Four out of six are actual flowers this week, so it must actually be spring now!

One: Dogtooth Violets (Koiranhammas)

A couple weeks ago, I was out in the flower field and noticed some goofy-looking spotted leaves. “Huh,” I thought, “weird tulip.” And then I promptly forgot about it until this week, when something that was absolutely not a tulip emerged.

These are dogtooth violets — Erythronium dens-canis — and I planted them back in autumn of 2023. Over two years to bloom! The one in flower is either ‘Lilac Wonder’ or ‘Purple King’; I ordered both but can’t tell them apart from a single flower. ‘White Beauty’ was also part of that order, but looks a bit sulky. These apparently take a while to get established, so we’ll see if next year’s patch doesn’t look quite so lonely.

Two: Wood Anemones (Valkovuokko)

Anemonoides nemorosa. We have several wild patches around the property, but this one was the earliest to bloom. (Not to be confused with the Anemone sylvestris we also have — different species, blooms later in summer.) Wood anemones are traditional Mother’s Day flowers here in Finland, so I’ll probably have a bunch in a vase tomorrow.

Three: Silver Sword Self-Eviction

My Philodendron hastatum has been looking… less than thrilled with its pot lately. (See: before photo.) This was exactly how my original pothos looked right before I propagated it for the first time. All those air roots were basically the plant waving a flag that said “I’m ready to leave.”

Four cuttings went into a jar of water. The rather pathetic-looking mother stem got fresh soil and a fertilizer stick. Hopefully it gets the hint and starts leafing out soon.

Four: The Daffodil Lottery

The flower field has its first open daffodils! I tossed a few different variety packs in there a couple autumns ago, so every flower looks different from its neighbor. It’s sort of fun to see what appears next — like a very slow lottery.

Five: Sprucing Up the Front Bed

Before and after shots of the flower bed in front of our house, which desperately needed attention before everything reached full size. The thatch got a little crazy because I didn’t touch anything last year. There are four or five dicentras (formosa and spectabilis) in there, a few hostas, some naturalized tulips, blue-eyed mary, and probably a few other things I’ve forgotten.

Why did cleaning up the front of the house and getting everything presentable become such a pressing issue? I’ll let you know soon…

Six: Unattainable Tulips

These were planted by the previous owner, and the surrounding shrubs have now engulfed the whole area. It’s another part of the garden that needs serious clearing out — I just have to go in with loppers and a saw and show those branches who’s boss. We’ll see if I actually get to that this year. If the incentive is that I can actually reach the tulips to cut some next spring, maybe it’ll actually get done.

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