March Bloomsday in VW Garden

I'm not usually organized enough to participate in Carol's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, but I pulled it together this month.  Several hellebores are blooming right now in the garden, including 'Golden Lotus' above and below.  The key to early hellebore blooms is to plant them under deciduous trees where they get shade in the summer and sun in the winter.  My hellebores that are shaded by the house year round aren't blooming yet.



After several years of looking for hellebore seedlings, I finally found some in my garden.  I started pulling up little 'weeds' and noticed they had leathery leaves . . . just like hellebores . . . aha!  I tucked the babies back into the soil and look forward to seeing what their flowers look like in a few years, as hellebore seedlings often look different than their parents. 



We've been enjoying unusually warm weather for the past couple of weeks.  We hit 60 degrees a few times this week when highs are usually in the 40's.  Hopefully new growth on my plants won't progress too far and then be damaged by very cold temperatures. 



The bees have been enjoying the warm weather and visiting all the crocus in my front yard.  Crocus tommasinianus 'Barr's Purple' are shown above.  The clumps are increasing steadily from past years, and I added a few hundred more crocus bulbs last fall. 



These 'Golden Bunch' crocus are the first to bloom each year, and this clump has been in bloom for over a month.  I just had to take a break from writing to pull my one year old son away from another clump of 'Golden Bunch', where he was happily pulling all the flowers off and putting them into a pile.  Sigh.  I'm glad he's able to enjoy the warmer weather outside, even if it means a little damage to the garden.