April is here, and it finally feels like spring. Let’s take a quick look at the April cut flower garden progress!
The tulips are finally starting to gain some growth. This year a planted a large selection of parrot and double tulips. I’m really eager to see their color and make some really nice flower bouquets with them. Tulips make such a bold statement without much effort from me. I just wish that they weren’t so expensive!
A lot of the spring flowering bulbs have finally started to bloom. Most notably, the cute little muscari plants have started to bloom. Though there is some variation when it comes to muscari, I just opted for the “regular” blue ones. Eventually, I would love to have a huge mass planting of these cute little grape hyacinths, but until that happens somehow – I’ll enjoy my tiny planting of them!
The regular, larger hyacinths have also started to bloom. Last fall, I planted the ‘Shades of Pink’ mix from Longfield Gardens. So far, only three of the plants have started to bloom. Two of them are this lovely soft pink color, and the other is quite a bit darker. In fact, I would almost consider it to be purple rather than pink. Oh well, it’s still pretty. 
Some of the hardy annual flowers have also started to bloom. The pansies and johnny jump up flowers are now starting to wake. Though johnny jump up flowers are considerably smaller than pansies, I can’t get enough of them. The blooms are so bright and cheerful, even when the weather is still cold and blustery.
I’m still playing the waiting game for the Icelandic poppies. They’ve been budding up for about a month now, yet there are still no flowers. It seems that the plants have been having a difficult time adjusting to the fluctuating temperatures at night. We’re still getting some pretty hard frosts, and the flowers don’t seem to appreciate that at all. I’ve lost quite a bit of blooms. Here’s hoping they continue to grow and push up new flowers. 
I’ve definitely been neglecting the anemone coronaria. I didn’t plant very many last year, and as a result, I’ve just been kind of ignoring them. Sometime this week, I’m going to start the process of cleaning them up and getting the plants back to optimal health. 
