Happy 1st Day of Spring!

Species crocus mixture, together with emerging Darwin Hybrid Tulip foliage.

Crocuses are the very sign of spring, and the sun came out today after several overcast days, so mine have opened their happy little faces to welcome the official First Day of Spring!

The photo above shows the garden bed I call the Mint Circle (I'll never manage to get rid of it all!), which I planted in Fall 2013 with 500 species crocus in a mixture from John Scheepers/Van Engelen, along with 325 Darwin Hybrid tulips from my local Menard's home improvement store. I've had pretty good luck with both, which seem to be coming up quite strongly again in their second spring. The Mint Circle (see my garden map under the "My Gardens" link, above) is near the southwest corner of my house, and the ground tilts to the south there, so it's an early blooming location with decent drainage, and bulbs seem to do well there.

Here's a more macro view of the Mint Circle (which is actually somewhat triangular in shape).

Also, in Fall of 2011, I planted some Large Flowering Crocus mix near the south side of our house, and even though I think I might have dug out most of them while planting other things in that area in subsequent years, a few of them are still left. They have larger and prettier blooms than the species crocus, although they aren't supposed to bloom as early or naturalize as well as the species ones. (Mine are in a warmer spot than my species ones, however, so they bloom at about the same time.)

Large Flowering Crocus mix. The flowers are so pretty, like little Easter Eggs!

The crocus time can be such a happy time if the weather cooperates, which it seems to be doing today. I'll think I'll have to get outside and work a bit in the garden while it's still sunny and relatively warm (in the upper 50s).

I hope you too will soon enjoy your own cheery spring blooms if you haven't done so already. Happy First Day of Spring!

Thanks for reading, -Beth