The First Flowers of Spring at Golden Oak Farm

Most springs the first flowers to appear are the hellebore or Christmas Rose. As the huge snowbanks on the north side of the house melt down, the hellebore flowers appear, already open under the snow. The yellow is coltsfoot.

Sometimes before that we will see snow drops on the south side of the house, just because the snow melts there first.

In years past I had iris reticulata that flowered in the South garden in January. When we stopped using the wood stove in the cellar, it died away. I planted more last year, and we’ve again started burning the wood stove in the cellar and this little beauty was up the 3rd week of February in the East garden.

These Jumbo Dutch crocus are usually the next to appear in the South garden. They are in the lily of the valley bed.

Chiondoxa sardensis

Chiondoxa luciliae

Chiondoxa forbesii

The Chiondoxas come up next. The luciliae were planted in the South garden in the mid 1980’s. At some point the sardensis appeared and last year I planted a bunch of the forbesii in the South and East gardens.

Puschkinia scilloides along side the steps

The puschkinias used to come up earlier back when there was a door and steps on the south side of the house. They had been planted along the side of the steps. They come up a bit later now they don’t have the protection.

The hardy snow crocus in the East Shed garden appear in March. I used to have white ones also, but they are gone now.

White snow crocus from years past

Scilla siberica, Siberian Squill

Lungwort with its 2 color flowers

Lungwort has leaves all winter and starts to flower in late March or early April.

Yellow dogtooth violet in the south herb garden

This violet came in with a transplanted magnolia tree.

Freckles Violets

Sylvia violet, a pink violet

Newfoundland violet, a tiny trailing/vining violet

I have many different types of violets here on the farm.

Over the decades I have put in many, many different types of jonquils and daffodils. Narcissus does best here.

West maple

I have planted many, many tulips but they are short lived. The only ones that are still around are the ones under the west maple and the catalpa tree.

Catalpa

Three years ago I planted these orange tulips in the South garden. They have done well there so far.

Bloodroot

I found this along side a road decades ago and planted it in the Old North garden. It has done very well there.

So these are the early spring flowers many of which we have already seen or are seeing now.