Hmm - the camelia disappeared - here it is:

I know that I should have added "OT" to the title of this thread, but I forgot, sorry.

I found some other plants with flowers blooming just now - hope they brighten up someone's winter in colder areas:

Another old old camellia planted by my DH's grandparents in the 1930s:

Dutch iris:

crocuses near the path in the front, and a bird in the bird bath! Also more helebores - my best bloomer mid-WInter.

Let's see what is blooming in your garden today!

Jackie

I love your photos !!

spring is so beautiful in so cal .

here i have one bolero bloom i didnt prune back

Roadside blooms that bring me so much joy

Sorry thats all i have now ! i do have some snaps to plant that are blooming but thats cheating :)

Beautiful! Here there are some daffodils blooming and crocus. Red maple trees are getting some red leaf buds.

Thank you both!

Lilyfinch - do you know which wildflowers are in that pic? That is amazing!

Jackie

Lots of snowdrops, they are so promiscuous! Crocus, hellebores and violets.My old quince looks to be the same variety as yours, had a major pruning by the arborist so I'm sure flowering will be delayed. At one point it swallowed him up when he was trying to remove some of the inner trunks. I consider it a gem of the garden, it's in leaf most of the year and flowers on and off for about 9-10 months.

Sydonie, a band rose that arrived last November. My first bloom and it is very fragrant. There were three or four more buds I am excited to see.

I think we are a bit early here, but not by much.

Snowdrops

These started out as about 2 dozen bulbs.

Early Crocus

These may be Blue Pearl. They aren't somewhere I planted crocus, so either squirrels have been doing landscaping, or these are seedlings.

Helleborus foetidus

The more usual hellebore hybrids aren't blooming yet, but this one is a week or two earlier.

Hellebores and camellias are blooming here too.

The cyclamen and crocus seem to glow.

Happy days for all who have blooms in the garden: I've been enjoying the photos. Various comments:

Jackie, what a beauty that first photo of 'Safrano' is. I have this variety, too, but it's seldom as handsome as that (it grows in starved conditions).

RBEHS: that looks like a really interesting collection of plants. You must live in a very mild climate if you can grow Cyclamen persicum outdoors. In my Zone 8 (though lately it's been more like Zone 9 or even 10) garden I have C. hederifolium, C. cilicium, and C. coum, all there for years, and the first two expanding. I love cyclamen! Also daphnes!

Mad_gallica, I'm sorry, but I'm going to rain, or snow, a little on your parade: that's not Helleborus foetidus. It grows wild here and I have it in the woods and the garden. H. foetidus has clusters of small, cupped flowers, lime green rimmed with maroon, rising above a base of dark green leaves. I don't recognize yours.

RBEHS - your picture of that species cyclamen is astonishingly beautiful - the blooms look like little flames.

Melissa - my Safrano opens that lovely yellow gold, which I presume is why they used that name. However, within a few hours the blooms fade to what they look like in the second pic I posted - a sort of pinkish cream color. The blooms stick on the bush for a long time, so the general effect is cream blossoms with a LOT of red new growth - I like it despite the vanishing lovely early color,

Jackie

Melissa, you made me look it up. That hellebore is really an H. niger cultivar. I mostly think of it in my head as 'the really, really early white one.'

Mad_gallica, good to know: I was wondering. I have H. foetidus, H. viridis, both native, and descendants of garden hellebores in the garden and woods, but your plant didn't look like any of them. I just got my first H. niger this winter and haven't really gotten acquainted with it yet so didn't think of it. The good thing is, this all led me to read up a bit on hellebores, and I discovered a hellebore nursery, I believe up in Como province. So it was profitable.

I have some crocus, iris, hellobores, and winter daphne blooming in my garden. Here are a few photos of them.

Daphne odora 'Zuiko Nishiki'. Super fragrant!

Thank you Fely! Your climate is cooler than ours, but all of your plants grow here too. I would love to grow daphne - I see hedges of it around our neighborhood when I go out for a walk. However, I was at our nursery yesterday, and they said that it likes shade (which is good, as we have a lot of that in our garden), but absolutely need really good drainage. Well, our lot is only 6 ft above sea level. It does drain OK, as my DH has done work over the years to maks sure of that. However, last winter and this winter we have gotten several inches of rain in one week - frequently. Then the soil cannot drain as fast as the rain is coming down, and we get ponds forming in some areas for a day or so. Even after a few days of sun between the storms, the soil is fairly saturated, and I do not walk on the beds. So, I don't think I have anyplace that would be safe to plant a daphne. Have to think about whether I can talk my DH into building a raised bed for one, I guess. How is the drainage where you grow yours?

Jackie

Jackie, Winter Daphne is notoriously picky, so I was very nervous when planting it. Since I have sandy soil, I have no help with the drainage. If you have a wet spot, a raised bed might be a good idea. My neighbor planted hers on a north facing slope and it does very well. In addition to needing good drainage, it also doesn't like strong winds, so choosing a protected location may be important. Another sites that I think of may work is planting it under the eaves or the edge of a dry shade area. Once a Winter Daphne establishes, it should be able to withstand some drought.

Today I discovered that Pulmonaria 'Blue Ensign' is in bloom in the windy rain, as well as the Osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis), a native. Not good pics. It's chilly outside.

Isn't it wonderful walking around the garden every day at this time of year, and finding new things sprouting or blooming every day? I love it.

Thanks for the info about daphne. I do have one raised bed, right next to our 3 story house, so it gets shelter from winds and is in mostlhy shade. Because of the house, it does not get much rain when it is raining. The plant in it right now is not happy, so maybe I will replace it with a daphne and see what happens.

Jackie

Wow! love to see this greenery and blooming lushness. Love the roses, quince and the roadside wild flowers. Every year i think, I have to plant snowdrops and then I dont. The Daphne is so lovely. And the croci. Saffrano is on my wish list and that Sydonie is so pretty! I want to try cyclamen in the GH.

Despite the terrifying lack of snow cover, nothing is blooming or even emerging at my house yet except my witch hazel, greenhouse hellebores, and forsythia I forced in the house. I also force tulips for my biz but those, usually easy except going outside in 18F , have been a struggle in our warmish very damp winter with multiple trays lost to stem topple. 😭

The roses in my GH are putting on a lot of new leaves Super exciting to me. Outside everything is brown, so I am glad for any color:

Here are two more I saw in my garden today (first day I have been able to get out there because of our 3 day rainstorm):

1) aforementioned oxalis and forget-me-nots - they just plant themselves - no action needed by gardener!:

2) Serendipity between rhododendron and nearby hellebore (no, I did not plan this, but I did notice it):

Hyacinths are starting up . Tulip leaves are up. In the area there are wild Bradford pears starting. There are tons of them in the woods. Flowering peach trees are blooming pink.

I saw some forsythia blooming yesterday though mine's not just yet. I'm pruning anyway.

Saw a violet yesterday.

The only things with open flowers right now are the Phalaenopsis orchids.

BUT Madame Dore, Pink Gruss an Aachen, Enfant de France, and Moroccan Rose all have buds. I'm especially happy about the latter three because these will be the first ever blooms from them.

Thanks for the kind words about my cyclamen. I felt bad that it was blooming so nicely, but largely hidden by two libertias.

Here are a few more pictures:

The Doctor is paying the price for trying to bloom right now--the giant blooms are not a fit with cold rain:

Bengal Crimson (the leaf is La Bell Sultane):

General Schablikine:

Iris confusa with Fuchsia splendens in the background: