What excites me about Spring

Sure I love seeing the early spring blooms of crocus, daffodils, tulips and such, and those flowering trees and shrubs on a sunny day -- wow! But to be honest what really gets me excited when spring finally arrives is a lot more.

First of all it's the happiness I feel at seeing the fresh foliage of perennials cautiously poking through the soil or mulch.

***

Those little tastes of green, red, purple (and even yellow depending on the plants) brings a sense of relief -- that plant made it through the winter! -- mixed with a general gladness that warmer days are here.

I love fresh, tiny foliage!



I also get really excited about seedlings. Some germinate quite early, and some seem to have done so in the fall, tiny things waiting for the weather to warm before they start their growth spurts.

This spring I will have dozens of native columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) throughout the garden, as the one or two plants I had have not only distributed seed everywhere...

...but there are a dozen year-old plants in this pot, which must have been the place that I kept the still-in-its-quart-pot original plant after its blooms faded.

I was going to dig these up and plant them out yesterday after work, but the rain moved in and I didn't get a chance. Soon though!

Another plant that will be everywhere in my garden this year: Rudbeckia triloba.

The tri-lobed leaves give this species its name

Each spring it seems like I have ten or twenty of these in every planting bed, but the deer readily eat them and by mid-summer their numbers are greatly reduced.

Still, it looks like I have way more than normal this year. I'll pot them up and share them!



Another thing that really makes me smile every spring is seeing new growth on my clematis vines:

I'm eager to see these fill the trellises this year!



Spring means that every inch of the garden gets examined, which sometimes means surprises...

...and I love surprises! I know that a chipmunk was living in this bed last year, but this hole is twice as big as the other chipmunk holes in my yard. I'm guessing "rabbit", but I'm not sure. I'll have to get a flashlight...



Other things that make spring so exciting for me include identification of tiny seedlings...

...survival of something that was questionable...

...trying to figure out how some plants got where they are, and why I didn't notice them last year...

...and so much more!



It's not all good times though, as often I have to diagnose problems, or watch a plant that seemed to be handling its indoor overwintering just fine until just a couple of weeks before it could be moved outdoors:

Still though, spring is so exciting!


What are your favorite things about this season?

.