Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day April 2012- April Showers Bring Mass Confusion

Welcome once again to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day brought to us by May Dreams Gardens (thank you once again for hosting this meme!) where we display what is blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month and browse the posts of our fellow gardeners from all over the world.

So what has happened since we gathered last, on March 15, here in upstate New York?

For the March 15 post, an extremely mild winter caused early bulbs, such as crocuses and early daffodils, to bloom way ahead of schedule.  And then it got even better or worse.(depending on your point of view.)

Here, as in so much of the United States, our spring was totally topsy-turvey.  We got April weather - even May weather -the week of March 18 and  trees responded, showing their blooms a good three weeks or more ahead of "schedule".

Then we got a hard freeze.  At my son's house (I was on vacation, safe in Raleigh, NC) it got down to 16 degrees.  At our house I estimate it was somewhere in the 20's.

Oops.

Despite the damage, spring was here for good.  And, like so many other gardeners, I am reporting May blooms blooming today.  For example -

In my front yard, purple tulips.....

Red tulips....(with a backdrop of grape hyacinths)

Daffodils....

And in my back yard, primroses.

Back to my front yard, my euphorbia is starting to show yellow...

And two pansies that overwintered finally opened their flowers today, just in time for GBBD.

 
For some reason, my lenten rose is showing a lot of new foliage growth but no flowers. I have a sinking feeling we planted it in too much shade.  Meanwhile, our columbine (never had one before last year for some unknown reason)  is also putting out foliage at a great clip.  Hopefully, I'll know by the May Garden Bloggers Bloom Day if these will bloom.

Some area lilacs and rhodies are even starting to bloom now (a good month ahead of schedule!) although not mine.

This type of spring is not necessarily good for our area, though.  We have a local maple syrup industry, and I talked to a producer at yesterday's Farmers Market.  Their season was much shorter than normal.

I'll be posting other pictures taken around Binghamton, New York, later in the week, if you want to stop back by.

Happy GBBD!  How's your garden doing?  If you are in North America, have you also had a strange winter and spring?