I have been quiet for an awfully long time. I have been watching the snow melt. Literally, sitting by the window and watching it melt, or checking the melting process several times a day. Impatient? Me? Where did you hear that?

It has finally melted in most places. There are only some places in shade that still harbour small amounts of snow. Now the sight is ugly. Everything is brown or grey and there's very little of any other colours in the scenery. I spotted some yellow coltsfoot flowers during the weekend, so this can be officially called spring now.

My garden looks dreadful of course. It doesn't look like a garden at all. There's greyish brown dead lawn and deep brown soil with some dead twigs sticking from it. It actually requires a good amount of vivid imagination to have an idea what it could look like in summer.

Lush and mostly green. But instead, it looks like this:

The picture above is one of the most promising views. There´s something growing! These are tulip leaves emerging from the bulbs I have planted last fall. I planted over 1000 bulbs last fall, so I expect something to bloom as well. Well, there are some petite flowers to be seen already. Like the Crocus below.

But mostly anything that is even remotely growing looks like these:

Yes, if you look closely, you can see something red peeking out from the ground. That's a peony.

This actually starts to look like a plant. It's an Aquilegia. I can't remember what cultivar it is - if it is any known variety - before I see the flower. I imagine it will take some time before I get to that recognition part... 

Two more peaks of another peony...

What is that? SOme spring bulb, I'm sure, but is it Scilla or what?

This one reminds me of an Amorpophahallus or a Calla flower, but it's actually another tulip's first leaves. All of the leaves of this variety emerging from the soil look the same. Then again, I must have lost the name tag because I have no idea what variety is this. 

This actually looks green! It's an oriental poppy. Must be 'Princess Victoria Louise'. Or at least that's what it's supposed to be. The seeds were sown last year and by the time they were about to bloom the weather was so cold and wet that the blooms just went rotten and didn't open at all. So this could be anything. 

Strawberries! They are walking wild all over my flower bench. Apparently it's evergreen.

Yeah... is this a Scilla then? It must be... it doesn't look like Muscari.

I have been preparing for the summer already. I have been buying seeds, sowing seeds, storing bulbs, and... even buying some new ones. Yes, I know! It's only February. I will only be able to plant the bulbs in May after there's no frost in the ground any more.

I bought lots of different lilies, Irises and other bulbs last year. Most of them didn't even bloom. The best performers were low growing lily varieties like 'Mona Lisa' and the tiger lily 'Pink Tiger' (which I believe to be 'Splendens' instead, because it doesn't really look like 'Pink Tiger' at all). Others were just too late last summer, and didn't get to bloom before winter. Summer 2012 wasn't exactly warm. It was quite cool and I kept waiting for the "summer to finally arrive" all summer long! Those lilies that were early enough were growing along the southern wall, and probably enjoyed more warmth than others.

I have been ordering most of my bulbs abroad for years now. Mainly because it's easier to find more cultivars in one place. But then it happens, that I come across some lovely cultivar at my local hardware store, and have to buy that too... Here are some I bought last week.

So what I found there in Bauhaus were oriental lilies, dahlias, iris and Crocosmia. I also placed a big order at Eurobulb. My list includes some Eucomis, Iris, Hemerocallis, Gladiolus, Trillium and some other bulbs. To be honest, I'm not sure if there's going to be enough space in my garden for all of them, but I guess I'll just make more space if there isn't yet.