Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens! This is a special Bloom Day for me, as today is the 20th anniversary of living here at Squirrelhaven. Here in Chicagoland, the slightly delayed spring has finally kicked into gear, with the snowdrops and snow crocuses now just a memory, and the hellebores, daffodils,
and wildflowers coming into bloom. Hepatica nobilis var. acuta is always the first to bloom.
This particular plant's blooms are more lavender than those of its parent. And no, I would not call it blue.
The first of the bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) opened yesterday, but not today, as the appearance of sunshine was brief. Not that I'm complaining about any rain.
In addition to the little native plants, Pulsatilla vulgaris also is in bloom, but closed today due to the overcast.
These plants figure it's not worth opening if the bees won't be around to pollinate them.
In bulbland, the winter aconites (Eranthis cilicica) are on their last gasp.
The little bulbous irises look lovely under overcast skies,
and the lawn is greening up beneath the Pushkinia libanotica.
While many people around here are grousing over the "lousy" weather, I find lots of rain and below average temperatures to be a big improvement over last year. It's a toss-up whether this is the latest spring here at Squirrelhaven. In 1997 (my benchmark), the Forsythia and Erythronium dens-canis was already in bloom but the Sanguinaria was not on April 15. The dogtooth violet is not in bloom yet this year, but very soon.
Other blooms (yes, there are more!)
Crocus tommasinianus 'Barr's Purple'
Hamamelis 'Sunburst' (this has to be a record for longest bloom time)
Helleborus x hybridus 'Ballerina', 'Kingston Cardinal', 'Pink Lady' and 'Red Mountain'
Iris reticulata 'Pixie'
Scilla siberica
Narcissus 'February Silver' and 'Ice Follies'
Next time: the results of the paperwhite scientific experiment.