I've been watching the snow vanish steadily, and parts of the meadow and garden appear. Suddenly today, the tiny Dwarf Iris burst out of the ground and bloomed, all in one day. It actually got into the double digits today, at +10°C!
We have a small 'scree' garden that's out in the sun where the snow has now melted; the Snowdrops along the fencerow are still under 6" of snow. But these tiny flowers are one of my favourites of the year!
The iris were glowing a beautiful royal blue in the afternoon sun today, the very first spring flower I've seen, and just today.
I climbed up on the retaining wall to take a picture straight down. I like the yellow and white pattern on the petals best.
Once I started looking, I realized that several other things were coming up in the part of the garden without snow too. The rhubarb shoots are just breaking through the leaf litter.
I think of peonies as big fragile flowers, but in fact they're one of the most frost hardy flowers here, the red spikes emerging while snow is still all around. Only the one in the back right is more than an inch out of the ground.
The Fernleaf Peony will be the first to bloom, and this is an early shoot emerging, already showing the fine fringe of the leaves that will rise and spread in the next few days.
And out front where the 4 foot deep pile of snow off the roof is still melting, these daffodils are up out of the ground. They were still under the snow this morning!
If you're wondering about my Beaver Valley tour, I was going to finish with a post about the karst sinkhole and springs, but it's taking me a long time to pull together all the photos I want to share, and it's a very interesting story in its own right, so I've decided to make it another series of posts on its own soon. Hope you enjoyed getting to know the valley here a little over the past two weeks of posts.
It's been a long time since I missed 2 or 3 days in a row with this blog, but the busy Easter weekend coincided with a large pile of marking for the on-line course I'm teaching this semester. Just too much to do.
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Oh WOW ! Your flowers there are farther ahead then ours and we have tiny patches of snow in the shaded spots and that's about all and it has been warm 12C here but no flowers of any kind poking up yet . I have enjoyed your series you put together on here wonderful photos and posts indeed . Lots of rain as of this evening through to Friday here April showers bring May flowers... I hope ! Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !
ReplyDeleteOh, finally, they have started to come up I'm so happy to see these on your blog! It was time, I knew it was close. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Furry.....
ReplyDeleteYou are way ahead of me!
I do have some daffodils up.....and day lilies poking thru.....but only near the house where it is warm....
Those Iris are so sweet....
Enjoy your week...
Cheers!
Linda :o)
Love the color - so pretty. Looks like spring is finally getting up there by you too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for wanting to send the card.
Couldn't find where to email you so will give you the address here
Mrs Ida Gagg
P O Box 46
Indian Lake, New York 12842
Those are sure signs that warmer days have arrived, stunning deep iris, plants that survive winter with the snow and freeze are all part of the wondrous nature that lives in them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can understand that flowers and plants start to grow when the weather warms up, it still amazes me every year. But how on earth do plants "know" when the snow is about to melt and start to shoot even while the snow-cover is still there?
ReplyDeleteThe irises are gorgeous! You have warmer weather than we do. We've mostly had about +5 C, but hopefully it will soon get warmer.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of plants coming up already. The iris are really pretty to see. Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteLovely images to prove that spring is really here.
ReplyDeletePretty flower! Glad to see something colorful is blooming in your neck of the woods.
ReplyDeleteYour pictures look just a little behind what we are seeing now in our yard.
ReplyDeleteI love those dwarf iris. Such a rich color they have.
ReplyDeleteYou are more advanced than we are. No irises out yet here. Yours look beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOh how wonderful! And such a beautiful rich colour.
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful to see your irises blooming and other bulbs pushing up through the soil. I am watching snowflakes flutter to the earth like tiny white butterflies at the moment. Spring takes its time here in NH, I'm content to have blossoms on my windowsill.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff! That fernleaf peony looks like some underwater creature.
ReplyDelete