I love seeing all these pictures, especially since you've labeled the crocus by variety! I'll jot them down for the fall.

I also love Pushkinia, especially in large clumps.

I don't have any good pictures of stuff blooming this year other than what I've already posted, just some nice ones from previous years.

Lovely! Just love them, Skybird!

As many of those who have been around for some time know, my Grandmother on my Dad's side of the family was a huge gardening influence on my life. She could make anything grow with old fashioned ways and patience. Lilacs completely surrounded her house and ohhhh, the scent in spring!

After the tornado that tore through our town 6-6-90, her house was badly damaged, she was in the early stages of Alzheimers and it made no sense to fix the place. Before we tore it down, while all the other family members were gathering things inside, I was outside digging up her beloved tulip bulbs.

She raised six kids during the Dust Bowl/Depression and watched her pennies. I *know* she got these bulbs in the bargain bin at Gambles or the Dime Store. They must have been quite ordinary at the time.

For years, I have scoured websites and catalogs for this exact tulip with no luck. Very close at times, but not this one. They probably fell out of favor.

But I have them. I don't have the proper name, but they are "Grandma Tulips" to me and I've shared them far and wide because they are so lovely. Then again, they came from a lovely lady.

Skybird, I love your cairn!

Jaliranchr, I love the "Grandma tulips". Those are really beautiful and very sentimental. That made me tear up a little.

Very nice. Thank you for sharing your flower photos. They brighten my day.

All the flowers look (looked?) amazing. I love bulbs, but never have grown any.

I never have grown any flowers to be honest, and the only color we have is some worn out lilacs that just kind of tried to grow on their own on the side of the house. Tried some flower seeds for the first time this year, but, the prospects don't look good. Definitely jealous of you guys who have such nice landscaping!

After reading A Sand County Almanac (several times by now) I was always intrigued with Leopold's deference for the pasque flower, but never even looked up a picture, and this is the first time I've ever seen one. I can see why he was so enamored of it.

This post was edited by ZachS on Wed, Apr 16, 14 at 23:59

Love all the pretty pictures!
The only spring bulbs I have are irises. Too soon for those yet.

I have/had some spring color as well, Skybird :) Here are some of mine:

Angelique tulip, bulbs I got from TreeBarb a couple of swaps ago - first time to bloom (last year, they froze in the bud stage and didn't open after that). I really love this flower - so pretty!

Queen of Night tulip, again one I received from TreeBarb same swap I got the Angelique - and same story on the blooming! Such a rich color - love it! Going to be another favorite of mine! You can also see in this pic that the iris next to it will be blooming soon:

Hyacinths in the front yard bloomed out already, but have a few in the back yard that bloomed later. I covered them during the last snow to protect them and the Bleeding Heart next to them (I transplanted this a few weeks ago, so happy it is happy in it's new spot and beginning to bloom) - glad it worked!

Pulmonaria (Lungwort/Borage family):

That's all I took pics of, but my couple of daffadils have already bloomed out (the cold snap/snow bent them over, so I picked them and enjoyed them in a vase for a couple of days). Also have ajuga, primrose, a few Johnny Jump ups, apple tree and quince blooming now.

Skybird - I love your cairn, Squill (just learned about this plant, so interesting you posted a pic! Such a funny name - sounds like marine life LOL. It's really tiny, isn't it? Very pretty!), Pulsatilla (leaves remind me of gazania), and Crocus.

Jailranchr - such lovely tulips!! And what a great story/momento!!

Marj
Happy Spring/Easter!

This post was edited by mstywoods on Sun, Apr 20, 14 at 11:59

I love your tulips, Jali! And I love your story that goes with them even more! It's always special for me when I know something came from somebody at a swap, but knowing yours came from your grandmother makes them even extra special! Was that the year the tornado "went down main street" in Limon? It must be! I was watching the weather on TV that day, flipping channels, seems to me there were tornados all over the place that day, and all of a sudden the radar went down--on ALL the channels! The "old fashioned" radar came from Limon back then, and the radar station was taken out! It was barely 10 minutes, as I recall, when the stations got radar up and running again and they were picking it up from doppler radar at the airport. That was the day all the stations switched over to doppler radar--rather unexpectedly! And it was pretty freaky to be watching TV that day, 'cause when the "old" radar suddenly "went away," everybody knew for sure that something very serious had happened in Limon, but it was a while before anybody could confirm how bad it really was. I'm glad your grandmother stayed safe in that storm! And glad you have her tulips for such a very special memory.

Misty, I usually like tulips that Look Like Tulips, but that pink and white one of yours is sure pretty! It almost looks like a rose! Love your black one too! I got some 'Ronaldo' tulips from Barb a couple years ago and they're a very, very dark red too. Here's a pic. They froze badly last year, the foliage too, and I didn't know if I'd get any flowers at all this year, but they seem to have recovered amazingly well! The species tulips in front were on sale last fall and were another one of the things I didn't get planted till late January. I had no idea when they'd come up this year! Was hoping they might bloom at the same time as the 'Ronaldo' but they didn't even start to come up until a little over a week ago so I had kind of given up on that happening. Then on Friday the first one started to open, and look at them today! The timing couldn't possibly have been better! The species tulip is Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Heart's Delight'. In the second pic you can see that the foliage is striped with purple! I hope they both bloom at the same time again next year!

The 'King Alfred' dafs I posted above are going downhill fast at this point, but I have other, non-bulb, things starting to bloom all over the place! It's amazing how fast it's happening this year!

This is Erysimum kotschyanum 'Orange Flame'. It's just starting to open, will be covered with flowers by the end of the week. I love it because of the color--there are very few perennials this color, and in Real Life it's even more orange than in the pic. I call it "crayon orange!"

This is Phlox douglasii 'Cracker Jack'. And this one really is the shocking color just like it looks in the pic! It's not an easy one to grow--parts of it die off every year, but I've been able to keep it alive at least!

And here are some of my plain old everyday primroses! They're so pretty, and the yellow (and white) ones are very fragrant. The "blue" one is really purple! I've never been able to get a pic of that one that comes out right! They've been blooming for a good month already. The purple stuff on the left is some of my Omnipresent Violas! (That one comes out purple in the pics, so why doesn't the primrose???)

And this one is more of the purple violas with Arabis arendsii 'Compinkie' on the left, and the Ipheion uniflorum 'Rolf Fiedler' in the top right corner. (I accidentally named the Ipheion wrong in the pics in my original post! I called it 'Wisley Blue', which I have too, but the ones in the pics here and above are really 'Rolf Fiedler'. I corrected the caption on the pic itself.)

And this isn't really a flower--but they always look like flowers to me when they change colors! This is the hen & chicks I have labeled "L", and they're starting to turn their "spring color." In another week or so the inside will be a solid deep red while the tips stay green. The first year I saw these changing color I thought I was imagining things!!! (The couple little light blue star flowers at the top of the pic are Ipheion 'Wisley Blue'! Not many flowers this year, and they're very similar to the other one!)

Anybody else have spring things blooming now? Even if they're not bulbs!

Skybird

Jailirannchr, I love your tulips and story as well!

Skybird, I love the 'Heart's Delight' Crocus, and have jotted them down in my notes as one to look for in the fall.

I'm surprised to see your Ipheion; I was told that I couldn't grow them here because they were not hardy enough for Colorado Springs. I've always wanted them, and they look really pretty behind your violas.

I like the picture below because it shows how nicely the Tulipa 'Tarda' look together with the green and yellow Iris pallida. The brown patches are the beginnings of my Himalayan Border Jewel (don't remember the Latin!) and the green mounds to the right are a sterile :) version of catmint which looks really nice later with the purple blooms of the Iris pallida.

All your guy's great looking landscapes inspired me this weekend. Although, I cheated and bought started plants.

The tulips and the Siberian iris just started opening this morning, and I have some other stuff to plant once the weather makes a pretty for sure turn.

I have better pictures, but I only know how to post one at a time.

I love Siberian Iris!!

I just took this this morning. I think the Pulsatilla behind the tulips is a nice combination. I don't remember exactly what the tulips are; I'm not even sure if they've bloomed for me before! They look to me like they may be a Clusiana variety, but I'm not sure. This is definitely the most blooms my Pulsatilla has ever produced.

I'm loving your tulips Skybird and Katgardener - really different! And I really love that Pulsatilla - will have to look for some of that to join my garden :)

My deep purple iris is blooming today. Wish I new the name of the variety, believe I got it at one of the swaps - here's a pic:

Loving all the pictures. So nice to see life and vivid color after a long winter! Thank you all for sharing!

Must play too. I think these are Maywonder tulips but I don't know for sure. This is from last month; now we are all awash in irises!

The tulips are beautiful, and the bleeding hearts behind them are as well.