spring essential

 

crown imperial

she is still small (according to her standards), but next year she will become truly imperial, or so I hope

(I had two, unfortunately something chewed the stem of the second one before I managed to take a pic - maybe a snail found its way to this front part of the garden frrr)

(new reddish peony shoots in front) 

wild hyacinth (in the back garden)

 

and there she is

  

 

 

Ricki magnolia, from the Little Girl series of hybrids (a line of eight dwarf, April-blooming magnolia trees) developed by the U.S. National Arboretum in the 1950s.

ethereal

 

so pretty

 

 

these are perhaps my favourite among all the new spring bulbs i planted: anemone blanda! they are beyond pretty, open and close their corollas following the sun and they are supposed to form a carpet in the years to come!

Pushkinia

Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica - another new and exciting bulb, slightly fragrant! 

I wondered whether there was any relation to the Russian poet (this flower is also named 'russian snowdrop') - but no, no connection. It is another Russian whom the flower name honours, the chemist and plant collector Count Apollos Apollosovich Musin-Pushkin (1760-1805).