First bloom

Sorry - no Saturday Sketches today. I did sketch, but I'm sending it off to someone as a surprise, so I can't show you yet.

And besides... I'm just too excited about this...

The first bloom of the season - the pink hyacinth the squirrels brought me last year. I wasn't too surprised this was the first. When I came home from work Thursday night, it looked ready to pop. And sure enough, when I kissed Dave goodbye from the porch Friday morning, I looked over and there she was - all bloomed!

And the first of the Turkistan Tulips made an appearance too. The white ones always seem to bloom first - in the next week or so, we'll see the yellow ones too.

Elsewhere in the gardens

The creeping Sedums I planted in the tree garden are starting to perk up and take over

I still have to move the Dianthans and the Campanula from this garden. I'll probably add some Portulaca for colour, but otherwise, this is going to be a low-maintenance, low water garden from here on out. It's just too hard to keep it going come high summer.

In the backyard...

The  Lilacs are inching closer to full glory.

I was getting worried about my Butterfly Bush

But she's starting to show signs of life. I'll have to start collecting coffee pods from mom again.

The Raspberries have gone wild.

 They are sprouting well out of bounds

I'm waiting to hear if my brother wants some for his garden -but either way they have to come up or they are going to take over.

The roses are doing alright

Tournament is doing the best - but she's the most established. She's also right against the house, where its warmer. Blue Girl is there beside her and definitely sprouting. All the other are just a little further behind, but they don't have the warmth of the brick to help things along.

The Bee Garden is all cleaned out and looking great. In another month or so, it will be filling out like crazy.

Overall, the gardens did well this winter. I did lose the Foxglove - though apparently they are fussy to get established (and I save some seeds and have some sprouting). Surprisingly, I lost the Black-Eyed Susans. I'm not sure what happened there, but I'll definitely have to get some more.

Not as surprisingly, the Lavender seems to be toast. And the Heath is probably gone too (it never was a super healthy specimen). I'm not seeing any signs of my poppies or Armeria which is a shame, but some plants just don't take well to being moved.

And it's not like I don't have a whole crop of new plants growing inside....