My Crocuses are blooming and the daffodils have buds but no flowers yet. The tulips are showing their leaves but that's all. I don't have any dutch iris but a friend is sending me a few when she divides hers.

I have crocus here for years but they are just peeking out of the ground. I had hoped to add more last fall but by the time I ordered all the tulips, Dutch Iris and Daffodils, I knew I couldn't manage to plant any more bulbs last fall. Hopefully I can add some this fall for next spring. But I intend to really enjoy the spring show this year.

I have lots of daffodils coming up, but also see so many mole holes it is unbelievable. I have never had them eat daffodil bulbs, but tunnels are everywhere in the orchard and plow right through new plantings of bulbs I put in last Fall. I see no green tips of the daffs in these areas. The ground looks like there are mini dirt volcanoes scattered all around.

Perhaps some of the daffs are later blooming varieties tho, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Bulbs are up here too ;-) They have been up for a couple weeks now, at least in the front where it is a bit warmer. The tulips are up from one to three inches. The few daffs left are up too, as well as Glory of the Snow. Nothing out in the backyard yet except a little species tulip and the poor lonely snowdrop that got mashed by a late snowing.

Kind of funny...I don't see any crocus yet. Hope that perverse squirrel didn't get into them.
CMK

Rita, I went out today to take a gander at what is popping up and discovered some green leaves where I had planted larkspur in peat pots in the front flowerbed..I have spring bulbs popping up too, moved some of my stepping stones to find bulbs leaves underneath them..will have to go through and put a marker where that one was; hoping I got to it in time. I thought I had marked all my bulb locations last fall or when they finished blooming. Guess I missed some. I think the frozen ground is slowly thawing and heaved those peat pots of larkspurs up. I found a lonely single peat pot in same bed but over about 2 1/2 ft. from the other but no signs of germination that I could see. Maybe the rain that we are expecting over this weekend will help things along. I'm sure your gardens will be beautiful this spring and summer. I remember how many plants you planted last year and how hard you worked in your flowerbeds.

I went overboard on planting last year just as I have in years past. I can't get too crazy this year as I have run out of space. No new gardenbeds for me.

I have been really good this year. The combinations of lack of space and being tired of doing too much work in the garden have forced me to not buy plants over the winter that would be shipped in spring. I usually go overboard on daylilies and iris. This year I have bought none. I am actually glad. For the first time in years I will not have box after box of plants coming in spring that seem to be all dealt with at once.

But I am sure that there will be spring planting as I always get lots of annuals and I am sure I will at the nurseries buying them by the flats as usual this year. I like lots of color in my gardens.

Still over a foot of snow on the ground here. I'll be ecstatic just to see bare ground let along bulbs coming up! Can't wait to see pictures from everyone!

A rare sunny day today...and I Ran outside!!!ha! I planted about 400 bulbs this winter, crocus/daffies/tulips/snowdrops...and they are popping up!!! Ya!!! I always worry that I do something wrong and so am thrilled when things grow despite me!ha! The poppies and lupins are already growing too, and I had bought a bleeding heart just at the end of the season(you know, when everything is 60% off, I am soooo powerless over cheap plants!)and it has shoots coming up!!! Last year I was insane and planted 100s of plants, mostly bought at local plant sales(like a yard sale) that cost very little each(probably averaged at $2/plant) 20 kinds of daylilies/20 different irises/10 new clematis types!!! to name a few. It's like I gotta have one of every kind of plant!!!AND every color...but last year was a yellow kick, year before was a pink theme...oops forgot to mention that my forsythia and pink currant are budding, so is the lilac, man, sunshine is such a great thing!ha!Hopefully I won't get the bad case of spring fever that I got last year...I need to focus on maintaining what I have!

I peered at all my lupines that I planted last spring too but I guess its still too early as nothing has come up yet.

Rita,
I am so glad to see you posting again. You can bet all those bulbs will be a sight to behold as they open. My tulips are opening already, but the dutch iris which are usually first haven't put up bud spikes yet. The new daffs haven't either, but the old one are blooming away.

We are supposed to have a "light freeze" tonight, but it is to be in the 60s again the next day, so I doubt there will be much damage, if any.

I am glad to see you back, and looking forwrd to photos.
kay

Rita,

Wow - we are still in winter mode up here in Ontario. Snowed again last night. We are expecting a long, cold and wet spring and as such I won't expect to see plants until April.

I put in an arrangement of Purple and White alternating crocuses right up against the yellow daffodils that are surrounding a planting of multi-colored tulips. My hope is the daffodils will keep the moles & voles away. So far so good.

Crocuses are blooming here and daffodils are getting bigger. I think next fall I will plant crocus bulbs throughout the tiny patch of lawn that is left out front!

If daffodils will keep away the voles, I will be planting more of those as well! Thanks for the tip tk.

I realise that I am jumping the gun, so to speak, as it is still too early here for things to green up but the long snowey winter and being stuck inside has me just wanting spring growth. Plus I really am so looking forward to all those bulbs as I went so crazy with them last fall. Never have I put in the hundreds of each like I did last fall. And of course, I have been thinking about what they will look like in bloom ever since.

My old Daffs that have been here are up alittle more, especially ones in sunny spots but still not up much. The daffs I put in last fall only have a tiny bit of green poking up here or there and hard to find but I know that means the rest will start to come up soon.

I have the bulbs planted all over the place but I still have places I didn't get to so more bulbs could go in and hopefully I will be able to do more this fall. The spring show should inspire me, that's for sure.

One thing I do need are more crocus as I only have those in one small area but I didn't order crocus last year as I ran out of ambition to do more. I could barely get what I had done and it took me over a week of planting everyday to get done.

I don't have dutch iris out front but I have hundreds of tulips and daffs so the passersby should have a nice spring show too, not just me. We have tons of dog walkers down my street and people often give me compliments on the front yard.

I haven't been posting because my computer went hinky but I finially had it fixed. Had to replace my hard drive.

I put in an arrangement of Purple and White alternating crocuses right up against the yellow daffodils that are surrounding a planting of multi-colored tulips. My hope is the daffodils will keep the moles & voles away. So far so good.

I planted crocus and daffodil bulbs across the road, up on the bank of the ditch last fall. Thought it would be fun to look out my livingroom window and see them blooming, several of the neighbors up and down the road do the same thing and it looks so pretty in early Spring. However, snow plows have thrown so much gravel and cinders in and all over the ditch I'm not sure anything will be able to push up through.

I take it back. Was out today raking the leaves off the beds in the backyard and noticed some tulips are up there as well!!! And yes, I do see a few crocus now too. ;-)

Don't see a lot of the bulbs I planted last fall though...guess those will take a little longer.
CMK

Those ones that are new always take longer to poke out of the ground than the ones that have been around for years.

Schoolhouse - I am pretty sure that daff bulbs are poisonous, so your voles should have avoided them, or ;-)) you may not have a vole problem anymore!!

Nancy.

Nancy - let's hope! Never like to see an animal be killed but still......ha ha. As I said, I've never seen tunnels and dirt "volcanoes" as big as these. It's so bad I'm considering hiring someone to take a lawn roller to my entire property this Spring.

On a walk through of my flower beds I am seeing the daylilies and iris up, as well as the few tulips I put in last fall. Also, yarrow is back, I am seeing my purple and white coneflowers (transplants from a neighbor last year) poking little reddish shoots up, my potted blueberry bush is getting buds along the branches, my roses are putting up a bit of new growth, and one of my ornamental grasses has some green on it. On our enclosed deck my potted hostas, hydrangeas, and miniature roses are all coming back to life. And an asiatic lily that I bought last summer on clearance in a 3" inch pot, and then subsequently forgot all about and I assumed it was dead, got carried in by mistake when my kids helped me carry in the tender perennials and such. I meant to throw it away several time but kept forgetting. I noticed yesterday it is sending up new shoots! I have no idea how that thing survived my neglect. Nature is amazing!

I wanted to put tons and tons of bulbs in my beds, but the drought we experienced here last summer and fall left the ground like cement. We couldn't even bust into it with a pickaxe. So we couldn't get bulbs in the ground. :-( Maybe this year I can!

Rita, with the large qty of bulbs you planted I'm curious to know where you ordered from, or did you purchase locally? Did you find any particular places to purchase from that had great quality and a decent price?

Still waiting for snow to clear before I can see what's what in the garden. I'm sure the critters have been having all sorts of tunnel parties under the snow. It's going to be scary.

I bought all the bulbs from Brent and Beckies and Scheepers. Almost all the Dutch Iris came from Scheepers.

Not much has changed with the Dutch Iris since I first posted this thread. They don't seem any taller to me when I look at them, or any greener either.

I also have been scratching at the Siberian Iris to see if they are starting to grow yet. If you look at the garden, they show no green but if I pull aside the dead leaves from last year, some of them are showing the smallest start of green growth already here and there.

This is what comes of being extra anxious for spring to be here already.

Afew Crocus opened today and thats it. I have my first blooms of the year, which are two crocus flowers open with more should be open by tomorrow. Other crocus in my yard aren't even haveing the flower spikes yet.

Rita,
It can't be long. Here are the Dutch iris that are open. They are from fall planting.

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None of the ones I've had for several years has much of a bud yet, but they are beginning to show progress.

I was wrong when I told you I had not recorded what I planted when I was planting tulips. The last coyuple of hundred, I didn't, but what has been blooming so far are the Pink Impression (huge blooms that have lasted very well) and the purple are Cum Laude. The llargest of all are the first ones that bloomed (in the new rose garden) and they are Ollioules. I will definitely plant more of them in the spring.

The day lilies will have tulips planted among them this year too. The daffs I planted in the fall, cam from Brent and Becky. I bought tulips from several places, so we'll have to see how all of them do. My pink Diamond tulips (palest pink) and my Queen of the Night are just beginning to bloom.

I am actually going to spray the roses today.

This knee is a real pest.
kay

No buds on the Dutch Iris here either. On my tulips, I know the mixes, that is the mix selections I bought and were I put them. But I got some names kinds by the 10 count each at Brent and Beckies because they were too lovely to resist. Those I planted but I didn't use markers on any. They are so different from each other that I am sure I can ID them from my purchase list though.

But really spring tulips and daffodils are just spring color for me. Like my mass planting of certain lily bulbs were I don't know each kind in the mix but don't really need to. You have got to remember that before I had daylilies, I never used any markers so I still don't mark everything.

My last fall plantings of tulips and daffs are around certain daylily beds (in front of or in back of en mass). I always did have plans to put daffs and tulips between some of the daylilies but just haven't done it yet. Maybe this fall I can get more, we'll see.

Lovely picture! Spray those roses!