GBBD: It Won't Be Long Now

For many years this day in March would have found me reminding my students to "Beware the Ides of March!"  But now that I've entered a different phase in my life, March 15 means just one thing--time for the monthly meeting of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

For the past few months, my Bloom Day posts have been rather pitiful as I strained to find anything at all in bloom.  Even my one amaryllis decided to wait until after the February Bloom Day to fully bloom, and now it's finished so that I don't even have an indoor bloom to show off in March.

But last week as I looked out the living room window trying to get a better photo

of the Downy woodpecker at the feeder, I noticed something.

The 'Georgia Peach' heuchera had taken on a rosy glow now that its snow cover had finally melted.  But that wasn't what really got me excited--looking beyond it to the shade garden, I spied something else . . .

 . . . tulips and daffodils were emerging from the soil! I know these didn't magically appear overnight, but it seemed that way to me. After a long winter where the ground seemed to be perpetually white, there is nothing like seeing the first spring bulbs emerging to get the heart racing.  In a state of excitement, I inspected the other garden beds and found bulbs coming up everywhere.  Inspecting the beds more carefully, I saw something else that filled me with delight . . .

. . . two tiny snowdrops blooming!  Their blooms are so small that I really need a super-macro setting to capture them, and they're hardly the large clumps I see on other blogs.  Still, I'm happy; you see, I planted them in the fall of '09 and didn't see a single bloom last year.  I'd given them up for dead, so I was so pleased to see these signs of life this year.

Not only do I have two snowdrops, but I also have the first few crocuses blooming.

Another tiny bloom that almost escapes notice, these small beauties give me hope that winter is almost over.

There's a chance of snow showers here today, but seeing the first tiny blooms and the buds on the flowering quince (above) as well as a few on the lilac are causes for joy.  It won't be long now until spring is finally here!

To see what else is blooming right now all over the world, be sure to visit our hostess and friend of the Garden Fairies, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.