Playing Catch Up

January/February/March - swoosh.  My life for the first three months of the year was:  Chronic migraine/cold, flu, dastardly cough/income tax preparation.  But now it's April, so say goodbye to the foolishness that was the first quarter.  My garden, the weather, and life all seem to be moving in concert -- Hooray for Spring!

I've borrowed other gardens for many of these shots.  Thank you to those gardeners who share their blossoms with the neighbours:

A beautiful patch of "Leaf Drops" a.k.a. Gallants nivalis

Who knew moss could be so beautiful?

"Rock Drops"

Winter aconite - Eranthis hyemalis.  My 10 bulbs are now down to 2.  The main difference is that this neighbour's bed is mulched and left alone - perhaps I need to move mine to an area of neglect rather than to a tended spot by the front door?

April in Oakville wouldn't be complete without a bit of snow.  There when we awoke, gone by 10:00 a.m.

Carmen has three of these wonderful Hellebores.  She and I both noticed that that different varieties really differed on performance this year.

I adore little bulbs....

Back to my own garden - pre-cleanup.   I leave the leaves in the back garden so that Bart can scoot around without completely destroying things.  I will clear out the worst of the scramble, but leave most of the needles and some of the leaves as this area has mainly woodlanders that seem to appreciate a bit of decay.

So nice when something you like starts to spread!

A grocery store primula pretending it likes it in my garden!  How's that for almost 2 blossoms.

OK.  I know, ghastly photo.  But I have very high hopes for this little woody Purple Pillar.  As you may know, in this part of the world Rose of Sharon is especially late to leaf out, but these stems are healthy with lots of buds -- well ahead of others I have in the garden.  Last year the flowers on this new tiny plant were exquisite, so I'm hopeful that all will be well and I will fall in love all over again with its flowers that look exactly like the tag.

I'm not sure what these little white flowers are, but they are pretty.

See what I mean about the Hellebores?  This one had always had done well - but this year it's awful.

And this one:  R.I.P.

Hercules is an inside cat, but every now and again, Kevin props him up next to something green and insists I take his picture.  I'm thinking he's thinking, "This is a travesty.  How do I blow this popsicle stand?"

My neighbour's beautiful magnolia.  Will be inhaling the perfume while I work on my garden today.

Forsythia - the opposite of subtle.

An old stand of tulips in the front garden.

Leucothoe really lovely - some years - for a short period of time.  This year is one of those years, that you think - this is really pretty, I should have more of this.

To the Mother Ship - the Royal Botanical Gardens - now that's a Forsythia!

Look how it turns my hair red!  The powers of this brassy bush:

There were a fair number of people on Easter Monday checking out the Rock Garden. The children were working on breaking their limbs in the unfilled waterways having a grand time.  Lots of people in chairs or with walkers.  So lovely for them and their families to be able to see a whole garden from the sloped pathways together.

The gardens are more daff heavy than tulip now.

This weekend should be great for the cherry trees.

Outside the parking lot there were a few old girls blooming away.

Aren't the blossoms lovely?

And that brings us up-to-date more or less.  So it's bye-bye from the RBG from us, and out into the garden for me!  And another hearty cheer:  "Hooray for Spring!"