First bloom

Finally - a day of warm weather and everything starts to unfold!

A wee Turkistan tulip is the first to bloom, but there will be lots more to follow! They are calling for warmth and sunshine all week! At last!

Out back things are looking just as good, though nothing will bloom here for at least another month.

The Alpine Aster is just going wild. It's doubled in size from what it was last year. I definitely think I'll get blooms on it this year. They come in shades of white, pink, purple and blue - and I have no idea what mine will be.

 The Columbine is growing in leaps and bounds. There's also a mystery plant beside it that for the life of me, I can't remember what I planted there. I guess I'll find out eventually.

I'm going to have a bumper crop of Black-Eyed Susans this year. Hopefully they won't all be mutants like the ones that managed to bloom last year.  There are several clumps - I forsee having to break them up and move them around in a year or two.

I think the Creeping Mazu is going to take things over too... It's coming up in all kinds of places.

And look - one of the leftover sunflower stumps is sprouting up.

But there are still several mysteries... like this plant. This is one of the perennials I bought last year. But I don't remember what it was... (and looking back at my list I made, I'm starting to think some of my clearance plants were mis-labelled).

And there are several patches of these little leaves coming up. After conferring with Google... I'm hoping against hope that these are the Echinacea that never made an appearance last year. I guess time will tell....