At last, I spot my first bulb sprout of spring

/ March 28, 2015
A green bulb sprouts in Eastwood.

A green bulb sprouts in Eastwood.

The words I have waited so long this March to type:

I have spotted the first green sprouting from a bulb in the gardens of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood.

It’s in the very corner of the front garden, where a good-sized pile of snow still lurks a half-dozen feet past the neighboring juniper.

My dear wife Karen knows it’s a by-now-raggedy tulip, one of a batch she put in our cherished ground soon after we first moved in the July of 2004. She says she’s been digging them up after they wilt every summer now for several years because they look so … beyond gone, but still several make their way back each spring.

I am happy, oh so, to see this one almost a week after the calendar start to spring 2015. I’ve looked hard on our property, and cannot yet say we have bud one for me to shoot and share on any branch.

Has your first bulb come up, and if so, what is it? What buds have come to life on your trees? Have you dug up bulbs only to have them come back regardless, and if so, what’s your hardy species?

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52 thoughts on “At last, I spot my first bulb sprout of spring”

  1. yay yay yay yay!!!! Spring has sprung here in Minnesota, too. Oh what bliss. Especially for those of you who have been shoveling solid these last few months. Enjoy the sunshine and warmth 🙂

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  2. Ah the revival of hibernating flora. I’m a Southern transplant originally from Michigan so I know all too well the delay of Springs blossom. Here in the South everything is budding and blooming right now. The Dogwood and Bradford Pear are snowing their little pink and white petals over lawn and asphalt. flowers are lifting their heads all over and I am renewed. hopefully Spring sets in fully for you soon!

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  3. woohoo! we’ve got daffodils sprouting, the tulips are beginning to show – but then get eaten by the deer….which explains why there are tons of daffodils in the neighborhood! We still expect more snows here, but in the meantime the sight of new green growth is wonderful!

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    • The cycle is marvelous, Katie. Foraging deer know where to go, don’t they? We have many right around the Syracuse city proper, driving just a few miles out in all directions. Every once in a while, one will be spotted wandering inside the city neighborhoods, too. 😮 Enjoy Wyoming’s beauty, my friend.

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  5. Good news! A bit of spring always puts a spring in your step and a smile on your face (well, it does mine). I think we’ve got a late spring… narcissi are flowering, apple trees thinking that they may bud in a few months time, and the buddleia (sp?) and honeysuckle are showing leaves. The flowering currant, which is usually the first big thing to show has buds; but other than that… slow, slow, slow (but not as cold or as slow as your spring… poor you). I read one of the comments using spring, lavender and roses in the same sentence. Now, that to me is summer!

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  11. We don’t have any yard left bro. Mark. Construction workers have taken over the yard, parking lot, entry, and now they will shut the laundry off, as well as the public restrooms. Office is moving to the other building (YAY) on April 2, don’t know where the mailboxes will be, not sure where we will pick up any packages we receive, but hopefully in 3 months (?) the lobby will be looking habitable again. What was the question? Oh, yeah, bulbs. There are some beautiful plastic daffodils in a plastic pot next to the front entrance of the building. Maybe next year we’ll have some plastic grass on the lawn and a few plastic trees in place of the live ones they have fenced off where we can’t get to them.
    The redbud trees I can see from my window are beginning to get that reddish sheen, but then we just started out of “Redbud winter” as it is called in this area. The grass is green in the neighborhood, even if we don’t have any left over here. But there is always hope for next year.

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  12. Yay Mark! I noticed the trees were blooming early this year in Southern California. One tree out front has all its leaves. One of the others is just started to get a few leaves back. The roses are all blooming, as is some lavender. I am really loving the Spring weather.

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  18. Bulbs don’t last through the hot summers here in Florida. It’s nice to see the lilies come back every spring and the azaleas bloom. We have some strange yellow and pink flowering trees that bloom in spring.

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  19. The tulip may just make it under the shelter of the bush or tree, with nicely laid mulch to protect it, Mark! I saw frozen crocuses lying their little yellow, white and purple blooms down in my good friend, Jenny’s garden on Friday. I see sunshine and hope the wilted flowers will survive.
    My favorite ‘transplant’ story is my Mom’s Lilies of the Valley flowers. When we had a little ranch in Sandusky, Ohio, we had these flowers, they had little bulbs, I believe. I never helped with taking them but when we moved to North Olmsted, my Mom had a bucket of them, along with a few bulbs, tulips, daffodils and hyacinthes, (oops, spelling?) and we planted them in the front garden of our split level. Then, when we moved to Bay Village, we did this again, with a few extra buckets. The last house, when I go there to visit my niece, her husband and baby who reside in my parents’ cottage on Lake Erie, there will be tons of Lily of the Valley flowers poking out of the cold ground in the rock garden in the front of the small house. I had some in my only house I built with my last husband of 13 years, we made a rock garden with Lake Erie rocks and those flowers survive to this day!

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  22. No bulbs here at my place Mark, but was noticing that some trees on my street suddenly have lots of little leaves. It was 21c/70f here yesterday, can you believe it??? Today we’re looking for a high of 9c/49f and I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop, I know winter’s not over and am hoping that the green life that this unusual warmth has brought about is not destroyed by the cold and snow that may still come before it’s finally spring and summer. ❤
    Diana xo

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  24. My shrubs are just beginning to sprout green (its barely visible but its there!). I noticed my lilac bushes look like they are going to be bursting with lilacs this year. YAY!! I love lilacs!

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