The Daffodils of March (and a Few Other Blooms)

Oh, daffodils, how happy are your faces, and how bravely you endure rainy days and chilly, even freezing nights!

I am so glad to see the the sunny colors of daffodils, blooming by the hundreds in my March garden. Normally, early bloomers push up in January or February, but this year they waited into March; and at same time, the rest of the daffodils felt the warm sunshine and decided to bloom, too. So now we have this mass of daffodils, and I can't help but be pleased:

Little else is blooming, although buds are swelling slowly on the quince bushes:

And I must not forget the hellebores, for they were the first to emerge and bloom, just a couple weeks ago, despite our persistent wintry weather:Edgeworthia's wooly blooms are almost fully open, too:

Spring struggles to take hold. We have a day or two of sunny days with temps into the 70s, and everyone dances out to play in the garden. Then the weather turns cold and nasty again. A local weathermen recently said we may have snow the middle of March. Excuse me, this is the DEEP South, and that should not happen! (It does, once every quarter century or so.) I must remind myself that it is still winter, according to the calendar.

Not at all contented with the cheerful daffodils, winter is throwing buckets of cold rain at us again today. The daffodils may hang their heads to the ground. Some of them may give up and turn to mush, but I expect others will be waiting for the next warm day to lift their faces and declare that we are going to have a spring party, and winter is not invited!

Exciting News in the Garden

A friend, who lives a few miles away from here, emailed me the following photos, taken just last week:

This was a beautiful, gentle snow, lacking the dangerous icy edge of the snow event we had a few weeks ago. The snow was gone within a couple of days, and now we are heading full tilt into spring with warmer temperatures and birds singing by the thousands to announce the coming season.

I have never heard so many birds. Cardinals, bluebirds, sparrows, mockingbirds, robins, thrushes, wrens, towhees, crows, geese, doves, chickadees, and many others are warbling, twittering, chirping, calling, chipping, whistling, peeping, squeaking, and squawking. Even the hawks are up there, screeching out of tune, but nevertheless contributing their voices to the symphony.

Overnight the hellebores have begun to emerge, overdue by at least a month. I love the embryonic quality of their new leaves and buds:

Hellebores are best appreciated up close. The details of each individual bloom are fascinating:

Other flowers are more cautious, remembering the frigid temperatures of recent weeks. Daffodils are poking their heads up, their blooms soon to appear. Quince buds are swelling. Within days these shrubs will be covered with thousands of blooms. I found the first forsythia flower, and tips of camellia blooms are showing. 

This is very exciting news. The birds proclaim it. I know it. Spring is almost here! Finally!