Yes, the columbines are in bloom! They fill my early spring garden with the most magical flowers – their colors move from pale to vibrant. There is a pale creamy white, the blue Colorado, darker blues, light pinks to a deep double burgundy.
I first planted 5 little nursery containers about 7 years ago. Since then they have naturalized, reseeding to their hearts content, and surprising me each spring with new plants. Not only have they reseeded, forming little colonies across the garden, but the busy bees have, with their happy cross-pollination, changed the colors over the years. So now each year is a new discovery when they bloom.
Also blooming are the bleeding hearts, beautiful open lockets along slim green stems. They hide under the stone bench and now the columbines have joined them for a spring tableaux.
Also joining in are the hostas, painted ferns, everdale ferns and a hardy oakleaf hydrangea, that I thought had died in the heat last year.
The centerpiece of this garden, when we first built it, was a lovely pink dogwood. It was in the center near the birdbath, and gave us such a spring thrill with its pink cloud of blossom. I was so sad when it died, several years ago, and the garden looked so bare without it the next year.
But nature moves on, waking each spring with new life. And we have 18 – yes, 18 – little baby dogwoods, growing in the garden. We will wait to see if they bloom pink (not likely) or have reverted back to the original white. Then we will transplant along the edge of the yard for a spring time vision of beauty.
I hope your little piece of this beautiful world is filled with the loveliness of spring. Because, as always, it is the course of our seasons.