Donuel - thanks for the pix. Those lilies - those aren't in bloom now, are they?

The earliest Dutch Iris are blooming now. In fact, this is the first time since I planted this particular variety that they haven't got nailed by frost before the blooms opened. More tulips blooming. We didn't have enough cold this winter for the tulips to do very well. I am surprised that a number of small, species tulips do not appear to have survived. They are natives of Turkey and the mountains of the mideast, and were planted 3 years ago. Earliest daffs are pretty shrivelled. Early daffs fading. Mid season daffs at their prime. Late season, such as my personal faves - thalia just putting one their show, and the narcissis are going strong. Redbuds have popped out like magic in the last week. Two columbines - look like crosses between the native columbine and some cultivars I've had over the years, are in full bloom - way early. No other columbines appeared to have survived the drought or to have self-sowed. Have lost all but one bleeding heart to drought. I think I lost most of my hydrangeas too, except for a stand of native Hydrangea arborescens. They are the only ones I'm seeing any bud swell on. Many dead azaleas (again, old shrubs) and those that are alive are obviously in bad shape.

Hellebores doing well - and the white linton rose I obtained from Beaubear 4 years ago has really taken off this year. I love the creamy white of the bloom, Bobert. Lost all but one pulmunaria. It is scrawny, but it is blooming. Lost all of my ferns (had just started the fern garden two years ago so they weren't well established.) It looks like a few of a thick stand of Japanese Anemones may have survived. I'm surprised and pleased to see any at all made it. 5 boxwoods at least 70 years old are dead. I had a number of different cultivars of echinecea,including some of the new orange and sherbet cultivars that won't cost nearly as much in a few years. Usually they have nice rosettes by now. Thought I had lost most of them, even the well-established clumps of native and drought tolerant purpurea, but it appears that many have survived - barely. Isolated, tiny leaves popping up. Rose campion doing well. Poppies everywhere. They need thinned badly, but I am going to be moving so am not thinning so I can get seeds of as many different colors as possible to take with me. Don't matter if this year's crop has small flowers, so long as I get the seeds.

The catbirds are back.