Gee, so far March looks just like the end of February did - what, me impatient for Spring?

Anyway, my little Arnold Promise witch hazel which is in too much shade and too crowded is blooming. I'm sure it was blooming yesterday too but I didn't bushwhack in to check it. It's on the list to get a little space cleared around it - a large list in my yard.

Claire

I like that Witch Hazel.

In my mind, March means spring, no matter that winter won't end for three weeks. To my surprise, two yellow crocuses were bloomed this morning! Before I could get to take a photo, it has clouded over and now they've closed. But there is hope!

{{gwi:5901}}

Look at a blank piece of white paper. That's what my garden here in NH looks like. We still have a lot of snow.

Last month my collapsed greenhouse looked like this:

February 10, 2013

I swear that yesterday it still looked like that, but without the snow.

Well, I just looked out the bathroom window and saw:

I opened the window (IT FELT WONDERFUL TO OPEN A WINDOW!) so I could eliminate the dirty window and bird strike decal effects. This is the resurrected greenhouse:

This thing is beginning to scare me. Will it take a silver bullet or a stake through its heart to kill this greenhouse?

Claire

Claire,

nice Witch Hazel......it's nice to see some plant life out in the garden this time of year.

Your greenhouse story is funny. I'm glad to see the snow melted and it popped back up. Now you have to fill it up with plants.

I looked hard in my garden but it's pretty ugly this time of year. Most plants are very beat-up looking after all the snows. My Aucuba japonica still looks decent......here's a colorful leaf:

Aucuba is a great plant. Mine was kind of flattened by Nemo but has bounced back completely. First 5 or 6 yellow crocuses are out. Good to see them.

{{gwi:5901}}

Love those photos of Claire's greenhouse --- beaten down but not destroyed by this winter! (Kind of how many of us here in the northeast feel.) Let's hope that "possible coastal snow storm" for next week heads out to sea and misses us all.

Today I'll finish up my seed sowing and later walk around the yard to look for hellebores. Their emerging flower buds were covered by the last storm.

It's the little greenhouse that could; it wants to live. My yard is still snow covered, so the new hellebores are under there somewhere. I will have to find a spot for a witch hazel-- Claire's and DTD's are among the first bright spots of spring on this thread. Read that Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' can grow to 20' tall x 10' wide. Does anyone have one that they regularly prune to a smaller size?
Jane

I think my greenhouse at the very least qualifies as a 'Hardy New Englander', even if I'm not so sure about myself.

Variegated foliage and flower buds are the most attractive plant life in my garden now.

Euonymus 'Silver King' This is actually three euonymus shrubs - one big, one medium, and one little.

Next to the Euonymus (euonymi?) is the osmanthus grove. One huge old O. heterophyllus and a bunch of smaller 'Goshikis'.

O. 'Goshiki'

And next to the euonymus is the start of the pieris grove with flowerbuds.

The pieris flowerbuds have survived being encased in ice.

Just behind these pierises is one of the mobile shrubs in my yard.

Claire

Hi Claire, I like your O. 'Goshiki' ......very nice looking.

TimMAz6: I think some of the younger 'Goshiki' foliage got wind-burned (reddish color) but it's not really noticeable since the new foliage comes out reddish anyway. It will probably turn brown later, but most of the foliage is fine.

None of the Goshiki's have flowered yet but the old heterophyllus blooms in the fall.

Here is one of the Goshikis with branches overlapping with the heterophyllus mature leaves. The old one still has some holly-like leaves.

Claire

Hi Claire,

I like both of those BLE's. They have great leaf texture for the garden.

Most unusual pieris bud I've ever seen, Claire. Very striking variety.

A dicentra is on its way up. Looks like a miniature forest floor to me. It's a large container plant that has been blooming profusely for about 12 years in the same pot.
Jane

Cheating on this photo - this is at the Manchester airport, not in my own garden, but I couldn't resist this cheerful yellow. In my garden, about 35 miles north of Manchester, my Diane witch hazel and H. vernus haven't started blooming yet.

OMG, I'll be in Manchester on Sunday. Might I see something greening up? I always judge by how the willows are doing the grow next to the Merrimack River.

Corumum, wonderful photo of early shoots. Claire, your greenhouse is indeed a hardy New Englander. I am amazed by the amount of green in your garden. Makes me re-think some of my ideas about shrubs.

Claire,
I too am a fan of green in the garden, particularly broad leaf evergreens for winter interest. Aucuba japonica is a wonderful plant for year-round interest. There are several cultivars with various patterns on the leaves. Of course pieris and hollies are great. And I think most people on this forum know how I love my camellias. I have a hardy gardenia ('Frostproof') that has lived up to its name for two years. Bloomed well last summer. It looks ok so far this year.

{{gwi:5901}}

defrost and Bill: I live in an area where snow cover is unreliable in winter and too often the landscape becomes various shades of beige and gray, which is fine in moderation but can be overdone.

Dark bare branches against snow can be a lovely contrast, but dark brown against light brown gets underwhelming and green is really welcome. So each winter I think about what area could use a little more dark green and I try to remember that in the summer when all the lovely colors explode and distract me.

This morning I went out to get the mail and check on the snowdrops. Coming back, I saw some crocuses had suddenly leaped out of the ground! Many of your gardens are probably way ahead of my coastal garden, but this is a delight for me.

The snowdrops are finally opening up, rather than being oval white blobs.

Galanthus elwesii

G. nivalis 'Viridi-apice'

First Crocuses (C. tommasinianus 'Roseus')

Claire

This post was edited by claire on Tue, Mar 12, 13 at 13:40

My first official flower of this gardening season, a reticulated iris planted along the south side of my foundation and only a couple of feet from the nearest snow pile.

Okay, hold on a minute! Why does zone 4b/5a have blooms when I don't? After all, I'm down in balmy southern CT.....

;)
Dee

NHBabs, I had no idea that Iris reticulata bloomed so early. I will have to plant some for next year!

{{gwi:5901}}

Bill & Dee -

Reticulated iris do bloom quite early, pretty much always starting in March for me unlike some of the other "early bloomers" like witch hazel or hellebores which tend to be a bit later. My iris are also in a warm pocket where they get southern light, reflection from the white house, and warmth leaking from the old stone foundation which is thick but uninsulated. Because the air is still fairly cold, each blossom lasts about 3 weeks most years.

I appreciate this thread. I am looking forward to the weather warming, but dreading any hot muggy summer.
The deer ticks are growing hungry and soon I will be having to tease them from my flesh.

No snow drops or crocus up here (in wooded area in N Central MA), but there is a male hooded merganser at a nearby pond. So energetic and muscular and handsome as can be.

A week or so ago an accipiter was hanging out on an olive tree looking for lunch from the birds visiting the BOS feeder.
I think it is a Sharpy, but perhaps it is a Cooper's. A few years ago I opened my large window muslin curtains to spot one just like him/her on a planter just outside the kitchen window.

Anyone know the ID of this one?

Thanks, Clair, for the witch hazel. Nice shot. I should keep looking out for ours to bloom.

I have reticulated iris - not in bloom yet. I have snowdrops and crocus as well, which have indeed finally bloomed, but 4 days after your post, nhbabs! I do think I am in a microclimate here - high elevation - and most of my yard was still covered in snow a few days ago, but still, I am jealous about you guys in colder zones having blooms so early, lol!

Maybe if it would just warm up a tad, some other things would bloom too!

Dee

It's the third day of Spring and I woke up to 6 to 8 inches of snow. It's melting already, after I shoveled of course.

Out my kitchen window - I knew there was a reason I hadn't taken all of the Christmas decorations down.

And the gazing ball on the deck is festooned with snow.

The view to the Bay is always a pleasure (and I don't have to shovel anything there!)

The greenhouse is still standing (but I didn't check the side view).

I'm looking out the window watching all the white stuff falling plop-plop-plop out of the trees.

Claire

My Dawn viburnum looks ALMOST good enough to photograph this year. It's got lovely, very early, deep pink flowers, and I think they're supposed to be fragrant, too, but as Dirr says, it doesn't really put on much of a show. It's right outside a window, so I can see the flowers up close while staying warm. It's been blooming (sparsely!) since late January - it starts around the same time as the witch hazels.

The heaths are in full swing. I love the really deep pink ones, they have reddish-bronze foliage that contrasts beautifully with the flowers. This is the year I have to cut many of them back - they've sprawled more than even I can take at this point. If I can't find more of the deep red I may try to propagate them too - I've been looking locally but have only seen the pink and white varieties.

Hellebores - I've cut them back in the most prominent areas, along the walk to the front door, but haven't gotten to the ones that are a little further afield. Maybe tomorrow, since it's supposed to be a nice day. They DO look awful when they're first cut back, so it helps to do that before the flowers start drawing attention to these plants.

I think winter jasmine might be done for the season - it doesn't appreciate super low temps after the flower buds have formed (compared to the truly hardy things like witch hazels). I'll have to go have a look tomorrow - maybe I'm just forgetting what's in flower!

Sorry, no pics - I've been too busy pretending winter is over.

Hey, Claire -

I finally figured out that the tinypic photos only load if I have plug-ins enabled, something that I usually disenable since GW has so many irritating moving ads. (I use Safari.)

nhbabs: I finally gave up on Safari when their Adblock stopped working for me and I switched to Firefox which has a good Adblock add-on.

I just googled and I think there's a new version of Safari Adblock out, version 2.5.60, so maybe I'll install that. You might want to try that.

Claire

OT, sorry pixie_lou

I just uninstalled the old Safari Adblock which stopped worked a few years ago and I installed the new one from the Safari Extensions Gallery at apple.com.

It's working! No ads on Safari or Firefox.

Claire

Thanks for the help, Claire - a bit OT, but a photo thread is a bit frustrating if I can't see the photos & I didn't know if others were having similar issues. I installed AB so I shouldn't have issues with your photos now I hope.

The crocuses had all been buried by the last snowstorm, but that snow has finally melted and the flowers don't seem to have been damaged at all. They seem to close up like clenched fists when the weather is bad. Come to think of it, I've been clenching my fists a lot too this so-called "Spring".

I like the crocuses peeping out from behind the juniper.

Another inch or two of snow is forecast for tonight so they may be buried again tomorrow.

Claire

I still can't get over how your greenhouse resurrected itself, Claire! When you said it had come back to life in the past, I'd assumed you'd repaired or rebuilt it. I never imagined it could spontaneously regenerate!

Your ocean view through the snow covered branches is lovely.

NHBabs, I love your reticulated iris! I think I admired photos of this plant in the past. I should look into getting some, as iris seem to be one of the few bulbs that do not become rodent food. I have given up on crocuses for that reason, but the sight of Claire's purple and orange beauties makes me think about buying and forcing the bulbs indoors next winter,

I have daffodil shoots with buds under the snow. It may be awhile before I see them again if this arctic chill doesn't loosen its hold.

spedigrees: The greenhouse skeleton keeps popping back up as soon as the snow weight is off it, but the skin is getting shredded. Eventually it will probably be repurposed as a bunch of stakes.

All of the crocuses I planted are C. tommasinianus cultivars. These are supposed to be squirrel resistant and they haven't been bothered so far. I did plant them in an area that's not much frequented by the squirrels.

Claire

I went out today looking for some sign of Scilla siberica which was blooming on March 22 last year. Nothing blue in sight.

Still have snowdrops and crocuses.

This is C. t. 'Ruby Giant' (squirrel-resistant) which appeared on the edge of the coastal bank. I didn't plant them there - maybe a squirrel got disgusted with the taste and tried to throw the bulbs over the edge?

Ruby Giant comes up a little later than the other tommasinianus varieties.

I also have C. t. 'Albus' which is planted in more shade than the others. I think I'll plant more next year in a better spot. All that purple and pink could use some white contrast (other than white snow, that is).

Claire

I happened to look in a direction where I didn't expect to find anything growing, and saw peony shoots! This tells me I need to get out and pull away the mulch from the other peonies and cut back the old stalks I left up for winter protection.

I'm not sure which peony this is (I moved a bunch last fall) but it's probably Silver Dawn Mix since it's so early.

This is Festiva Maxima.

and the sedum rosettes are appearing like little green roses.

Soon I'll cut back the ornamental grasses (when I have a little more confidence in this Spring).

Claire