A little vernal plant-porn, anyone?

Perhaps it’s silly to get so excited about it, but I can’t help it! My garden is veritably exploding! You can feel the power rising up through the soil – it’s a barely perceptible hum, a vibration of life, as it forces itself out of the darkness of winter’s oblivion.

The fern fiddleheads are protectively curled up to withstand the resistance of their  passage through the wet womb of the Earth.

The new, unraveled frond – shiny, unblemished and perfect. The mechanics of the “birth” of ferns never ceases to amaze me!

One of my latest acquisitions – a giant allium purchased at February’s YGP show – is granting me a preview of what’s to come.

The elegant and tightly rolled shoots of a hosta pushing through the ground.

They may look dainty and frail, but they are anything but. Bravely, like little miniature battle rams, they aim for the newly returned light, and push through the obscuring protection of Mother Earth into the warmth of the spring sunshine. Theirs is a force to be reckoned with. Through rain and gusty winds whipping through, they press on, defiant. The cycle of life, death, and rebirth  is most definitely in motion, and it is powerful! The sap is rising all around me, and the world is enveloped in flowing procreative juices. Seeds are sprouting and new shoots are emerging. Pregnant, swelling buds balloon to the burgeoning point where they burst open and unravel a new life form. Crinkly leaves unfold like butterfly wings emerging from a chrysalis, and stretch for the sun. Hell, even my own two children were conceived in Spring, come to think of it! These are frisky times indeed – no wonder our ancestors celebrated!

The color of my ‘Bloodgood’ maple will not be this vibrant again, until it sings its swan song in fall. I love its downy, fuzzy coating – as if protecting it from the cold.

The buds of my Clematis ‘Early Sensation’ about to open.

The almost unreal leaves of my Mayapple ‘Podophyllium pleianthum’.

The same Mayapple’s flower buds forming underneath its impressive canopy.

I think I’m going to have to move this Hellebore before it gets completely smothered by the Mayapple…

The bright chartreuse and yellow of a variegated iris glow between the dark leaves of New Zealand Flax.

My beloved trout lily. This year, it had multiplied!

My Edgewarthia spreading mirth before the leaves come. So wonderfully fragrant!

The lush green foliage of irises. What a great range of greens!

This time of year is when carpets of Sweet Woodruff really shine! I find the small star-shaped leaves truly endearing.

Although I really love the leaves of this Saxifraga stolonifera, it’s the flowers I really like. So very dainty… They look almost like clouds of miniature white orchids on their wiry stems.

The flowers of the old camellia that came with the house always makes me happy…

… because they go beautifully with my favorite tulip Tulipa clusiana ‘Lady Jane’. Best of all – these little lovelies self-seed and multiply every year!

The new growth of my Pieris braving the winds and the rain.

A backlit Hellebore takes on an amazing pink color.

More hellebores! I really love these plants! Tough as nails, they graciously put up with my abuses.

A New Zealand Flax with pink edges purchased last year. I figured I would fit it in somewhere, but it’s still sitting in its pot. This year, I WILL find it a spot, I promise!

My Silver Dollar hebe showing off its new shoots. It’s filling in nicely where the harsh winter of two years ago gouged a big hole…

My Apple blossom clematis in full bud. It is lovely in bloom too, but the expectant buds are absolutely precious!

The new growth of my Melianthus is so captivating on a rainy day, as it holds sparkling beads of water in its ruffles.

White bleeding hearts – an old-fashioned favorite! I grow mine in fairly deep shade, and it blooms for weeks and weeks.

Can’t resist a backlit Fan palm!

The nearly orchidlike flower of Iris confusa – also called ‘Bamboo Iris’. Bought it years ago at the Chinese Garden, and it has become one of my absolute favorites!

Labrador violet – an absolutely delicious little violet that spreads like weeds. And I don’t even really mind!

My alpine clematis ‘Blue Dancer’  going full force.

I love how most of these early flowers are covered in downy fuzz, as if to protect them as they brave their new world.

The delicate pain of new life abounds, as it shoots through the dry, lifeless remnants of last year’s bounty. ” ….for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Indeed, it is a beautiful cycle. Experiencing the benevolent violence of birth moves you further toward, and, in a way, legitimizes your own death. It is amazing and not so little humbling to think that all this beautiful life, including ourselves, will sooner or later return to feed and enrich those who come after us, in an endlessly on-going revolution of life and death. Springtime is its undisputed pinnacle – if there can be such a thing as a “pinnacle” in a cyclical motion… After months of barren, dormant lands, this moist, glistening, fecund, almost obscenely green rapture is Fertility at its most glorious. The Italians appropriately call it Primavera. Leaves are never as fresh and radiantly green as when they first burst open. Some look almost artificial as they unfold… Time is short. Forgive me if I leave you to go outside!