There are signs that spring is really here! There are leaves on many of the trees. In town, where it seems to leaf up a little earlier than out in the country, there is already a canopy of green. The magnolia trees were flowering and so beautiful. Magnolias are a bit of an iffy proposition as we can get late frosts which stop the flowering abruptly some years.
The leaves are bursting forth out in the country too. This photo was taken a few days ago. Yesterday there was the slightest green haze on the trees, but today, they are that bright spring green. So pretty!
The currant bushes are getting ready to flower. The one on the left is a native currant bush while the one on the right is a European currant variety. Both are supposed to be hardy in this area.
The tulips are in full bloom today, but yesterday they were just starting to open. The sunny daffodils have been happily blooming for a few days now.
These are some of the Japanese Indigo seeds that I started early this year, in hopes of getting them to seed. I transplanted the seedlings into several larger pots. This one is doing the best. You can see that the leaves already have a bluish cast to them, so they are developing pigment. I need to transplant them again, into a larger pot which will go outside, but there is still too much of a frost risk to do so yet. They are doing much better than I'd expected, so this is making me very happy.
The Hyacinths are out in full force. They are beautiful and I love the scent. However it's been grey, dull and too cool for the scent to throw far, or it's been warm and too windy. Either way, I get to see them, but having a cup of tea on the deck, surrounded by the scent of the Hyacinths has not happened yet this year.
I love these few weeks every year, when spring is finally in and the bit of green "veil" is turning into proper leaves! only now we have very strong winds, which tends to shred the young leaves to bits - there's always something:( after a few very cold days with northerly winds we're back to our milder south-westerlies, but the daffodils are well and truly over and only a few of my tulips seem inclined to flower this year; and only one hyacinth:( like you I love the scent, but for that I need flowers first! no chance with magnolias here though, the tree lives, but the summers are too dreary to get any flower buds going! well, if the weather won't play nice, I can always stay inside and use my repaired louet:)
ReplyDeletegood luck with the kitchen counters!
Bettina