Six on Saturday – 20/04/2019 – Breathless Anticipation

Spring. It’s the time of year when a gardener notices growth every day, when you want to just walk around, hourly sometimes, because with every hour of warm sunshine something has grown, or has appeared, or might just burst into bloom. And you don’t want to miss it!

We’ve had some warmish temperatures the past few weeks and even some sunshine which means the earliest of the small spring bulbs (Galanthus, species Crocus) have come and almost gone and the next batch (Chianodoxa, large Crocus) are in full bloom, with the mini daffs and Hyacinth and grape Hyacinth (Muscari) opening any moment.

Here then are six from my garden yesterday. If things look a bit wet, I was out dodging raindrops; we were expecting a deluge this Easter long weekend but the rain has mostly gone around us. You can see pictures from the around the world by visiting The Propagator‘s site. A worthwhile visit it is, too!

1 – Chianodoxa – aka Glory of the Snow – is at its peak this weekend. One of my favourite blue flowers.

2 – The large multi coloured Crocus are springing up everywhere. I plant them, sometimes they stay put, sometimes squirrels have other ideas and they show up in a totally unexpected place!

3a – a close-up of an emerging purple Hyacinth – a few days of warm sunshine will bring this fragrant beauty into bloom

3b – the same flower, without the close cropping.

4 – Every winter I buy small pots of mini daffs, usually they’re Tete-a-Tete, to provide cheery indoor colour when daylight is in short supply. I water and fertilize the bubs while the foliage is still green then, in spring, plunk them in the ground. They’ll likely be blooming for Easter Sunday, which is supposed to be warm and sunny!

5 – Also soon to flower, perhaps by Monday, is the Forsythia.

6 – Serviceberry – Amelanchier canadensis – is likely a few weeks away from blooming, but the birds are already anticipating the berries that will soon follow!

(The same photo, less closely cropped. Again, I couldn’t decide which I prefer!)

That’s my Six for the week. After several months of finding little inspiration in the garden, I’m happy to say things are back to normal. That is to say, there’s new things to discover, every day, in the garden. New joys, new delights, some curiosities, some disappointments, new learnings. Always.