Hi GPODers!
Here in New England, where I’m based, spring is in full bloom. After several weeks of temperatures swinging above and below freezing at night and plenty of April showers, May flowers are in full effect. This is the same for Barbara Owen in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Barbara has shared several peak seasons and garden highlights over the years (Barbara’s Massachusetts Garden Through the Seasons, Surprises and Lessons From Barbara’s Garden and Color Themes in Barbara’s Garden), but today she is brining it back a few weeks and highlighting a very specific part of her garden: the earliest spring blooms and buds.
I started taking these photos when spring was just beginning here in the western suburbs of Boston, eagerly searching for tiny, bee sized markers of spring’s arrival. Now that we are in lush, leafy green and colorful blossoms everywhere spring, these photos might not be so interesting. Perhaps, then, save them for next winter! (Sorry for anyone of tired of the early spring stars, I couldn’t possibly sit on to these beautiful shots for a year!)
Barbara Owen
It’s not spring in New England before the forsythia burst into their sunny-yellow blooms. A reliable source of color during the earliest days of the season, forsythia is often accompanied by the gray skies of April showers, however, the blooms really glow on those random sunny days.
Another yellow star of the early season, we’ve seen countless daffodil cultivars this year. This white, large cup variety has an extra kick with the blush of yellow in the center of the trumpet.
Though tiny, maple blossoms aren’t forgotten or taken for granted when little else has bloomed. Emerging in a wide range of colors depending on the variety you have, this cluster of golden chartreuse blooms is particularly cheerful.
So many azalea and rhododendron varieties are spectacular this time of year, but the lavender-purple flowers of P.J.M. rhododendrons (Rhododendron x ‘P.J.M.’, Zones 4–8) make them a standout.
I’ve always loved that from above, tulips can look like a completely different plant. Fully opened, this pairing of bright yellow and white are a beautiful and bold.
What a gorgeous shot of this hellebore! Barbara got a great angle on this nodding bloom, capturing all the subtle color shifts and petal veining.
We cannot forget about spring-flowering trees this time of year. We’ve seen redbuds, cherry blossoms, and many different magnolias. However, I think this is the first star magnolia (Magnolia stellata, Zones 4–8) we’ve seen this year. Distinct from the goblet-shaped flowers on many other types of magnolia, Magnolia stellata explodes in these star-shaped blooms.
The clusters of tiny blooms on alyssum are a sweet-smelling signal of spring. This yellow variety—potentially ‘Golden Spring’ alyssum (Alyssum wulfenianum ‘Golden Spring’, Zones 4–9)—is spectacular.
Lastly, not yet a bloom but the promise of color to come. Peony spears shooting out from the ground and starting to unfurl can be just exciting as the other early spring blooms that Barbara has shared. When the peonies start emerging, you know the season is really heating up!
Thank you so much for sharing these lovely array of early-season blooms, Barbara! These first arrivals are often so fleeting that your photos are like getting an encore to the start of spring.
As Barbara mentioned in her introduction, for many of us these small signs of spring have made way for more blooms and lush greenery that are now emerging all over. With so much spring all around, it’s time to share your spring landscape with Garden Photo of the Day. Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
We want to see YOUR garden!
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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