Perennials Popping Up

With all the unusually warm weather, tidying up the front garden meant that we came across lots of green shoots popping up in the perennial border. Of course there are daffodils and other bulbs coming up, which is normal for this time of year:


In addition to the bulbs I planted last fall, there are also some rogue crocuses getting ready to open:


I remember there being some crocuses in the border when we moved in, but I thought I probably dug them all up when I overhauled the plantings last summer. There are two clear patches of crocuses now--one near the climbing rose by the back gate, and one (above) in the front yard section of the border. I'll let you know what color they are when they open.

Next, when I took the mulch off of the old climbing roses, I saw this:


These are buds on our clematis vine. We transplanted this from a terrible spot along the fence in the driveway (where it managed to bloom despite being planted in pebbly, sandy "soil"). I read that moving clematis in the summer is a bad idea, but we didn't have a choice if we wanted to save it from all the bobcat digging and stone dust laying that went on last summer. I'm glad to see that (so far) the transplant looks to have been successful.

The climbing roses that were mulched all look pretty healthy--not too much die-back, and lots of nice new buds. Also looking good are the White-out roses I planted last August. They still have last year's leaves and a few hips hanging on, looking all dead and crunchy. There's not much I can do (painlessly, anyway) to get rid of that. It should disappear from view, though, when it leafs out later this spring. It has LOTS of buds on it, so it should look lush again soon, even though it's not so hot right now:


Other plants that are pushing spring earlier this year are...


peonies


daylilies 


garden phlox

The peonies I get, because they are tough and bloom in the spring, and I have also seen daylilies poke their leaves up fairly early in the spring if it's warm. But the garden phlox? That just seems crazy. But it's a crazy year so far, so I guess I should be expecting the unexpected by now.

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