We have several plants that are harbingers of spring. They bloom when all the others are still thinking about creating flowers, and are opening their leaves to the sun.
My father had a star magnolia outside the windows of his last office, what he called “the shop.” The magnolia was planted on a rather steep hillside in Stone County, Missouri. You can imagine how difficult it was to water that shrub adequately. First there was run-off because it hadn’t been set into the hillside properly,and second, the ground absorbed the water and it drained off immediately. I didn’t understand these things at the time, and I thought this little plant was destined to be just three feet tall.
More than twenty years later, I bought a star magnolia, a tip of the hat to my Dad’s choice of shrubs. It’s planted just outside the window to MY office. This “shrub” has grown to be 18-20 feet tall and the blooms were awesome this year! As you can see from the picture, the entire plant was densely covered with blooms.
The CPA’s assistant came to visit a couple of weeks ago when the magnolia was at its peak. I had the windows open, and a gentle breeze was coming in past the magnolia. The scent was amazing! Our heads swiveled in unison to sniff the air! *G*
Unfortunately, the blooms on our star magnolia last barely a week, less if the temperatures are extreme. So they have given way to the daffodils and tulips and other flowering shrubs.
We have one pod of very early tulips that I believe are the “Darwin” variety. Usually tulips die a quick death in the clay of my gardens, but these have lasted for easily fifteen years. For some reason, the chipmunks who live in that garden leave them alone. They seem to have the same protective scent or taste that daffodils have, and pests leave them alone.

I love the bright color. It’s a shock to the senses so early in spring!

I’ve had a full day, today. I can recall as a child that I thought Sunday was a lazy day, but it’s been a long time since I’ve frittered away a Sunday.
The CPA’s assistant, who is also a CPA, is going to visit us tomorrow to help me with some accounting problems. I’ve been trying to clear things off my desk, and make a list of all that I need to have her oversee. I still have a stack of filing (don’t I always), but I managed to clear the important things off my list, and I can get to the filing and a few less important things tomorrow morning.
My next big block of work was centered on the herb garden. It seems that when I have the time to work in the gardens the weather is foul, and when the weather is gorgeous, I have too much work that must be completed inside! However, we managed to get one of those rare spring days when the weather was beautiful, and I could get out to enjoy the gardens.
I started by pruning back the oregano, which took the largest part of my gardening time. I have six or eight mounds of oregano, enough to supply a small town, and I followed the current thinking and let the superstructure of the plants remain in place over the winter. The oregano is leafing out. If I had waited much longer to prune, I wouldn’t have been able to avoid taking some of the new growth. I took a picture before I started. I’ll try to get one of the pruned plants, and one a week later. You won’t be able to tell it’s been pruned by next weekend.
I cleaned out part of the chat walkway today. I left a few volunteer Shasta daisies, and some lamb’s ears and thyme, but I pulled up the garlic chives that have spread. If you don’t get those chives before they establish themselves, you have to dig to the other side of the world to get them out!
As I was working a bird sitting above my head started calling. I have NO idea what kind of bird I was listening to. For all my musical training, I find myself unable to read the call charts in the bird books, or describe to someone what the call sounded like. What was interesting about this particular call was that half-way through a bird across the grove picked up the call and imitated it. I don’t know if the birds were looking for mates, or if they were trying to establish territory, but the timing of the repeat, and the pitch of the repeat were perfect!
I planted three Italian Flat-leaved parsleys earlier this week, and a bunny or a deer had a fine meal one night! There are still some leaves, and I’m fairly sure that the plants will come back. However, when I plant the spinach this week, I’ll surround it with circles of hardware cloth!
It was a joy to be out today. I don’t work as fast or as long as I once did, but I probably enjoy my time in the gardens even more.

As I sit here at my computer, I can see the star magnolia just outside the window, and it has just begun to open. All it took was a little consistent warmth. The daffodils along the east side of the house are doing well, and I can see oriental poppy greens at the turn of the sidewalk. The short, scruffy Darwin tulips are open, too.
The scilla or squill that I wrote about earlier is a mass of tiny blue flowers against a green background, and the iris and day lilies are coming along nicely.
The only off note in the news is that the forsythia blooms look spotty. Perhaps I need to give it a little more time. I know that it blooms after the magnolia has opened, so perhaps I’m just seeing the early color, and the rest of the bloom is yet to come. This is a Lynwood Gold variety which has not been pruned, so it has the traditional arch to the canes.
Sunday, I’ll have to go out to check the shrub rose to see if there are any signs of new growth since we pruned so hard, and I want to check the peonies to see if there are any signs of starts coming through the dirt.
I love this part of the year. There’s so much to watch for!

As I’ve run errands the past few days, I’ve been where plants have been for sale, and I simply couldn’t resist making a few purchases. Elegante Mother can’t pass up a pansy in the spring, so we had 29 plants waiting for some dirt.
Yesterday, while we were out, I picked up potting soil so I’d be ready when I had a few minutes, to get some of those plants into the dirt. We have a large coir-edged basket at the front of the house, and I filled it with gerbera daisies, a purple hyacinth, and purple petunias. I may change that planting during the summer, but I needed to see some color at the front of the house.

I alternated yellow and purple pansies in a wrought iron basket lined with coir, too.

I had two lavenders, two rosemarys and three Italian flat-leafed parsleys to plant. I had just enough time to get the parsley into the herb bed last night before I HAD to start dinner. As it was, I probably should have waited for this morning to plant them, but I was on a roll! *G* It’s going to rain later today, and should rain through Saturday morning, so I won’t have a lot of chance to work outside for a couple of days.
Dear Husband suggested that I look into the Haz-Mat suits made of Tyvek for weeding where I suspect I’ll find poison ivy. That’s not a bad idea at all! I don’t have my half sleeves made yet to cover below my wrists when I’m in the gardens. Maybe that will be my rainy day chore on Saturday morning.