• Chionodoxa, aka “glory of the snow”. Early spring ephemeral, nice in big clumps, also makes for a lovely fairy-like effect scattered through a lawn. Will die down before it’s time to mow. Plant as bulbs in fall.
• first hyacinths — we always have hyacinths in our garden, because one of our daughter’s middle names is Jacintha, named after my mother. If you have enough to spare, you can cut some and put them in a vase in the powder room, or other small enclosed room — when you open the door, you’ll be overwhelmed by spring scent. Trader Joe’s often sells affordable bulb hyacinths this time of year — the vases are good to save for rooting cuttings. But for the garden, plant as bulbs in fall. Like chionodoxa, usually white / pink / blue / purple
• first pulmonaria, aka lungwort — nice shade-tolerant perennial, little flowers for quite a while in spring (this bright pink is somewhat unusual, more commonly blue-purple-pink), well-behaved, spotted leaves light up darker spots in the garden. The name references the lungs, and it was believed to be good for lung ailments, but I would recommend talking to your friendly neighborhood pulmonologist instead of ingesting.
• groundcover periwinkle / vinca minor mixing with scilla — the scilla will die down soon, but periwinkle should keep blooming for a while
• bear’s foot hellebore perennial / hellebore foetidus (in theory, stinky, but I haven’t noticed), slightly unusual cup-shaped blooms in a lovely lime-green
• striped crocus (plant as bulbs in fall, or buy now for window boxes)
• mini daffodils (plant as bulbs in fall, or buy now for window boxes)
• fairy garden with white squill
• hellebore bloom (long-lasting — this was cut at least two weeks ago, I think)
• forsythia just about to bloom, not quite there yet
• a selection of daffodils from the cutting garden — White Flower Farm’s “The Works” mix gives you a great selection of mixed daffodils
