Collinsia verna, Where Are You?

I've looked everywhere for you, crawling on hands and knees through the wet clay, pulling back the leaf mulch, hoping to see the small seedlings that have always greeted me in February.

 You are nowhere to be found!

Collinsia verna  is a winter annual that can be found growing in rich deciduous woodlands 

Blue-Eyed Mary is a native winter annual that blooms in the Spring, sets seed in the summer, germinates in the fall and then starts growing in February.  

I love it and have my fingers crossed in hope that it's better at hiding than I am at searching.

~Although, the Blue-Eyed Mary was a no-show I did see

False Rue Anemone (Enemion biternatum ), always one of the first Spring ephemerals to bloom.

Early blooming daffodils.

Tommies!

An array of beautiful Hellebores.

Aren't they worth mucking about in the mud!

A few  Dandelions for the earliest  visiting honeybees.

Hamamelis 'Diane' holding court in the understory, and 

Slippery Elm glowing above it all.

~~~~~

Really, not bad for a chilly few days in the garden...

xoxogail

I am several days late for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, but don't let that keep you from popping over to May Dreams Gardens to see what Carol is up to...

 Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

GBBD: Thank Heaven For Hellebores!

 Or, I would be sharing the beautiful blooms that are sitting on my desk with you!

Instead, I have these lovely  Helleborus orientalis, Royal Heritage Strain to show you. After my beloved spring ephemeral wildflowers and Hamamelis vernalis,  hellebores are the most welcome flowers in my winter garden.  Just when I've had all the brown and gray I can take they begin their  dramatic blooming.   

Demure they aren't.

They are the funniest flowers and if you look closely

A Mona Lisa smile

you can see their smile.

The kind of smile that makes you wonder

It's the kind of smile that makes you wonder what they are up to...

Are those teeth?

It's the kind of smile that says, "feed me Seymour"!

They sure look like teeth?

But, then, I have a vivid imagination.  Do you?
xxoogail

PS Now, make this garden blogger smile and pop over to May Dreams Gardens, where our delightful hostess, Carol,  has set up the Mr Linky magic carpet ride to take you to more Bloom Day posts than you can imagine.  

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone."