On Tuesday it was supposed to be mild but rainy. Instead the sun stayed out for much of the day and the temperature climbed into the mid-60s. We hadn’t enjoyed warmth like that for months. Since there’s not a lot you can do in the yard during mud and mush season, I went searching for more signs of spring.
I know I planted something in this spot last fall, but for some reason I didn’t stick in a plant marker to identify them. I guess they will be a mystery until they bloom!
I found two snowdrops (Galanthus) blooming by themselves in the middle of a flowerbed. I don’t know if I put them there or a rodent did. I thought I planted all my snowdrops bulbs in the lawn:
I found many more daffodils peeking out:
And there are numerous tulips poking up, but all of them have been sampled by bunnies (blurg!). What I didn’t expect to find was a columbine seedling. I assume it’s ‘Winky Red and White’. Hello, columbine! It’s early March in Wisconsin. You shouldn’t be this alarmingly confident!
I also discovered my mum ‘Grape Glow’ getting a head start:
There is a squirrel running around my yard these days with a stump for a tail. I hope this isn’t part of what’s missing. Ick!
Moving on. If I ever had any doubts that daylilies were tough, I can put those thoughts to rest forever. I vaguely remember digging up two plants in very late fall to make room for some late-arriving lily bulbs. It was too late to replant the daylilies (or so I thought), so I decided to toss them on top of a perennial bed until spring when I intended to compost them. They were having none of it:
Both of them are very much alive despite the fact that their roots sat above ground in below-freezing temperatures for months.
I have no choice but to reward such impressive sturdiness, so I will spare them from the compost heap and find somewhere in the yard they can spend their days bragging to all the other plants about how tough they are.