I cut the glowing yellow basket willows today, bundled them by size, and tucked them into an airy shed to dry. The elegant, long, and limber Italian willow weavers will have to wait for another day.

We've emptied pots of winter-killed perennials, and have a few hundred in the sun, beginning their spring growth spurt in readiness for spring sales.

In bloom now:

Many kinds of daffodils- large, small, and tiny, and all combinations of yellow, orange, cream, peach, and white. I'll still have Quail daffs blooming in June, maybe July. Tahiti will be followed by South Seas daylily.

Bloodroot- a few hundred spreading in several patches via seed and root cuttings.

Hepatica- violet, pink, and perhaps white.

Pulmonaria (lungwort)- in the common pink/blue, cobalt blue, white, and deep coral.

Violets - in pink. red-violet, deep blue, purple, white with red-violet centers, white with dark plum centers, with pale blue, yellow, tiny white, and big Canada violets soon to follow.

Primulas- all sorts from cowslips to mahogany/yellow to magenta, and not forgetting various forced primroses from garden centers that are hale and hearty after several years in the ground.

Star magnolia, with a carpet of hyacinths, violets, scilla, and such underneath.

The pears, apples, plums, cherries, and single peach trees are nearly ready to burst forth in bloom along with shadbush, red elder, and black elder. Several viburnum , azalea, rhododendron, and mountain laurel shrubs will join in, except the very young or winter-stressed individuals.

Liz- I always liked the nickname "Granny's Bonnet" for aquilegia.

maeve