Meteorological spring - I'll take it

There was much talk around Seattle last month about how early the ornamental fruit trees started blooming.  I have wanted to believe that it wasn't incredibly early for all of this, but when I look back at my out-and-about photos from the past few years, the start of the flowering seems to be as much as 3 weeks earlier than usual. 

These ornamental plums down the block always get my attention when they start blooming.  Here they are in 2013:

March 11 2013

Same trees, 2015:

February 15, 2015

In 2013, my Ogon spiraea started blooming in mid-March and hit its peak arounnd April 1st:

Here it is on February 22nd, 2015:

(Don't ask me why I don't have photos of either of these from last year.  I seem to have been fascinated with plants in other parts of the neighborhood last spring.)

The thing about plants blooming this early is that one can't help but be afraid that some nasty weather system is going to swoop down out of Alaska and smack the flowers into oblivion.  We had snow on February 9th last year, and it's not unheard of for us to get snow in March (2009, I'm scowling at you.)  But once we get past March 1, the chances for really nasty cold weather get more and more slim every day.  The equinox is days away, but we're now in meteorological spring, and I can stop feeling anxious about an Arctic front ruining my inner happy dance.  Along with the spiraea in my garden I have crocuses (croci?) and daffodils, and I can see the very beginning of the purple lilacs (the white lilacs hold out a few more weeks.)  Around the neighborhood, the usual early bloomers have been in evidence -- heaths, pieris, daphne odora, hellebores, camellias - but now the star magnolias and brilliant yellow forsythias are claiming their spot in the landscape.  And the new leaves!  I love that early spring green, which is starting to be everywhere, but I also love the brilliant red of the first new leaves on the photinias:

Mind you, an early spring also means an early surge by weeds in the garden.  I had commitments that kept me away from my dirt this past weekend, and the dandelions and shotweed I see every morning taunt me with the reality of what happens when rainy days are interspersed with warm ones.  Guess I'll be spending a lot of time on my knees this weekend.  Cross your fingers and hope the current weather forecast holds up!



p.s.  This is what those pink flowers look like close up:

and they smell good, too!