lettuce mixes. And asparagus. And lots of weeds. Spring is certainly amazing, isn't it?

Oh my Shaolin - how wonderful! Thanks for the detailed description - I could see/smell it as I read.

I love stock too - you just enabled me - I swore I wasn't going to buy any annuals. That I would just plant what I winter sowed - but, I have to have some. Have never seen any the color you described though.

Dee

Wallkill Farms - just outside of New Paltz - they're selling it! I've never seen it anywhere else! I tried to grow it last year from seed with bad results. Though I have to admit I kind of cleaned Walkill out yesterday when I found it - but hopefully they've restocked!

Shaolin
Hmm, Wallkill Farms - don't know where that is - and I'm in New Paltz twice a week, would like to check them out.

Denise

My Nelly Moser clematis opened today.. everything is happening too fast. I just want it all to last and last.

Dee, actually, it's Wallkill VIEW Farms (I always forget the view part) and they're on Rt. 299 N. Just go through town down Main St, past the Water Street Market and over the bridge out of town, keep on 299 and it's about five minutes out on your left. Very hard to miss. They have a whole lot of wonderful cottage garden type perennials and herbs, a huge greenhouse full of annuals, and a wonderful little greengrocer store with a bakery. It's a great little place - they have amazing corn fresh from the field when it's in season, fantastic pumpkins and apple cider donuts in the fall, and the kind of flowers I can't resist. The woman who owns it has very old fashioned taste in flowers. Not the cheapest place, and not a great assortment of roses, though - sigh - but it's my favorite for browsing and impulse buying!

Poughkeepsie area...

My wisteria is LOADED with blooms this year, last year the frost got them all. The carpenter bees are having a field day with it.

Clematis Nelle moser almost ready, Henri is loading up with buds.

My pink Roadie is nearly ready to bloom.

Jusr started buying a bunch of annuals yesterday, zinnias,
petunias,ganzias, some ribbon grass.

Ahhh, finally winter is really over!

Tom

Yes winter is over, but lately it feels like spring is too.