Another tulip:

A tulip and some freesias:

Okay, this one doesn't resemble a rose at all, but it's too cute not to post. Marmalade, one of the feral kittens, found a hiding place up near the ceiling of the screened porch and was surprised that I could see him.

damn, talk about beautiful! I've never seen a double tulip.. that's gorgeous! And the primula, are those the same as primroses? The leaves look very similar. I hope my flowering almond looks as nice as yours does.. it bloomed nicely last year, but then we got that stupid late extreme freeze & all the flowers turned brown & fell off. :(

And, of course, Marmalade is prettier than any rose could ever be! Way more regal than my Thor.

Yes, but Thor's obviously taking ballet and Marmalade has displayed no talent for dance.

Primroses are Primulas. These are the cutie double ones. My favorite one is blue. Just imagine if this were a rose instead.

Y'all are too much! Ballet indeed. Anyone can see he's doing ab crunches.

Zu, what, oh, what is that hellebore? That thing is way gorgeous. You have so much blooming now. I have a few daffs starting to open and the pussywillow is blooming:

My hellebores are white or purple:

Corydalis Beth Evans:

That's all, except for a few camellias still blooming. Your primroses are lovely. I'm looking forward to the first rose blossoms of our season, but that won't happen for at least another 2 months.

I love that Corydalis, Angie. What a beauty!

The double Hellebore is from a DG co-op. The plants were supplied by Ella (Starlight1153). She's a very sweet woman and probably would do it again if she were asked. This is a good place to post if you want something from her.

http://cubits.org/ellasgarden/...

I want to buy some of the florist's Gerberas and Carnations she'll be selling this year.

It's SO nice to see some roses in bloom! Thank you for posting them, Zuzu.

We were blessed with wonderful weather this weekend - sunny and unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the low 70's!!! That's about 20 degrees warmer than normal, so I spent all of yesterday and today cleaning up the gardens. I pruned many of the roses, and cleaned up the fallen leaves out of some of the beds. I cut down the ornamental grasses, and cut off the dried stalks on a lot of perennials. I now have ten giant paper lawn bags full of cut rose canes and garden detritus sitting in the driveway.

The crocuses have bloomed, as have the hellebores. And the early tulips and daffodils are pushing up through the mulch. Virtually all my roses are covered in new bud shoots. They all seem to have come through the winter just fine, with the possible exception of Betty Boop. The piths of her canes were brown all the way down to the bud union, so I had to cut her back hard. Most springs I only have to cut her back to a height of about 2 - 3 feet, so this year her canes are going to have to start from scratch. I think I lost Marmalade Skies, too. It had weakened last summer due to root gall, so I'm not surprised. It just gives me an excuse to shop for a new rose to take its place.

It's going to cool back down into the 50's this week, but this weekend's weather was a wonderful way to start the spring. I actually got sunburned!

I am so thrilled with this rose that opened this morning, what a surprise, I had been watching the fat bud all week! It's Cressida.
Zuzu, that's the one you gave me and it's still so small in a 5 gal. pot but you sure couldn't tell by the size of that bloom! No wonder it's Vicky's favorite, it's smells just divine.
Background was dark as it was really overcast this morning.

And I am lovin' the ranunculus. This is the biggest one I have ever seen, it's an unusual color, kinda of a coral rose.

It's in a pot with a tiny cyclamen and a cute little ceramic turtle I just found at the local drugstore of all places.

Sue: Cressida is GORGEOUS. It seems as if I could feel the petals. Sometimes I miss CA way too much. Thank you for that picture. Take a sniff next time you pass her and think of all of us out here in the colder lands!

Ten bags, Mike? You're a dynamo!

Sue, I'm so glad Cressida made it. It was such a puny little thing. I ordered a grafted bare-root one from GVR this year and it just arrived last week, but I'm fearing the worst: GVR got it from Hortico and it looks suspiciously thorny, just like that blasted white rugosa they send whenever you ask for something the slightest bit elusive.

Today I finally planted the rest of the ranunculus and other plants I bought when I was shopping with you and when Barbara and I went to Friedman's and Ace. I also installed the Target peacock in a place of honor under the fir tree. I can't take a photo of it yet because it's standing in front of some drastically pruned ferns. They look pretty awful, but they'll look great in a few weeks.

I got a lot done today too, (realtor coming in the morning) cleared out my patio enough so we can once again sit out there. I bring all the potted succulents under the patio cover during the rains so every table, bench and chair gets covered and it looked so crowded. Now it's nice and roomy although DH still thinks it's way too many pots. It is, what can I say?! If we do put the house on the market, the majority of them will go to my Moms so that the patio will look nice and roomy.

I just went through my DG Rose Journal, I have been adding my pictures as they bloom, just a few more to go to fill them all in. I am getting so excited about the rose bloom season, I can hardly wait! http://davesgarden.com/communi...

Yesterday, we did a little hike after we left your house Zuzu, along the high cliff overlooking the highway entrance to the bridge. Steep climb, I was huffing and puffing but felt good for the work out. Once it leveled out, I was rewarded with many sweet looking wildflower blooms. This was one shot of the trail, the setting sun illuminated that hillside in the background so I had to do some color adjusting as the foreground was so dark.

It was getting too dark on that side of the hill to take pictures of all the tiny blooms but I did get one of the cute lupine with poppies.
I added a few more pictures toward the bottom of Mike's Landscape thread
http://cubits.org/naturephotog...

What a beautiful place for a hike. You and your DH are doing some wonderful things together these days.

Good luck tomorrow morning!

First bloom on my standard dwarf bearded iris Cocoa Pink.