The springtime garden

Is it only me or has winter been going on way too long? It's almost enough to make me long for summer once again. Almost, but not quite.

A much better alternative is spring and this week it seems as though spring is returning to my garden. And not a moment too soon!

Nothing says "spring" quite like sweetly fragrant hyacinths. These bloom in a pot beside my front entry door.

Well, the little Leucojum snowflakes run the hyacinths a close second in the spring department. I do love these little bulbs. One of the things that I love best about them is that they are so easy to grow.

All around the garden, the shrubs and trees are beginning to put out green buds.

 New growth from a mahogany Esperanza planted last year.

Yellow cestrum bloomed right up until the mercury dipped to 20 degrees Fahrenheit in January. Then it lost all its leaves, but now it is putting on new growth. Soon it will be blooming again.

Likewise, the almond verbena was blooming until our first spell of really cold weather hit. Now it is coming back.

The pomegranate, too, is well on its way.

Some of the shrubs started early and are already blooming.

 The blueberries, for example.

 And the loropetalum is covered in its fuchsia blossoms.

I finished pruning the last of my roses today. Some of the plants that I pruned first - a couple of weeks ago - already have flower buds. Here, 'Darcy Bussell.'

 A pot of dianthus offers its cherry red blossoms from a pot on the patio.

 And on the back porch, this sunny yellow kalanchoe brightens things.

These pansies were the only blooms I had in the garden for several weeks. Now they have competition from other plants, but they continue to make me smile.

Even the birds know that spring is almost here. Many of our winter visitors have already flown, as I wrote yesterday, but their place is being taken by birds that wintered farther south.

The American Robins have arrived. I love listening to their songs.

And in the backyard, the female Eastern Bluebirds are investigating likely places for building their nests.

Yes, spring is coming. Even if all my weeding isn't done and all my plants haven't been pruned. Even if all the plants I had planned to move to new beds are still in their old beds. Inexorably, spring approaches and somehow everything that really needs to be done will finally get done. Fingers crossed.