Actual Blooms for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day! Imagine that.

It has to be spring now, because I took my studded winter tires off the car on Thursday afternoon. No more snow allowed until November, now. I mean it. It's time for spring, because look, I has blooms, serious blooms, just in time for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. I'm so excited to be able to participate in outdoor blooms that I'm actually posting before Carol even has the link up for this month. Whoo hoo!

Okay, calming down now a little bit, but still leading off with the prize, the jewel, the most delightful beauty in the garden next to those naughty blue poppies...Helleborus 'Golden Sunrise'. Knowing our spring weather as I do, my hellebores are still protected by some evergreen limbs because of the excessive cold winds we're having, but a couple of warm days and warm rain prompted these to peek out long enough for me to snap a photo last evening just before dark.

This is the hellebore that started it all for me a few years ago, 'Ivory Prince'. I've told the story how other gardeners well versed in the art of hellebore growing taught me how to get mine through our eccentric winters (with protective mulch), and now I've got a nice collection of plants coming along. And there are more coming in the next couple of weeks, too. Yes, they're an obsession.

Iris reticulata 'JS Digit' has recovered from the insult of snow from last week, and is showing its lovely purple colour nicely.

Alas, I cannot remember the name of this dwarf iris, but I utterly love its rich violet-blue flowers. It's the first one to spring up, so I'm waiting for a few of its relatives to follow suit. I DID make a note of where I planted bulbs last fall, so we're waiting to see what comes up where. I'm not real encouraged by the eranthis, though, as so far only one of them has come up and bloomed. The others seem to be lost. Maybe the squirrel got them.

While I have posted photos of the glory of the snow (chionodoxa) several times already, I can't help myself. I just love their starry flowers, either in elegant and cool wedgwood blue (with a hint of pink-purple striping each petal)...

While 'Pink Giant' just keeps spreading and blooming, creating masses of softly warm pink stars in several different spots. I love the small bulbs that quietly bloom and multiply without any fuss from me, making lovely colonies and only asking that I don't accidentally dig them up!

The snowdrops are still going strong, and are being joined by masses of Puschkinia, or striped squill. This bed still had snow on it late last week, because it was one of the spots with the deepest drifts but also is in a cool hollow so it doesn't melt as quickly. Other parts of the garden have puschkinia in full bloom, as these will be in a few days.

On Saturday we travelled down to West Pubnico to my friend Alice's nursery, Ouest-ville Perennials, one of my favourite places (and my dearest buddies). On the way, we stopped at Port L'hebert Pocket Wilderness, where the first mayflower (Epigea repens) were shyly showing off their buds. I thought maybe if I stood looking at them long enough they would open, but they didn't accomodate me. Oh well. They're probably open now. This is the provincial wildflower of Nova Scotia and a lovely, lovely thing.

My collection of alpines is slowly growing, and this is one of two species of Draba that I added last year from Ouestville Perennials. Even without blooming, they are delightful little rosettes of fuzzy foliage, tidy and charming. *I had a brain bilabial fricative last night in my excitement, and referred to this as Bollax, when I meant Draba. I do have Bollax, a curious and fun little plant, but it's no where near blooming!

I am a huge fan of most members of the Borage family, including all the pulmonarias. I love these plants for their tenacity and determination. They are barely out of the ground before they are in bloom, and they continue to bloom here until well into June. Then the foliage of most of them, spangled in silver as it is, continues to glow in the garden once the flowers are spent. This is an unnamed seedling, of which there are many around my garden.

This is another pulmonaria, 'Red Start', which is distinctive for several reasons. Not only are the flowers a constant reddish pink, unlike those that start pink and turn blue, but the foliage is larger than most of the other species and cultivars, and is unmarked by silver spangles or splashes. It's as keen to get going as are its relatives, though.

At the moment the only flowering shrub with true blossoms is Hamamelis 'Diane', which is pretty much in full, funky flower now. There are several salix species in catkins, as well as Corylus avellana, but they can wait for another post. I wanted true flowery blooms for this post, and other than the crocus that I've already shown off numerous times, and some chilly heath out in the back, this is my collection for April. Next month, there will be many more to join, of course. Thanks as always to Carol for hosting Bloom Day, and I hope you'll pop over and visit, and add your own link of blooms!

And if you're out and about in the Annapolis Royal /Upper Clements area tomorrow, Jill Covill of Bunchberry Nurseries is having her annual Spring Fling from 1-4 pm at the nursery. Her website is down right now because she's moved her highspeed from her home to the nursery, and that has meant Aliant screwing things up for her as she moved to another provider, but the site will likely be up by tomorrow. Among the events will be the Easter Bonnet contest, a plant trivia contest where you can win Bunchberry Bucks for use at the nursery, nibblies and coffee, and oh yeah, I'll be there with books and probably a rant or two about goutweed. It's a great way to launch into the gardening season, so we hope to see you there!