Look at my Smokey out in the c-c-c-c-cold...(I wanna come in mommy).

The tulips are from the bulbs we were given by the B&B hosts on Mackinac Island. Nice to see there is still a tulip in there since we planted around 100 of these things around the house last fall.

The azalea branch

missed opportunity...

It snowed again...big time. This is the snowiest winter I've seen in a very long time. Was going to cut some new forsythia branches either Saturday or Sunday, but it snowed and I not only don't like to walk in the tall, wet snow these days, but I don't like to leave footprints in fresh snow...for aesthetics.

The azalea branch is starting to bloom. I'm sure when I get home tonight, I will have at least one flower on the branch.

The little dwarf irises that I received from Ilene Lock last week, I left on my desk over the weekend and all the pretty flowers that bloomed last week are all dried up! Oh well...I'm pretty sure more will be blooming.

let the flowering begin...

The forsythia that I brought in a week ago Sunday has started blooming; meaning that the flowers are unraveling from their casings. Just a flower or two at the moment, but within a day or two, I’m sure the whole branch will be yellow.

The Azalea hasn’t shown much “growth” yet, but give it another week and I’m sure the blooms will begin.

The tulips and daffodils that I planted a couple of weeks back are also growing. The tulips are already over three inches tall and over the weekend I’ve noticed the tip of one daffodil. I’m not sure the other daffodil will bloom since I noticed when I planted it, the bulb was very light and dry, so it’s possible that it will not grow, since it may have died over the winter.

I find it interesting that the tulips are growing quicker than the daffodils since the latter is supposed to be one of the first to bloom in the spring; along with crocuses.

spring thaw...

Since we are experiencing some milder weather at the moment and a lot of the snow that was close to the house has melted, I decided to rake the leaves that were in the flower beds by the backdoor of the house. Usually these bulbs start growing earlier than any other because they are next to the south facing brick and get warmed up pretty quickly.

The first rake through, I noticed that ALREADY a tulip is poking his head out. When I cleared more leaves, it was amazing just how much growth was under there – everything is growing and quite a bit! I really hope that they survive now that I’ve gotten rid of their insulation. I guess it’s time that my spring flower “growing/dying anxiety” rears its ugly head. It’s just that last year it was nearly impossible to remove the leaves once the flowers started growing into them – the leaves veins would choke the greenery.

Yep, I just checked my gardening journal and I noticed them growing 2 weeks sooner than last year. Some are already over an inch high.

forcing...

It’s been just over a week since I’ve planted 2 tulip bulbs and 2 daffodil bulbs in a terracotta pot for forcing. I did what I was supposed to do; only accelerated. I had them in the cellar for a few days, then I put them in the cold dining room for a day, then moved them to a nice place in the sun in the living room. Noticed on Friday that I could see the top of one tulip poking through the soil. Last night one was over an inch tall and another one is poking his little head through the soil.

On Sunday I clipped a few forsythia branches and an azalea branch to bring into the house for forcing. In the past, forsythia took a week to bloom and azalea took 2 weeks.

Just trying to bring some Spring into the house.