Third sign of spring

I hope everyone had a family filled holiday. Here in Michigan, we get a nice Easter, weather-wise, about every third year or so. This was one of the best in a long time. Absolutely wonderful. Knowing that the rest of the week is going to be wet, I puttered outside, tidying up my office garden in prep for the rain. My fall flowering clematis really likes where it is, and it outgrew my trellis, so I fussed with that most of the time, cutting back and tidying. It looks great, and there are leaf buds on it. The fall-flowering species flowers on new wood, so a severe haircut serves it well.

Bleeding hearts are coming up with a vengeance, and soon I won’t be able to see out the lower windows when they fill them up. Hellebores are in full bloom, and when I dropped into my home improvement store for a new pond pump, and gave Tim a scare when I started gasping at the plants in the now-open garden center. I bought a bulb garden for my dining table, but managed not to take anything home that needed to go into the ground. As beautiful as they are, it’s too soon yet to even put spring perennials in. There are places where the ground is still frozen if you try to dig; the earth is not warm through yet.

But the surface is, and my crocus are just starting their peak. Just yellow ones so far, but soon I should have white and purple.