From Corylus to Crocus, March goes out like a Lamb

After nearly a week of galeforce, chilly winds blasting down on us, the last day of March came ambling along like a sweet, fluffy lamb; warm, and soft. The crocuses just leapt into action immediate, popping up like colourful dots all over the garden.

The heaths are mostly all preparing to open their blooms ever wider...

While the heathers are ablaze in foliar glory. This is either Cuprea or Con Brio. I have both in the back garden but their labels have long since gone walkable.

Equally splendid at this time of the year is the gorgeous scarlet, copper and gold tinted foliage of sedum 'Angelina'. This is hands down one of my very favourite ground cover sedums, just for this outburst of succulent leaf colour. In a while, this colour will subdue somewhat to more gold and green, but it's still an eyecatcher all year long.

The snowdrops seem encouraged by today's warm weather, and more are popping up daily. I neglected to put something beside this one to show its size, which is about the size of a loonie. (For you non-Canadian readers, that's our dollar coin.)

My Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana, or corkscrew hazel) is doing brilliantly, and this year has a real nice flush of catkins. I also have 'Red Majestic' in another part of the garden, but it's much smaller, having only been planted last year, and I don't expect catkins for some years yet.

Last year, I got brave and purchased some winter aconite from Botanus--the being brave part doesn't come from ordering from Botanus, who have top quality bulbs. Rather, it comes from figuring the best place to plant these tiny harbingers of spring. Some years ago I had them in a spot that was far too wet in the spring, and they didn't prosper. Last fall, I put them in sunny spots with decent drainage, although having 5 foot snowdrifts melt away into the ground means things ARE somewhat sodden in much of the garden. This is the first one to arrive, and hopefully its siblings will follow suit with a couple more warm days.

I don't CARE how quotidian and predictable some people think crocus are. To me, they are all kinds of delightful, cheerily flamboyant with their Easter-egg colours and their joy at the sunlight. The earliest-bloomers are just getting going here, but they are pushing up through the ground in nice swathes, so I know what to expect within a few more days.

More funky, colourful foliage--this is 'Nifty Thrifty', which is a sea thrift (Armeria) with variegated foliage. Its more standard relatives have deeper wine-green foliage, but this is electric and delightful.

Last year, I added several species of draba to my slowly-developing alpine planting, and this one is threatening to burst into bloom with a few more days of warmth. This is another plant I don't know well but really like the foliage and growth habit of, so I'm looking forward to watching it and its relative as the spring gets going in earnest.

While I realize that it's now officially 1 April, and that I often have done a 'Poisson d'Avril' post in the past, I've resisted the urge this year. Been very busy with book stuff, and now the maybe-warming-weather has me out in the garden. In my more serious moments--yes, I do have them!--I do, however, wonder about the future of blogs, with so many people absorbed in Facebook and Twitter and so on. However, I'll keep doing this blog for some time to come, as I've noted in past posts, because I regard it as a way of giving back to the gardening community around me, near and far. I appreciate my readers, my fellow bloggers and gardeners.

And that is no joke.