Red Maple blooms in hollow.
As we watch a heavy wet snow fall this St. Patrick’s Eve, red buds of the native maple and good old ‘Diane’ witch hazel belie this (surely!) last gasp of winter. The stately beech that dominates the east garden shows bronzy tips and early narcissus, ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Tete-a-Tete’, along with yellow and purple species crocus dot the beds.
Snowdrops have been blooming for a month now and the Naked Ladies (Lycoris squamigera) are showing their broad foliage in clumps in the turf. Their tender flesh pink trumpets will bloom nude in summer springing straight up from the grass.
I remember the hot spring a few years ago when all the bulbs bloomed at once. This spring promises a prolonged progression of early, mid and late blooming bulbs. We will go into spring well-watered and with as good a cold spell as we’ve had in years, which some say will have a good effect on controlling insect populations.
Snow falls,
Buds burgeon.