Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day

“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

It's March 15, Bloom Day, the day when all the garden bloggers report on what's in flower in their own gardens, on the May Dreams Garden site. Actually, last month I had one or two things to report, but by now the late winter flowers are in full swing.

Here's the list, in no particular order:
Hamamellis 'Diane' - a nice red Witch Hazel
Hamamellis 'Arnold Promise' - one of the most reliable and popular witch hazels
Viburnum Viburnum bodnantense - Dawn Viburnum
Erica carnea - winter heath, a subshrub in pink, purple, white
Jasminum nudiflorum - winter jasmine, a lax shrub that puts forsythia to shame
Helleborus niger - the Christmas rose
Helleborus foetidus - stinking hellebore
Helleborus x hybridus - oriental hellebore
Galanthus nivalis - snowdrops
Crocus - these beauties are just beginning
Eranthis hyemalis - winter aconite, a cute little yellow spring ephemeral

Almost as exciting as the flowers are the emerging foliage of plants that will put on their show later in the season. Some of the sedums have beautiful, tiny rosettes of pale green leaves emerging now; I do believe I like them now more than in summer when they're at their theoretical peak. Also going on now, the peonies are budding up, with those great bright red buds, and the spring viburnums' flower buds, which have been tightly furled all winter, are starting to expand.