This post might be considered 'cruel and unusual' in my neck of the woods. I'm very, very jealous. Seriously, you're planting stuff already? Arg. I'm planning on doing my earliest indoor starts in a couple of weeks. But this is the year we're going to start stuff on time!
I have not seen mountain laurel before. It is beautiful. And I wish you had a smell widget too. I'm going to live vicariously through your gardening this summer.
gorgeous! Love the purple! And a scent widget ... what a fantastic idea!!
and while you're at it, a sunshine widget would make me inordinately happy.
I'm kind of okay with people as far south as you are posting flower pictures. It's the sort of northish people complaining about the lateness of spring that's getting to me. (Yes, it is snowing again. We had 56 cm on the weekend. I've got classic Christmas Eve snowfall now.)
Your flowers are beautiful and the photography project sounds great. I bet a lot of homeschoolers could do things with that.
There's nothing blooming here. A couple of buds, here and there, on the trees - but other than that, nothing. Today, it's supposed to be in the low 60's. And tomorrow...40's and possible snow flurries in the morning. *sob*
We did start some chiles and cherry tomato plants this morning. Hey, it's got to stop snowing sometime.
We didn't get (yet) the extra snow JoVE did, but it's early times here still; my columbines won't be about til May at the earliest, probably June. We're just starting to edge above freezing temps. Where some of the snow has melted, though, there are large patches of last year's grass. Does that count?
The mountain laurel is just gorgeous, thanks for sharing.
What a neat photography/gardening idea. I'd have a shorter season -- March to October, and at the edges not much action. Though in June and July, when the sun doesn't set til almost 11 am, there are days when you can almost see (and the hear) the plants shooting out of the ground. By the way, do you remember the Walt Disney time lapse photography, such as desert flowers blooming (I think it was called the Living Desert...).
Today I've got winter aconite, snowdrops, and flowing maple sap. 
Daffodils and crocuses (crocusi?) and other little bulby types.
I found myself plastered to the wall beside the kindergarten classroom today. They had pretty construction paper daffodils lining the hallway and i just.wanted.them.to.be.real.
I am very very jealous and alternate between throwing myself at my computer screen towards your pictures and wailing incoherently. Freaking Alaska.
Snowdrops, crocus, daffodils, primrose, iris, earliest cherry, and my rosemary in bloom.
Glad you all liked them. I'm jealous of the maple sap -- we're hardcore maple-syrup addicts here.
I want more bulbs for next year, especially irises. At my old house, the armadillos would dig them up. Maybe I'll have better luck here.
And alianora, just remind yourself that come July, when things are green and lovely where you are, my garden will be bone-dry and brown, and I'll be hiding from the sun indoors.
Hmmm...we have a bush (not quite blooming yet) that is supposedly mountain laurel, but looks nothing like yours. Perhaps I have been misinformed.
Besides crocus, we have narcissus, forsythia, daphne odora, pieris japonica, and the muscari are just starting. A couple different viburnum, too. And the scrubby azaleas that I can't stand.
Lots of other things are budding out, like the spirea and hydrangea, and...dang. I'm west of the Cascade range, so I guess everything is starting up.
Hooray for spring!
Ooh, I love those pictures. Beautiful. I did this with a clivia last year - to show a friend what the buds look like at first. And then I trashed the photos. What was I thinking?
We also did this last year but using a street corner of town instead. I hope to go there every year or so and take another picture of it, but for now you've inspired me to go out to the garden. We're in the PNW, which means that (shield me from JoVe) we don't have any SNOW!
Hilary, there are at least two North American plants called mountain laurel. Yours may be Kalmia latifolia. Ours is Calia (nee Sophora) secundiflora. It sounds like spring is going strong where you are.
Sheila, I'd never heard of Clivia, but they're gorgeous. I am all for more time-lapse photos. Are your corner pics up on your blog?
My girls call Mountain Laurel's "Smarties Trees" because they smell like the Smarties candy (duh). It's really quite odd how pungent these dang things are.
Yay for spring!!
Yep, that's exactly what we have! Thanks for the education. I want one of each now!
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