Spring has Sprung....

When I was in high school here in Texas, there was a certain ritual that always signalled warmer temperatures and the headlong rush to summer. Our principal would at some point right before spring break come on the PA system and in an accent that can only be described as East Texas twang saturated in South Carolina drawl would intone: "Students, spring has sprung." That trademark prologue led into a homily on the inappropriateness of the public displays of affection in the hallways that always seem to be on the increase as the sap rose...so to speak. This sermon occurred without fail all four years I was there...and, I can only imagine, continued until he retired sometime a decade or so later.

I couldn't help but smile at the recollection as I walked around our yard today and realized that, yes indeed, spring had sprung. The saucer magnolia (that I always learned to call a "tulip tree") was blooming. (Hopefully, it won't get zapped by a late-season frost as it seems to have every year since we moved here six years ago.) Daffodils are in bloom. Traditional big-bloomed ones as well as some tiny little ones that I planted and that continue to naturalize year after year.

The wildflowers in the alley are beginning to green. Not only the established ones that did so well last year, but also the tiny seedlings that have emerged from the seed broadcast back in November. Already they are fighting with less-desirable "wild" flowers like dandelions and henbit. They won't bloom until summer, so only time will tell who will emerge victorious.

I pruned the rose bushes which live in pots on the back driveway a couple of weeks ago, and they are already sending out new red-green growth that will, in March and April, result in a colorful display, ready to enjoy on walks outside or to be cut, brought in and put around the house. And the iris, the first perennials to bloom in our landscape are eagerly emerging from soil and mulch. If their bloom is as prolific as their foliage, it looks like we're in for a stunning show.

It's not all "sprung" yet though. The wisteria is not quite ready to bloom, and the knobby buds on its lengths are not yet betraying whether they will be flowers (as we hope) or just leaves (as seems to be the case most often dadgum it). And while the iris are ready to go, their successors in the bloom parade, the daylilies, can't even bother to stick their green and lazy leaves out of the ground. his time of year always leads to a panicked moment or two when I wonder if they're all deadfrom drought and freeze. They always manage to come back though.

It's a great time to be outdoors. Warm, but with a hint of chill in the wind. Here in Texas, it's a time to revel in...all too soon, we'll barricade ourselves behind glass in air-conditioned sterility and sweat our way from house to car to office and back. In the meantime, there is sunshine, blooms, pollen (dang allergies) and green.

This is the first spring of this blog, and I'll be sharing with you the things that we grow here that give us so much pleasure. Many of them are perennials, simple to grow with the promise of return year after year. Herbs. Wildflowers. And a tropical plant or two tat have spent their winters dormant in our garage, but soon will burst into color and smell.

For now, my advice is simple. Get outside. Take it in--smell, see and feel all that's out there. For after all, spring HAS sprung.