Oh, Buff, absolute dittos from 'warm-again' Florida!!! This is my favorite time, too - preceded by my least favorite 'ugliest' time. I added azaleas to my front garden last year, and now I am elated at their glorious blooming - most still unopened buds. Just the fuscia Formosas are fully open. Will post photos when I get home - but had to jump in and add my joy to yours!! We had another big rain last night which the garden is loving - along with today's beautiful sunshine. It took a long time to get here, but wow! I couldn't be happier! And my front garden is done with its spring dressing just waiting to blast off.

Sherry

Waa-aah! Unhappy 40 degree greetings from New England! But the rugosas are showing leaf and even the other climbers' buds are beginning to redden and swell. Do you warm-climate people realize we never, never pack away our sweaters and jackets?

But give us another 2-3 months and it will be glorious here and, depend on it, bloom time will last longer here in the cooler air. A prolonged springtime, with each kind of plant getting center stage for itself before the next kind comes into bloom.

Carol

It is time of my lost and found crocuses over here. :) Although I like winter, imho it gives some depth to the feeling of the seasons. :)

You'd probably laugh at the idea that we have winters but the deciduous trees do lose their leaves and the night temperatures are in the high 30's and low 40's at times. Most of the roses do take a rest of about two months and the garden looks much more bare than in fall. It's more subtle, but it's there. Of course the orange groves around here are loaded with oranges and are blooming, and that fragrance wafts on the breeze. But that's only this month, and it IS officialy spring. My first bloom of Souvenir de la Malmaison opened today, the first I've seen in my garden on a plant from last autumn. That was pretty thrilling. A purple and white iris is blooming and the crape myrtles are starting to get their leaves. Many rose buds, some of which are now blooming, but I'm looking forward to April when the real show will start. I love those few more quiet winter months which, while not nearly as dramatic as what many of you are experiencing, still give a sense of the season and usher in the roses of spring.

Ingrid

We're probably a month behind you but we have daffodils everywhere, the fields are greening up, roses are leafing out, and even a few small dogwood blossoms showing their snouts.

Echo everything you say about spring!!

Hi buffington,

In Lafayette, and I know exactly how you feel. The 'Reine des Violettes' I bought last summer and which never bloomed now has a bud at the end of every branch.

Only a couple of small blooms on Climbing Old Blush and Lady Banksias about to bloom.....as is the huge glorious and heavenly smelling wisteria, bridal wreath coming on, green grass....every day there is something new to see! Glorious!!

rosa primula leafing up and gorgeous pulsatillas flowering. I love pasque flowers at every stage. Hepaticas and galanthus over but hyacinths, narcissi and species tulips such as T.Pulchella and T.Sylvestris starting to open. The white honesty (lunaria) is just flowering and fat paeony stems appearing looking red and glossy. Yep, only a coupla weeks ago, it was drab, drab, drab and suddenly the fuse has sparked. Best of all are the hopeful cuttings of rudbeckias, penstemons, nepeta, sphaeralcea, salvias and osteospermums I took in autumn, appearing from unpromising looking pots of greenish lumpy loam (it didn't look likr that when I took the cuttings!) - always seems more like a triumph of hope over experience.

Daffodils here too. I went walking through the gardens at Magdalen College today and it was so beautiful, thousands of daffodils in bloom. I have photos on my site if you'd like to see.

In my garden the daffs are out as well. The snowdrops have faded, the tulips weeks from blooming. My roses are covered in new sprouts, but I expect that we are still two months away from my first bloom.

It's felt like such a long winter this year, I'm so glad that spring is really, actually, thankfully here.

Happy Spring Everyone!
robert

Here is a link that might be useful: Daffodils at Magdalen College

Blendguy, I agree, it sure did seem like winter was long this year, we had colder weather than usual and more snow -last Sunday morning woke up to a few inches on the ground which is unusual for us in hot, sunny Texas.

This morning I went to the nursery to pick up a yard of landscaping soil mix, got there shortly after they opened; by the time I left the parking lot was full. Apparently everyone is sick of winter! I have been waiting for a particular plant, Texas Gold Columbine, but the lady that waited on me said the growers are way behind with the soil so cool. They will suffer because fairly soon the hot scorching weather will set in and it's hard to plant then.

God invented bulbs to help us gardeners get through the period until the roses bloom. I LOVE daffodils. The early ones are out now and cheerful as can be, while the woodland flowers are in full bloom, later than usual because of the terribly long winter. We have the lovely Hepatica triloba, Primula vulgaris, and Erythronium dens-canis; and fragrant violets everywhere. Along with the violets, in the garden the light blue muscari and Anemone blanda are flowering, and those exciting fat buds of the peonies are making their appearance; and there are all the delicately pretty wild herbaceous plants (along with acres of chickweed, naturally). I'm experiencing a resurgence of interest in peonies after an interval of a few years, and particularly in the Mediterranean varieties. Spring is too wonderful for words!
Melissa

oh melissa - Paeonia Cambedessii, P.macula, P.emodi how completely lovely

Alameda - so glad you mentioned the Lady Banks. Hadn't checked her yet (she's on the far side of the house) and she is covered in buds, and one little bloom! You can bet I'll be checking her daily from now on to see her in her glory. :) Yeah spring!

Bellegallica, I wondered exactly where you are from! I enjoy your posts and can relate. My RdV is 2 sticks but is filling out since I transplanted and have fertilized regularly. I'm hoping for great things in the future from this nearly thornless rose!

I let out a screech yesterday when I saw Baronne Prevost's first bud. And then Cl SdlM's first buds - big round ones. And today Mme Caroline Testout has a fully opened flower way up top! But compared to last year the garden is very late. I have pics from last year this time of fully leafed out bushes. We're no where near that yet here in Florida - go figure.

Sherry