Showing off the pepper seedlings

The Grow It Eat It blog really doesn't need me spamming about my seed-starting operations any more this year, so I thought I'd just post a photo of my huge and lovely peppers here instead.

They really want to go outside, but even hardening off is not going to start for another week or so. But aren't they pretty? I'd forgotten what it's like to have non-stunted peppers from which I am not constantly washing aphids. (Two years, two accidental introductions, long story. Nothing that goes outside comes back to my seed-starting room anymore, ever.)

Aside from a few things that just didn't take, indoor seed-starting has gone really well this year. If only outdoor sowings in this chilly spring were as speedy to take off. Don't think we are likely to get peas before the plants poop out from heat - March 17 sowing is about three inches tall now...

Spring intensifies!

Despite chilly temperatures this week, spring continues to progress, so what the heck, let's have some more flowers!

My favorite daffodil, Yellow Cheerfulness

A little epimedium hiding away in a corner

Way too much celandine poppy

Baby clove currant blooming!

More daffs - I think Bridal Crown? So many daffodils right now...

Viburnum 'Mohawk' in bloom - we need Smellovision here

Blueberry flowers

Polemonium that is bluer than this really

Valerie Finnis muscari

Just to prove that I do have some tulips even if out of focus

Redbud

Didn't photograph dogwood flowers, but this is what happens when you prune the tree and sap leaks out and gets colonized by bacteria (or maybe fungus). Very colorful!

Dwarf rhododendron in bloom

Cherry laurel about to bloom. Such a funereal plant, but it does screen well.

Transplanted lilac is now blooming!

And like Piglet, I think violets are very nice.

April goes boom!

Last month for GBBD I had practically no blooms outside; this month it's an explosion. Mid-April seems to represent the largest regional variation; I've been seeing photos from my mom in NH of the still-melting snow. Here in Maryland we are about ready to mow the lawn, and the crocuses are done. Redbud and dogwood are just breaking; I haven't seen any tulips yet, and my Mohawk viburnum isn't blooming. But the rest of the spring flowers are going nuts.

Very early daffodils are done, and late ones haven't opened yet, but most of mine are mid-season. The last-pictured ones I'm going to have to try moving when we have a new deck built starting in the next couple of weeks. If I chop them off above the bulb in my usual fashion, oh well.

And sorry about the Vinca minor, but I like it; I know it's a thug. And ha, the bleeding heart arising from the Virginia bluebells. Bleeding hearts are thugs in my yard too.