Last year….

Things are happening way too fast around here. This time last April daffodils were blooming and tulips weren’t out yet. Now tulips are peaking and daffodils mostly done. With 80-degree temps expected for the next two days, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the bulbs were gone within the week.

yellow tulip with red flames
Tulipa “Flaming Jewel”

carmine-colored flowers on brown twigs

lots of tiny yellow flowers on light-brown twigs
Flowering quince and forsythia.

view of front flower bed with all sorts of colored flowers
Compare to last month. This hasn’t turned out exactly how I intended. There are two distinct color schemes: the white/pink/purple and the cream/red/yellow. They were supposed to bloom at different times; instead the hot dry spring has brought them all clashingly together.

daffodil with ruffled center
Non-traditional daffodils.

creamy daffodils with yellow and red tulips
The cream/yellow/red scheme, intended for May, too garish for April. Of course, this weather is too garish for April.

closeup of interior of red-yellow striped tulip
Who can resist tulips, though? These are Beauty of Apeldoorn.

pink ruffled tulips, white daffodils, purple hyacinths in background
The white/pink/purple scheme.

bud cluster on red-flowering honeysuckle
Native red honeysuckle has been blooming.

small white puffy flower clusters with different brown flower spike in front
In the more naturalized area, pussytoes (white flowers) and pennsylvania sedge (blurry brown spike in front) are blooming. Compared to last year, these seem to be blooming as they should be.

pink-white clusters of bell-shaped flowers on shrub
Highbush blueberry flowers, another native. As usual, the only one of four bluebs that’s made flowers. These are ahead of last year.

two types of small seedlings growing in raised beds
Peas and radishes planted a few weeks ago.

tray with about 40 seedlings
Kale, cabbage, and onion seedlings hardening off. They’ll go into the ground today or tomorrow.