My jacobs ladder (Polemonium caeruleum) is is back for year two! I highly recommend this plant its bright variegated foliage really pops. (Notice the cracked soil- more on that later.)

This has been one of my major excitements. I spent good money for two bleeding hearts to fill in some patches of shade on the side of the house. I know they die down mid-summer, but when they withered up and keeled over last year I was really worried they hadn’t gotten enough water and had just dried out. Nope, it was just their time. Now they’re back and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

This is a little volunteer forsythia that I transplanted here last fall. It’s tiny, but boy does it put on a show.

Here’s the mother plant.

Our magnolia tree is budding beautifully out front. (Tom gave me this tree instead of flowers after my senior recital in college, and we about killed it on the move here. We thought we had it sufficiently covered in the back of our truck- uh WRONG! It was completely wind beaten and fried, but after a timid year last year, it’s back with gusto.)

And of course spring would never be complete with out the perkiness of daffodils. I just learned that daffodils are poisonous, and therefore deer and critter proof. I’ve heard their bulbs are also more resilient to wet winters- something tulips struggle with.