All together now in the springtime

Anemone coronaria St. Brigid has gone to town this year, showy and prolific and long-blooming. Visitors marvel. The Bradford pear has come into bloom soon enough to join the redbud tree next to it in a great floral show. The flowers are beginning to drop only now, as the leaves bud out. Many different varieties of Lilac Wonder species tulip are in bloom, some each on a single stalk and others appearing on branching multi-bloom stems. These vary a lot in the size of the flower and in the length of the stem. There are now beginning to be clusiana species tulips, more than there are in some years. A larger-flowered variety of leucojum is now blooming. Pink wood hyacinths are blossoming on the large oak motte, as are grape hyacinths and more and more ipheions. There are still Dutch hyacinths blooming in several colors. White allium or flowering garlic is extremely attractive to the honeybees right now. There is one bloom on one hyacinth bean. Wando peas are prolific at the moment, providing the kind of treat that money can't buy. Although some are spent, there continue to be many varieties of narcissi and daffodils, large and small. Lantanas that stayed green all winter long are in profuse bloom and will soon produce the berries that are a dietary staple for so many creatures. The first of the Dutch irises to bloom are the purple ones and there are many of them, with many bloom stalks. Some fennel plants have survived the cold weather in a verdant state. They are flowering right now. Other fennel plants are appearing as new volunteers. As always, the live oaks, now beginning to drop their leaves, do so as the individuals that they are, each at a different time. Soon there will be blossoms revealed and dustings of fallen pollen. Many are the admiral and giant swallowtail butterflies when the airs are gentle. The red-shouldered hawks never fail to inspire awe when they sail above, as they so often do, sometimes at quite a low height. They seem to be nesting near the river. We usually hear them first, before they come in view.