High (and low) spring at Quince St. garden

Fritillaria imperialis

Crown imperials are impressive, but even more sow crowned with snow! It snowed again last night--we seem to get a snow every week--which has helped with moisture and not seemed to affect plants badly (although people get grumpy)

Tulipa fosteriana and Fritillaria imperialis behind

Here's the same view as the last from the opposite side of the bed--looks slightly different from this angle!

Fritillaria stenanthera

This bloomed for the first time for me this year--a plant I've wanted to grow a long time. Thanks, Odyssey bulbs!

Narcissus lobularis

The Tenby daffodil (the one Wordsworth rhapsodied so famously). Compare it with the backlight below--so different!

Narcissus lobularis

Colchicum hungaricus

 Second year for this: waiting for it to clump up!

Colchicum soboliferum

John Baumfalk, an amazingly talented gardener in Newtown Kansas gave me dozens of bulbs of this last year I poked all over the rock garden. Many of them bloomed: it looks to be a keeper! Very tiny. Growing in Asperula daphneola.

Iris aucheri

A classic. I dote on the junos.

Coluteocarpa vesicarius

A striking crucifer from Turkey which is beautiful in seed as well! I believe this is a monotypic genus.

Narcissus watieri

Everyone's favorite daffodil in my garden. Mike Kintgen has one in his buffalograss lawn that has clumped up enormously...that's the way to grow this I think.

Corydalis malkensis and Anemone blanda

  Probably my most spectacular mass planting (just a part of it).

Closer view of same

Iris bucharica 'alba'

My main stand of this won't bloom for another few weeks on the rock garden. Microclimate is magnified in our steppe.

Fritillaria caucasica

Possibly my favorite Fritillary. Probably because it is so early, so robust and hardy. And possibly because it likes me.

Tulipa praestans

There is no such thing as too many tulips!

Corydalis solida 'George Baker' types and Anemone blanda

I never cease to be amazed by the difference between oblique light and backlighting: another comparison to the one above and below...

Same as above, only in oblique light

Draba aurea type

 Mike Kintgen gave me this from wild collected seed in the Rockies. The jury is out on the name (and whether it stays around!).

Erythronium 'Pagoda' and Veratrum nigrum foliage

Common as all get out, but one can never have enough. Love it with the Veratrum.

Erythronium 'Pagoda'

All bulbs are best in drifts! I saw a half acre of these at Wisley last year--about right.

Erythronium umbilicatum

Some gifts from the talented Tim Alderton in North Carolina. Plants are treasured for their associations as much as for their beauty.

Corydalis glaucescens

A very different Corydalis that comes later than most and seems to have spreading rhizomes.

Hacquetia epipactis

I divided my big clump so radically (filled a flat or so in the process): glad my little piece persists!

Anemone ranunculoides

 Seems a bit more drought tolerant than A. nemorosa. Just what my garden needs: more yellow!

Caltha palustris 'Flore Pleno'

 Yes, there are some wet spots in my garden.

Ornithogalum oreophilum

 You know you're a collector when you suddenly find four different Stars of Bethlehem blooming in early spring...

Ornithogalum sintenisii

 Grown for many years, I  have lost my data and forgot to enter it into the database...I think it came as 'nanum'

Another miniature star of Bethelem I've grown for years...possibly also O. sintenisii?

Draba hispanica

 A few plants get out of hand--I've had to weed out quite a bit of this draba over the years--it loves my garden a tad too much!

But it is fetching in the snow...

Narcissus requinii

Quite a few daffodils in this group have proved to like our Colorado climate--this species is perfect for the rock garden: alas, rare as hen's teeth in the trade.

Fritillaria meleagris and Narcissus 'Jacksnipe' behind

 They may be common, but I for one love many common plants...

Primula elatior

 The oxlip is possibly our toughest primrose, even growing in sun with a little occasional moisture.

Alkanna orientalis

 I've weeded this out of most of the garden, but can't resist a few here and there...now to get the OTHER Alkannas to seed around like this!

Fritillaria michaelovskyi

 Probably my favorite frit. But I say that about all of them...

Paeonia tenuifolia

Can't resist this in bud. I may even like these more than the flowers!

Arum italicum 'Marmoratum'

 Horrendous weeds in Britain, this is a restrained and welcome guest in my garden...

Arum maculatum 'Broadhust'

I have a story about this plant. I yearned for Lord's and Ladies for years before finding this in an Englishman's garden in April 1981: he'd shown me hundreds (maybe thousands) of treasures in his alpine houses and endless rock gardens. So many my head was spinning: they he invited me to have cuttings or divisions of anything (knowing I was overwhelmed perhaps?)...I'd noticed no end of these in his hedgerow: you should have seen his crestfallen face when this is all I asked for. "Take them all" he said... I made a bee-line to the most spotted plant in the back forty. When I dug up the whole thing and began to put it in the bag he said wistfully "leave a bit!"...Jim Broadhurst was his name...

Tulipa greigii

 Before...

Same shot, taken this morning.

And the next day...

Phaeleonopsis rebloom

Finally got a phaeleonopsis to rebloom, and it's gone alpine on me! That's it folks! At least until the snow melts...