Yesterday’s snow flurries and bitter chill felt a little like a set back but March still somehow manages to take another two steps forward for every one back. It’s no longer enough to patrol the garden for changes only once a week. It’s much better (March better?) to take a daily march (enough with the puns) outside and goodness knows the timing is really perfect for taking a break from the horrifying headlines that I can’t seem to look away from when I’m cooped up indoors.

If I didn’t scan the gardens every day now I could have easily missed the Iris reticulata that only blooms for a millisecond (i.e. a week) and I might not catch the Lonicera fragrantissima, which refused to burst in time for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day today (hosted as always by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.) I predict it will take another day or so of sun before its scent lures our rare early spring visitors to a forgotten corner of the Rose Garden, and gives us something to do with our noses while we prune the roses (next week).

No one could miss the witch hazels that have been in bloom for a month but I wouldn’t want to lose another single day with them. Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would wait for forsythia when there are witch hazels (Hamamelis spp.) in February, Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) – open just enough today to count as blooming – and spice bush (Lindera benzoin) on its way, all for earlier cheerful yellowness.

And getting down – way down- to take a look at the crocus is an excellent warm-up for all of the getting down and up again we’re going to have to start doing so soon now, she says while massaging her stiff lower back…

Are you marching right along with March? How about your garden?