Spring is moving along quickly now and magnolias are blossoming all over town. I thought this one was particularly beautiful even though it didn’t seem to have any scent.
Grape hyacinths have also suddenly appeared. There was no sign of them a week ago but here they are. Last year at this time I saw hundreds in bloom so they’re just a little later this year.
I want to call this photo “suddenly scilla” because last week there were about three blossoms here. I couldn’t believe they could grow and blossom so fast. It must be the higher temps we’ve had over the past week.
There isn’t anything about scilla that I don’t like. I especially like their beautiful color.
Forsythias are blooming in nearly every yard now. They are common and over used, but I have a hard time imagining spring without them. They ask for nothing and bloom profusely each spring and I think that must be what makes them so popular.
I saw some beautiful deep purple hyacinths.
I have to say that I wasn’t that crazy about the color of this hellebore but its center caught my attention.
It seems to have little trumpets in there, heralding spring perhaps. Every time I see hellebores I wonder why nobody I ever worked for as a gardener grew them. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous.
Speaking of absolutely gorgeous hellebores, here’s one now. Friends of mine grow this one in their garden and I’m no hellebore expert but it is easily the prettiest one I’ve seen.
Pulmonaria (Pulmonaria officinalis) is an old fashioned but pretty evergreen garden plant that originally hails from Europe and Asia. The silver mottled leaves were once thought to resemble a diseased lung and so its common name became lungwort. People thought it would cure respiratory ailments like bronchitis and the leaves were and still are used medicinally in tinctures and infusions. The leaves and flowers are edible, and if you’ve ever had vermouth you’ve had a splash of lungwort. The plant does well in shade and has flowers of blue, pink, white, purple and red.
I checked this spot 7 days before this photo was taken and there wasn’t a single sign of bloodroot but on this day they were everywhere. That’s how fast spring ephemeral flowers move and you have to be quick to catch some of them. I check locations where they grow at least once each week and usually twice.
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is a beautiful little wildflower that gets its common name from the red-orange sap that bleeds from its damaged root. Each white flower is about an inch across and for me at least, they refuse to open on a cloudy day. They grow in full sunlight but if you catch them on a partly sunny day just after a cloud covers the sun you can see the venation in the petals. In bright sunshine they disappear in a photo, so you’ve got to get lucky.
Did I mention that you have to be quick with spring ephemerals? These bloodroot plants weren’t even up 7 days ago, but the flowers were already pollinated and shattering on this day.
If you find yourself in a forest unable to take a step without stepping on a wildflower, then you have hit the jackpot as I did Saturday. Many thousands of spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) had suddenly appeared where a week ago there were just a few. They carpeted the forest floor and stopped me where I stood.
I couldn’t bear the thought of stepping on such beautiful things, so I just admired them and then turned and left. This is the time I wish I had a wide angle lens because tens of thousands of them all blooming at once is an unforgettable sight.
I know where there are tens of thousands of trout lilies (Erythronium americanum) carpeting the forest floor too, but I only saw exactly two with buds, and this is one of them. For some reason they seem held back this year. They usually bloom before or along with spring beauties.
Willows continue to bloom and some still have catkins on them that haven’t flowered yet, so they may have an extended bloom period this year. That will be good for the bees, which seem to love them.
In my last flower post I showed purple trillium (Trillium erectum) shoots just out of the ground. Here they are exactly a week later, not only fully grown but budded as well.
Some of the trillium buds had broken, showing the deep purple red color within. I’m guessing a couple days of warmth and sunshine will have them all opening. Seeing the trilliums bloom is my signal to start thinking about going on a hike up in Westmoreland to the ledges where hundreds of wild columbines grow.
Common blue violets (Viola sororia) are having a good spring much to the displeasure of many a gardener, I’m sure. Though pretty, these little plants can over take a garden in no time at all if left to their own devices. Violets are known for their prolific seed production. They have petal-less flowers called cleistogamous flowers which fling their seeds out of the 3 part seed capsules with force. They do this in summer when we think they aren’t blooming. Personally I tired of fighting them a long time ago and now I just enjoy them. They’re very pretty little things and their leaves and flowers are even edible. Though called “blue” they’re usually a shade of purple but since I’m colorblind blue works for me.
It won’t be long before I’m showing lilacs here I’m guessing, but I said that last year and then a rainy, cool first half of May held them back for two weeks. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen again!
Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its vigor. ~Henry Ward Beecher.
Thanks for coming by.
You’re so right about the spring ephemerals, they bloom and die all too quickly! Even though I try to get out to find the most of them that I can, I miss many of them because they hadn’t begun blooming when I had a chance to look for them, and they’ve already bloomed by the next time I’m able to look for them.
I agree with you about the two hellebores, the center of the first one is very interesting, but I’m not crazy about the color. However, the second one is stunning!
I like the violets, even though they can be very invasive in a garden, seeing them bloom in masses in the woods is always a welcome sight.
I’m so glad that you have the time to track down as many of these as you have, they’ve certainly tightened up my day.
Thanks Jerry! I had to laugh at your first sentence. It seems like all I’ve done today is find myself too early or too late, so I know just how you feel. This crazy weather really is affecting the plants.
I love to see masses of violets too, even if they’re on my lawn. I don’t have many but I wish I did.
I’m glad you liked the flowers. I hope you’ll find even more!
Beautiful, beautiful!! Spring seems to be stop, start, stop, start everywhere this year. We are warming up again after another cold wet spell.
Your spring flowers are gorgeous! It is such a pity they are so short lived. I am always disappointed if I miss the bloom of a favourite flower.
Thank you Clare. It does seem to be the same spring this year no matter where I read it from. We just saw three or four days of summer with 80+ heat and high humidity. It’s hard to get used to that in May!
I wish the spring flowers would last longer too. I do my best to see them all but I always seem to miss one or two!
I love seeing all your beautiful spring flower photos. That is interesting to read about the lungwort and vermouth. The only flowers I have spotted so far are in the greenhouse down my road. We have had a few days of sunshine so hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer.
Thank you Penny. For some reason I found your comment in the spam folder, but there’s nothing to it. It happens more often than you’d think and one time poor Clare Pooley had all her comments lost on every blog she visited. It’s a quirk of WordPress that seems to just straighten itself out after a while. For that reason I try not to delete the spam until I see who it’s from, but I get a lot of bothersome comments!
I truly hope spring will appear there soon for you. Montucky found bluebells blooming in his part of Montana, last week I believe.
Thank you for telling me this. Blogworld is relatively new to me and I admit I felt perhaps not seeing a reply meant you preferred not having my comments. I enjoy your blog so much and have learned a great deal. I will check out Montucky’s blog to see where the flowers are hiding.
No, I would never do that to anyone. These comments have to be approved before others see them so the bad ones go away and nobody knows it except the sender and myself. They’re almost always someone trying to scam money.
I bet you’ll love Montucky’s blog. He’s in your home state and he takes some incredible photos of wildflowers and the scenery, which is gorgeous, as you most likely know. I don’t let a day go by without visiting his blog and once you’ve seen it I doubt you will either.
Spring has sprung and your photos of the flowers are pretty! We also have scilla blooming abundantly. Daffodils and hyacinths now opening at last and white trillium getting ready to bloom.
Thank you Cynthia. You’re lucky to have white trillium in your yard!
Excellent close up of the Scilla. I arrived home today and found flowers blooming everywhere in the upper 80s heat. Unfortunately, the Scilla were fading in the heat.
Thanks! Yes, same here. Too hot too soon.
Your picture of the scilla was first rate. I will now have to go back and look at the ones in our garden much more closely.
I have noted the little trumpets on the hellebores in our garden and wondered what their function was. You have answered the question very imaginatively.
Thank you. You might have to search a bit to find one that isn’t nodding.
I love seeing your early flowers! Your area is still far ahead of ours: I saw only a few new blooms on a trip yesterday. But they will come!
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
Thanks Montucky! It’s funny how we keep see sawing back and forth. It was nearly 90 here today and you can almost hear the tree leaves opening!
Lovely photos! We don’t fight the violets either. ☺
Thank you. Life is so much easier (and prettier) when you don’t!
Spring, spring, spring! You are ahead of us, but at least we have got a glimpse of her pretty face.
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
Thank you Laurie. At least you know what’s coming your way!
Not many flowers yet, but the grass is getting green and the weather is much warmer.
It sounds like it won’t be long now!
Not long!
Thanks for encouraging us to slow down and look with care!
You’re welcome Cathy, and thank you. Slowing down is really the only way I’ve found to see those “hidden” things, and even then I don’t see them all.
Looks like you are trailing us by about two weeks. Love the willows catkin.
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
Thanks! It’s fun to see what will be here by seeing what is there.
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
Spring has sprung. I have hellebore, magnolia, grape hyacinth, daffodils but not trout lilies or trillium.
Thank you John. I know you can buy trillium at garden centers but I’m not sure about trout lilies.
There’s nothing to beat a post full of Spring flowers and that hellebore you featured is the most beautiful of them all.
Thank you, That hellebore always makes me want a yard full of them.