What is up with Mother Nature? Last year on February 18, I had beautiful grape-soda-scented Mountain Laurel blooms all along the driveway.

Today, the Mountain Laurels are not even forming buds yet. The caterpillars are eating them already, but no buds. I wonder if the recent freezes killed them entirely.
And, yet, a month behind in our blooms, we already have May flies! This is a lousy picture (YOU try capturing a flying May fly on film (well, not film, either). And I saw a 3″ long grasshopper on the back of the house today. By all rights, he should have DIED in the big freeze. Sigh.

But there are a few reliables in my garden, even if many things are topsy turvy. Ms. Phoebe Hellebore’s two sisters joined her yesterday – one pink and one with a greenish tint.
And since I am so infatuated with the Hellebores, I did order another from Springhill — see her here above in her little cage? Her name is Ice Wine, and she’ll make a nice contrast with the Phoebes, don’t you think?

Does this look suspiciously like someone forgot there were already a different variety of bulbs planted in this very same spot? Hmmmm…
I was lying on the driveway to take this picture for you. Sure wish you could scratch and sniff your screen. It is Yellow Grape Muscari “Golden Fragrance” — a variety very different from the traditional grape-y muscari, known for its scent, which is said to smell a bit like a mix of gardenia and banana. I stuck my nose in it and WHAM! So full of scent – what a wonderful smell, though I had forgotten how it was described. As I smelled it, I thought it smelled like pineapple and cinnamon. Interesting, huh? But boy was it great.
And here are a few of the different Daffs popping up all around the garden. Dutch Master, Tete-a-Tete, and Yellow Fortune.