It looks like spring might finally be arriving. The weather has been so unseasonably cold with foliage damaging frosts. Concern for fungus disease to get hold made me spend two days cutting back all of the daylily foliage right to the ground. The spit bugs were beginning to hatch and there were many slugs and a few cutworms chewing the leaves, too. They have all been recycled along with the trimmings. I try to get out with my scissors and hunt slugs and cutworms every day and they are much easier to spot with less foliage to hide in.

The hellebores are beginning to fade. Within the past week hostas have emerged unfurling their bright, fresh new leaves. Big fat buds on some of the peonies are beginning to show color and with just a little more heat, they will burst into bloom. Some of the Trilliums are beginning to fade, some are in full bloom, and some have yet to open. T. ovatum, T, kurabayashii and some of the sessile trilliums are the first to bloom while T. erectum and T. albidum extend the bloom season a bit. I am especially enamored with T. ovatum floro plenum this year because it has grown into an impressive clump.

The first Spring blooming clematis, C. alpina 'Blue Dancer' and C. macropetala 'Markham's Pink', caught my attention this week. They are ushering in the garden transformation that will soon take place when peonies and large flowered clematis replace the subtle woodland flowers with a showy display of color.

This is such an exciting time in the garden. Even the cooler than normal temperatures and unpredictable downpours cannot dampen my enthusiasm when there is so much beauty to behold.