I took a tour around my yard to see what color I could find at the end of March and beginning of spring. This what I found in my Pacific Northwest garden in the suburbs of Vancouver.
I start with the humble dandelion. Beautiful, fun, edible, but still called a weed.
The Kerria Japonica Plenifflora is a shrub that ends up looking like a bunch of dandelions lept up into the air.
I rescued many dandelions from Holland Park 2 years ago. Bulbs had been dug up and tossed aside into the woods after the season was over.
I didn't know what they were like when I planted them, but now I know they are all kinds.
They really add a touch of bright to everything.
The spurge laurel has flowers of green .
The indian plum is one of the first plants to leaf out, and one of the first native species to flower.
The wild orchids hide in the grass, and just give a hint of pinky/purple.
The huckleberries are blooming.
The hyacinth smells beautiful, this one is such a pale shade of pink.
The Pieris Japonica is finally blooming. This plant was rescued from a house that got torn down a few doors away. After all these years after being ripped out of the ground and replanted, it's finally recovered enough to start blooming.
The heather is always lovely color early in the spring.
The chinese red cabbage I left behind in the ground survived and is beautiful with it's purple highlights.
The periwinkles are blooming. Watch out for these in your yard, they will spread and take over. Keep them in a pot and save yourself a lot of work!
The grape hyacinth are everywhere now and my favorite of all. Each year I dig some up and move them to a new location. The original bulbs we dug up from across the street 20 years ago the day before they bulldozed the house and subdivided the property.
Some color is not from flowers. This wild geranium has touches of color in the leaves even though it's long before it will bloom.
The rhubarb I planted along the street with yucca plants is showing it's brilliant scarlet stems.
Hands stretching up. The peony is reaching for the sun.
This variety of pieris japonica has such bright red new leaves you could mistake them for flowers.
The berries on this small shrub stay all winter. Need to find the name for this one.
The spirea also has leaves of many colors.
The wallflowers are about to bloom. This one seems to want to be almost pink.
While with this one you can see the orange and yellow just about to burst out.
I stilll have to look closely to find flowers at the end of March, but spring is definitely in the air.
