Enjoying the photos - nice to see so much thriving this soon after such a hard freeze; imagine they're also paying tribute to a lot of work, seasons of experience, and maybe a bit of luck.

Finally got some photos of the Dutch irises that are blooming well this year after largely resting last:

Getting first blooms on the small bearded irises, our tall ones flower much later:Planted a big bag of small bulbs; so the returning Spanish bluebells all look like these tiny babies:

Our dwarf purple-leaf peach squirrel feeder is blooming possibly for it's last time:

Crossvine is absolutely loaded with buds - these few opened yesterday:

'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle is flowering a bit, but freeze seemed to thin it much more than usual. 'John Clayton' is going stronger than the 'Major' for first time ever:

Pot grown Mexican honeysuckle was finally large enough to plant out and it set buds with a week in the ground. Hope that means it likes the location... still uncertain it will be able to survive our worst Dallas winters:

Flowers on the 'Gold Dust' Aucuba growing in our compost pile are not spectacular, but am still amazed that it could rebound from looking like a wilted mess during the hardest part of the freeze with absolutely no signs of damage:

Golden groundsel buds are just starting to open while they're still near the ground:

We're finally giving a make-over to a bed that lost it's full shade when the mulberry tree came down. This Blue Daze (Evolvulus glomeratus) was planted with other {8a} annuals to fill temporary space between new perennials and is flowering already. Have seen it before used nicely at the Dallas Arboretum, but is a new one to me:

Your flowers are beautiful bostedo! So far my Dutch irises haven't shown any signs of blooming yet.

Blackwillow, I pretty much have clay here. I throw out seed every year, but many do not come up. I put out more colors the last few years but the red and the yellow are the only ones that come back. I do still have some babies out there, so we'll see what those will turn out to be. Have you seeded right into the ground ? They don't much like being transplanted. good luck!

Thanks castro_gardener. I think the next time I'll just direct sow some because I sowed the ones this year in containers. If they sprout, I'll be very careful not to disturb the roots when I'm planting them. I tried to direct sow another cultivar but none of those sprouted. I amended parts of my shade garden with some pine bark fines, and maybe I'll add a little coarse sand to help with drainage.

I've been enjoying seeing all the early flowers you all have posted. The photos below show two first time bloomers for me.

A bulb for a double daffodil was passed along to me by my friend Linda M. years and years ago and just this year produced its first flower. It's own foliage is covered by self seeding cilantro. It's very sweetly scented ...

And the Mexican buckeye plant which I purchased last year is covered with buds and blooms ...

Wow the double daffodil is beautiful! The Mexican buckeye is also beautiful, it reminds me of orchid blooms.

Blackwillow, I've never figured out why Dutch irises can be so fickle about blooming. We've had years with many flowers followed by a season or two with few or even none. They can multiply fairly quickly and wonder if there may be some lagging connection between boom years for offsets and those for flowers. While we've seen a rare bloom even where ignored in heavy shade, they do seem to perform better with a half day or more of sun and occasional feeding.

I was trying to figure out why our wild red columbine was such a weak performer compared with our yellow variety (a. chrysantha) and noticed the ones native to central Texas are "disjunct" from the populations that do well further east. I'm certain our mail ordered plant did not come out of that gene pool and suspect plants sourced from the Texas stock may do better in our alkaline leaning clay.

I just got my Dutch irises last year from a local gardener and hers were in too much shade and they crowded each other out. I have mine where they get half day sun in one area and the other area gets mostly sun. Maybe since they were recently moved, they'll skip this year?I'm hoping next year I'll see a few blooms.

I didn't know that about the wild red columbine. I got my seeds from a company in Wisconsin I think so they'll probably be much weaker than the Central Texas population? Maybe I'll add either gravel or decomposed granite to my clay soil to make it more well draining?

I thought Buckeyes should be blooming about now. Mine must be dead. Killed by cutter ants continuing to build their colony beneath it, started 30 years ago. We had killed off that colony many years ago when an ag extension officer used poison gas which no longer is available. Although the ants were gone for decades, they came back and continued right where they left off. The bane of my existence!

Love the pictures.

A couple of days ago I saw a new (to me) plant at Rainbow Gardens, Calliandra 'Sierra Star' . One of the parents is Baji fairy duster, which I dearly love, so of course I had to have it.

I know it's not quite fair since it was grown elsewhere, but here's another early blooming plant. Look at all those buds ... :-)

It's planted in the 'ell strip by the street where it gets lots of sun and reflected heat. I don't know how well they are going to 'play together' but the first-time-freeze-damaged Velvet pod mimosa is recovering from its roots behind the rock.

That's an interesting and pretty plant roselee.

Very pretty indeed. Never heard of this family before. This strain should be very nice in your garden.

blackwillow87(8a), may I ask about the garden photo of your 'standing cypress' shown earlier in this thread? Are these coming up from roots of an earlier planting or are they new seedlings? I'm wanting to try and get these started in a bed that contains a few meadow Liatris. This bed is kept rather dry, depending mostly on rainfall. Do your plants reseed for you? I live in central Arkansas, zone 8a/7b.

My thanks to everyone for sharing early spring blooming plants. This is a wonderful thread.

Mary

Blackwillow, what about those "standing cypress" in your photo above? Are they new seedlings or are they coming up from the roots of last years plant?

I find standing cypress too enthusiastic.

roselee, I printed data on Crawford lettuce and gave to my buddies at nearby nursery. They're excited!

i have the pink calliandra, a very well behaved plant

Sorry everyone for the late response. The standing cypress seedlings were ones I started from seed last October, I think.?

They survived 13 degrees without any damage. They actually started taking off last month because before they were only a couple of inches tall, now they're several inches tall.

blackwillow87(8a), thank you for this helpful information and for posting photos of your seedlings. ... Mary

I would seed them in the fall and in the spring. The ones seeded IN TEXAS in the fall bloom in the spring and the ones seeded in spring will give us bloom in the fall if the dry summer does not kill them . We are talking Texas dry and hot now. I do not irrigate so we are talking months with lots of 100+ and no rain. The better bloom for us is in the spring. You should be able to get bloom off the spring sowed ones if the fall ones freeze to death. Ask people in Texas for seed because we who grow them get LOTS of seed on each bloom. They will come with chaff though.

You're welcome Mary, I'm glad I could help. :-)

Wantonamara, I may sow some more because I was expecting more seedlings from all the seeds I sowed. I got a baggie full of seeds but I could tell the chaff apart from the seeds. I didn't know they would bloom so soon, does that mean I may see blooms this Fall?

They are annuals , here they can be winter annuals (biennial kind of) or summer annuals. They die once they flower. some will cut the stem off before it goes to seed and get branching and a minor rebloom. The deer do that gardening for me.

Thanks for that information wantonamara. I'll save the rest of the seeds then for next year's batch just in case. Were you the one who sent me seeds last year?

Spring means blooming Madrone Tree. Forgive the cardboard mess. We got a lot of stuff in and have not included it in a fire or in a bed yet. This tree was knee high when we moved out here. I did not even know it was a madrone and it is amazing that the builders did not trample it to death. It seems to bloom on cloudy days. The butterflies are out in force on it.

@BW, Yes, I probably sent them to you. I rake in chaff and all. Me lazy.....so I imitate nature.

I do the same thing too lol. At least the chaff feeds the soil a little lol.

Ooo, everything is so gorgeous!

Blackwillow, FWIW, Dutch iris have done very well here, blooming every year. We're on caliche, very little good dirt & they're in full sun--so maybe drainage & sun is a factor. These are just the big box store cheapies, but they've thrived.

Unknown daff.

Prairie verbena's a startin'
First tulip. These T. linifolias are doing well. Had a huge flush last year, anxious to see if they repeat.
Dutch iris--this may be Miss Saigon. (Mara, you have cardboard? I have uncovered black garbage sacks down on future pathways. Looks very classy :-p)
Good golly, Old Blush is a happy camper in TX! And it will continue to repeat on this scale through the year.
Primrose & veronica persica. I know, I know...but! What else will thrive on caliche garbage with no additional water or care, bloom for months & months...I love both of these. I like oxalis too, for that matter :-D Plenty to share for any of you similarly dirt-impaired folks.
Another Tulip linifolia--Tangerine beauty. Ooo, I love this flaming color!
Happy spring to you all!

Bluegirl_ gw, maybe I should add gravel to the area to help with the drainage? Your flowers are beautiful btw! I have some purple oxalis that I'm hoping will take over an area in my shade garden..

Many thanks--yours are too :-D

Yeah, maybe some sand or gravel, or a raised planting, or just in good, well draining, potting soil in full sun? We were able to grow the Dutch even in the rainy zone down sw of Houston, though the bearded iris would rot. We had gumbo there, but it was very heavily amended with tons of organic matter so that it was fluffy (I miss it now).

Hey, Omar--Pink Poodle looks happy. You know it's a child of Old Blush? And not in commerce anymore, from what I hear. It's a cutie--I have it in a big pot on the other side of its daddy.

Ragna, I love your Calliandra. I had one down south, but it froze--amazing you're keeping one so well much farther north. But then, I think you could make Popsicle sticks bloom ;-D

" I think you could make Popsicle sticks bloom " . No kidding!

bluegirl, PP is awesome! It seems happy in caliche soil (with some amendment, but caliche after all) . Those tulips look striking.

Omar

@bluegirl_gw, thank you! I like the raised bed idea and I have a few raised beds in my shade garden. Some of my Dutch irises are in pots and they're on the west side of my house so they get lots of afternoon sun. I wish I had fluffy soil, but most of my garden has gumbo, and there are a few shallow pockets of sandy loam.

just keep adding compost . expanded shale is good to add.

I wish I could afford expanded shale but it's so expensive around here. I got a large bag of pine bark fines and I'm going to get some Black Kow topsoil or composted manure to mix with it.

Having troubles sending PM, answer is yes, pls! Thank you

Look what I spotted while I was walking around my garden. I found flower buds on two of my Dutch irises! (Please pardon the dead banana and crinum stalks, and weeds.)

I love all of your blooms everyone! I garden like some of you, you should see the shredded leaves on cardboard in the butterfly garden. The leaves were dumped and never spread yet, the cardboard is to smother the lovely obedient plants that tried conquering that garden. Random empty pots scattered around. I don't even see your cardboard or dead foliage, I only see the pretty plants.

Good luck with the obedient plants. It's sad that such a pretty plant can be so invasive.

Every year this brings in my spring along with my madrone. BOY are the bees humming on this. It is ONE VINE! Slow and steady. Maybe I should trim it back.

Wow that's stunning! I had to do a severe pruning to my cross vine last year because I had to put it on a new sturdier trellis. For over 5 years it grew on a shepherd's hook and got so heavy it was leaning towards the pathway.

Are you going to build it an arbor, a big arbor?

I have it on three trellises that I put side by side to form a little wall.

I have had roses having their "spring flush" in early February this year. These are rose petals from my Cramoisi Superieur showering the ground a couple of weeks ago. I have bloom scapes on a couple of my daylilies and a Louisiana iris.

Everything is so early this year

Molly

Wow that's beautiful Molly! At first I thought it was an exotic vine covered in pink flowers.

Thank you all for sharing your wonderful photos. I loved seeing every one of them! I don't know what Mother Nature has in store for us this summer, but this is truly a wonderful spring.

It's amazing how the land can recover. This photo was taken right after things were cleaned up from the "big freeze". Whew, that was a LOT of work. The freeze and the hail storm was a double whammy for some of us.

Here things are brightening up. In the left foreground notice the mound of white wine cups that have taken over the planter. A couple of flowers have opened and the mound will soon explode in bloom. Thank you Mara! Both of my furry garden helpers are in the photo. Can you spot them?

Columbines ...

Wooly bee bush doesn't waste anytime in starting its almost year round bloom ...

The old man of the tree seems a bit surprised that I planted begonias in the little fountain. I'm amazed that the night blooming jasmine in the pot on the left survived the freeze with no protection. It probably helped that the roots go into the ground ...

To 'replace' the irreplaceable :-( shoe string acacia a little rusty black haw viburnum was planted. Thankfully the grey dyckia from Eric survived the freeze. It was unprotected. Mexican feather grass and four nerve daisy require no protection, nor did the Satsuma citrus against the brick wall. Agave blue glow in the big pot was damaged, but per Mara's suggestion I removed it and let it dry out before replanting ...

Well, the clock changed while we slept, but contrary to appearances it's still not 'officially' spring. Could've fooled me ... :-)

The begonias are just lovely in the fountain, Rosalea.

Wow it's amazing how fast your plants recovered after the freeze. I really like the blue frog too. :)

I found my pink mint (Drummond's Hedgenettle) is starting to bloom.

Love all the pics!

Na, winter is long gone, as you can see from 3 weeks of Jackman Clematis growth nearing the top of this 6.5' trellis.

Wow my clematis are still only a few inches tall.

Bluegirl/Karen : sent an email but it bounced back....please email me or send me a message via GardenWeb.

patty