A Little Child Shall Lead You (to the Squills)

A little kid stopped on their way home to ask me a series of excited questions about the garden — what was I doing with the shears? (Pruning.) What was growing in this planter? (Alliums.) And when were the flowers going to come out?

I led them over to show off the crocuses that were already blooming, but then they pointed something I had overlooked entirely: the first of the wood squills had come up, putting out a tiny blue blossom hidden away between the ivy leaves.

First Sign of Violets

Violets are definitely not the showiest flower in our garden — in fact, I suspect a lot of our neighbors walk past them without ever noticing their little blooms during the brief span of weeks when they’re out each spring… but I think they’re adorable, and I’m glad they have so thoroughly colonized the sidewalk treebed outside 215 W106th St.

In this photo you can see their first leaves poking up through the dried twigs and stems of this winter’s pruning, with the much taller leaves of some flowering bulbs looming over them in the background.

Roses Starting to Leaf Out

It’s still early, but a couple of the roses have decided that the risk of frost is over and have started to put out new leaves.

They may be jumping the gun — we’ll still have a few more hours late tonight that are just below freezing — but hopefully they’ll be able to weather that and will have a running start when daytime temperatures start hitting the fifties next week.