The first sign of Spring here is usually pussywillows. This was taken yesterday beside our brook.

This is how the landscape looked yesterday. I'm pleased with the growth of these young blue spruce.

This is what the landscape looks like today. (Boo! Hiss!)

What are the blue bottles on the birdhouse post for or are they garden art? Just wondering. Blizzard here today but not as much snow as farther east.

The bottles are garden art, but not one of my original ideas. Bottle trees have a long history: http://www.wideopencountry.com/bottle-trees-uniquely-southern-tradition/  The utility pole was sawed off to this length by a marble company when they gave up their right-of-way to run power lines across our property, and it became a base for our birdhouse and for our collection of accumulated blue glass bottles.

Neat article. Thanks, sped!

We still have a fair amount of crusty snow, though the vegetable garden is slowly emerging. Unlike Sped, we didn't get any accumulation from the storm, just slush followed by rain to wash it away.

Bulb foliage and evergreen perennials are emerging against the foundation, and just popping through in some of the other beds, though the vole damage is also becoming visible.

The Rhododendron leaves were damaged by the extended cold in late December and January, but IME the flowers will be fine, and once new leavesl replace the damaged ones it will look fine until the next difficult winter. The leaves that were protected by the snow or shaded by other leaves look much better.

Today I am planning to do some above ground garden cleanup and perhaps some vole tunnel stomping as well. I think I will be missing a number of balloon flowers from the bed shown above and perhaps other plants as well.

My landscape has been mostly water due to the storm - I cannot take credit for most of these photos

A friend's house in Nahant, MA

But these beauties showed up today and brightened my day

Suzabanana, we must be neighbors. I am in Salem. Are those dwarf irises? They are beautiful!

Thank you for a dose of ocean, Suzabanana, via the pictures. Whatever mood the sea is in, it's a welcome break from my own land-locked habitat. Those last flowers are really exotic looking (irises?). Very pretty and unusual!

Here is my garden today at sunset. The color is real, lasted for 2 minutes.

Freaking AMAZING! That's really spectacular to the point of being unbelievable (but I believe you)!

I know it's unbelievable. We get these sunsets some days here in the Catskills that turn the whole landscape blue or pink or orange for a few minutes, heightened when there's snow to reflect it. They're easy to miss if you're not looking.

This last snow is so spectacularly beautiful. Everything is covered with inches of wet snow, trees bent down under the weight. Thank goodness we have power this time. Now to go out and shovel it all...helebores are blooming under all that as usual. This is March here.

Yes, they are Dwarf Iris - Katherine Hodgkin and they have been so lovely! I'm definitely considering more with the link NHBabs offered. Squirrels haven't touched them, so they are a win!

Jana Silvia - I am in Swampscott, so we are neighbors! Our view has changed once again to snow. Not sure the irises will survive, but I am looking forward to digging out my hellebores!

Suzabanana, IME if the iris are just opening they will most likely be fine with getting snowed on, but if they have been blooming for a while they may be toast. The older blooms seem less snow resistant. I like planting them near the south-facing foundation since it gets warm first, has less snow due to the roof overhang, and they are visible because the perennials haven't sprouted yet. When the perennials appear they help hide the old iris foliage until it dies back. These are often my first blooms after the spring witch hazels, appearing in midMarch to early April and sometimes lasting for 3 weeks due to cool temperatures. I have found them to be relatively unpalatable to the voles as well, though I seem to lose a few every year and have to replace them periodically. I first saw them on the B&B bulbs site many years ago and for that reason alone always buy my iris from them. Anything that has the possibility of blooms in March in NH is a win in my garden!

Scary water pics, suzabanana, but the irises are lovely!

Gorgeous blue sunset, susanzone5!

Snow in March can be really depressing, but one of the good things about March is that snow can be a spring ephemeral:

This morning at about 8AM - another winter wonderland (blech):

But three hours later, at about 11AM (yay!):

I have some hellebore buds up and some tiny daffodil sprouts. No crocuses yet, although they have a habit of hiding when I walk by and then jumping up in full bloom.

Claire

Our snow is still falling, Claire. I really love the spring ephemeral point of view. Truly right, and beautiful. I hope you can see the big flakes falling in the middle of the picture below, which was taken just a second ago.

OK, I'll admit that snow in March is depressing, but for me it is only because I love skiing and have had to skip 2 years. Usually snow in March meant fantastic days at the slopes. I really miss it. I love gardening, but I am one who honestly does not hurry winter along...until mud season arrives.

15+ ", Kousa dogwood, the star of the front garden, split. I've rung the arborist who gave it to me to see if it can be saved. Considering the weight of this snow, it's quite lucky more trees weren't split. Pinus strobis suffered loss of some lower limbs, but the trees are still standing.

We'll see. It's time...gray, gray winter has worn out her welcome for me. We're lucky the power kept coming back on.

Jane

I hate winter and snow - skiing makes it tolerable! In fact we just booked a place for this weekend over at Killington to take advantage of the 12+ inches they've received! Hoping to come back to those dwarf irises poking out of the snow on Monday :)

Jane, I am sorry about the Kousa. Hopefully it can be saved, but replacement is always an option. Mine has grown relatively fast despite some setbacks due to weather. They do have such nice flowers and autumn color.

Good luck with the Kousa, Jane. I'm rooting for saving it - they're wonderful trees.

Claire

The snow came down here in big fat flakes until about an hour ago (roughly 5 pm -ish). I am shocked our power is still on. Husband went out on the road and he said trees everywhere are bent nearly to the ground.

Jane: check this out on repairing broken branch. Good luck with the Kousa. I have a big Blue Spruce uprooted over the weekend due to heavy snow. Called my arborist and hopefully it's still worth to replant it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=_FIKZ3Jbw_k

cwoo - how very kind of you to post this link. Thanks very much! It is exactly what I was describing to the arborist in the hope of saving this main artery. We had a sugar maple cabled 35-40 years ago and the tree is wonderfully healthy. If our kousa IS cabled and strapped, I will post it. Again, thank you for your kindness.

Jane

Loved the beauty of the storm. It really was a winter wonderland for a nice long time. Our Japanese maple:

Here's a link to a blog written by one of the botanists who works at the Denver Botanic Garden. This week's entry had a real emphasis on the little early irises with lots of photos, though he also looked at a few of the other early bulbs.

http://prairiebreak.blogspot.com/2018/03/winter-waifs-and-springtime-spirits.html

We are used to the pine limbs falling, but were surprised to find half of our our Washington elm down on Thursday morning. It also took out a nearby bluebird box. Hope we can salvage what's left of the tree. It provides shade for us and cover for the birds. Another storm Tuesday so any cleanup will have to wait. Spring can come anytime. Susan

Good luck with the elm, Susan - it's much harder to repair than a bluebird box (that sounds callous, it wasn't meant to be). These multiple storms are causing a lot of damage to trees and a lot of stress to humans. I hope Tuesday's forecast eases up a bit with the later weather models as it gets closer.

"Spring can come anytime" says it well.

Claire

Oh, the tree does look dreadful, Susan. Hope it is salvageable. I noticed several lacebark elms at work, which have dense clustered twigs, caught a lot of snow and each had several branches or upper trunks just shattered from the stress. I wonder if elms are less flexible so that they are more readily bent past their capacity to flex.

Tuesday is the voting part of town meeting and school meeting in NH, and the state attorney general has told towns that they aren't allowed to change the day for voting if the weather is bad, which the towns don't like and may not comply with - several didn't last year. What a mess these late winter storms create!

First crocus today, probably C. tommasinianus 'Albus'.

Look in the lower left quadrant, guarded by the granite tortoise.

I have a few hellebore buds that refuse to open until the weather gets better, and a bunch of snowdrops.

The hellebores have it right since all of these flowers will be buried under snow tomorrow.

Claire

I was surprised that 'Albus' was first, and sure enough when I was out around 5 PM preparing for the storm I found another patch of tommies lurking under the beach plum. I hadn't been in that area for a few days. At 5 PM the crocuses were closed for the night so I'm not sure which tommie these are, maybe 'Roseus' which has been early in previous years.

Normally I'd check in the morning when they would be open, but they'll be covered with snow then.

Claire

edit note: This was C. tommasinianus 'Roseus' on February 25, 2017:

Here we go again! The third Nor'easter in as many weeks! Claire, you may get it worse than I, being here in Providence and you on the Cape. Good luck!

Thanks, Bill! There's a Blizzard Warning now with all sorts of scary possibilities. This is no way to run up to Spring! Enough already, Mother Nature.

Claire

The people in town believe that we are getting 18" tomorrow and 10" more on Wednesday. That doesn't sound right to me. I choose to believe it is wrong. I love snow, but that much wet spring snow doesn't sound too ideal. (And, we still haven't gotten a generator set up. You'd think we would have learned after 8 days without power in the biggie last ?December? This summer...)

We are now supposed to get 12-18 inches, and winds 35-50, gusts to 60+. Winter isn't going out peacefully!

And yesterday I was admiring my crocuses and winter jasmine blooms!

Good luck everyone.

Wishing everyone continued power. Stay warm and safe.

Thanks, NHBabs. We only got about 8 inches of snow but it was heavy, wet and dense since the temperature stayed around freezing. The winds were the problem along with the heavy snow - not as bad as previously but maybe it was the tipping point for some trees. The top of one pitch pine came down and landed on an American holly and a blueberry bush.

Broken top of pitch pine:

Broken top on ground. That's blocking my preferred path to some bird feeders. The secondary path is OK after some clearing.

I cleared a lot of the fallen branches trying to see if I could save the holly. It's bent over and I don't know yet if it can be stood up again and survive. It was about ten feet tall, maybe a little more.

Broken holly trunk:

Holly parallel to the ground (I removed a lot of pine branches on top of the holly):

This is one of two Ilex opaca 'Goldy' trees and the yellow berries are a joy in the winter.

A big limb fell off another pitch pine and is currently resting in the vicinity of some osmanthus shrub/trees. I haven't gotten to clearing that area yet so I'm not sure of the damage.

Claire

Claire, your Goldy may resprouting from the roots even if the top is toast. I am sorry to see the damage, however, since it was a striking plant that created some serious envy here where evergreen hollies struggle when they aren't outright killed. Hopefully the Osmanthus is in better shape.

Thanks, NHBabs, that's great to know! I may have to remove the top; I haven't decided yet. The other Goldy got a glancing blow but seems OK, as is the Jersey Knight which is the male pollinator and lost a branch but is otherwise intact. I need to do some more clearing around the hollies but the osmanthus grove has priority for tomorrow's work (the car and driveway and bird paths are clear).

Claire

Claire, sorry about your holly. But I can tell you that I had one (Not golden, just plain American) that I had to have cut down because it was just in the wrong place and maybe 40+ years old. And it is still sprouting from the base after 3 years! So I think yours will grow back.

Thanks, Bill - I really hope that happens. This holly is a favorite and I'd hate to completely lose it.

Claire

Claire, I think that if you check to find a place where you can make a clean cut and not leave any splits that might invite disease or rot, then it should be fine.

Too late for that, Bill. I cleared a whole lot more of the pine branches and tried to raise up the holly but it was too heavy and there were branches in the way. The fallen holly was blocking the path so I then cut off about 4 or 5 feet of the top of the fallen holly but left 4 or 5 feet of the broken section. That gave me enough room to pass by.

After more clearing of pine branches and huffing and puffing, I had my path open again. I was emboldened to try to raise the holly again now that it was lighter and not blocked, and I managed to raise it up straight and lash it to a major piece of the broken pine.

I have no idea if the holly can heal that splinted portion but at least it has a chance, and maybe the intact leaves will be able to feed the roots for long enough to help root sprouting.

It's a good thing I'm not a neat and tidy gardener. I have pieces of pine trees lying all over the place - maybe I can pass them off as decorative elements?

Claire

Claire, you can also try starting more bushes by making cuttings from the top trunk that you removed. I imagine you can find directions online or by asking on the shrubs forum if you are interested.

I hope you keep us updated as far as how the splinting works out.

Good idea, NHBabs, about rooting cuttings. I may do that.

Claire

Claire, if any branches are near the ground, you could also try ground layering. Make a small wound in the bark of a branch where it can be bent to touch the ground. Dust it with rooting powder. Then make a shallow hole in the ground at that point and pin that wounded spot to the soil, and cover it with soil, and it should take root at that spot. Once it's rooted you can cut it from the original as a new plant. I've done it with a Rhododendron and it works quite well.

Thanks, Bill. Lots of options. I don't think any branches are low enough but I'll check later (when I go out to complete the osmanthus freeing process).

The O. Goshiki shrubs were just bent over so I could easily free them. The big old osmanthus has a major pine limb resting on an osmanthus branch. Triage told me that could wait until the holly was dealt with.

Claire

It's warmed up a bit and the snow is melting so I went looking for crocuses. I found a bunch of them, all tommasinianus varieties.

Probably the species:

Probably 'Ruby Giant':

The hellebore buds are getting closer to opening. I'm not sure which hellebore this is - I need to see an open flower.

and some snowdrops, maybe 'viridi-apice':

We may get some snow tonight and tomorrow so all these guys may be buried again (sigh). They're forecasting less than an inch but when you're a plant that's maybe an inch or two tall that's a lot of snow.

Claire