Today is cold, dreary, and raining. A few degrees colder and this would be wet snow, so just another very typical March morning. In another day or two it’ll be short sleeve weather, then cold, and back and forth, and this is all to be expected. With unsettled weather the norm for March, the one constant is flowers. There are many in the garden, even on the most miserable day, and more every day.

Certainly, a few flowers will be harmed by the ups and downs. The last of the autumn flowering camellias’ buds are bursting open, along with the spring bloomers (Camellia japonica, above and below) that opened a few scattered flowers in February, but fewer than in the two recent very mild winters. The camellias’ blooms are most vulnerable to temperatures that drop into the low twenties, but the browned flowers will be followed by new blooms a few days later.

The early flowering magnolias are showing the slightest bit of color, and twenty five miles east, in the warmer suburbs I see Star magnolias (Magnolia stellata, below) with half opened flowers. These should be protected against a mild freeze, but fully opened blooms are often damaged. In this garden ‘Merrill’ flowers first, followed closely by ‘Royal Star’, then ‘Jane’ and the two yellow flowered magnolias (‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Yellow Bird’). The buds on all are swelling, but safe for now.

The early ‘Okame’ cherry (Prunus ‘Okame’, above) is flowering just above the koi pond. On a warm afternoon I watch in delight as the light pink flowers float onto the dark waters. After flowering ‘Okame’ is a pleasant enough green background, but unremarkable except that it grows much more compact than other cherries that are too wide spreading, with shade that is too dark and dry for understory plantings. I’m happy that I took advantage of a mild afternoon on the weekend to yank the yellow flowered passionflower vine (Passiflora lutea) out of the cherry just before it flowered. The vine dies to the ground annually, but climbs twenty feet into the cherry every year to add a bit of color.