"It's still February."

While outside so much the last week working in the yard I've been noticing how many plants seem to be in a hurry to start blooming. It seems like almost every day I've found something new beginning to leaf out or flower buds beginning to show color. They are making it hard to believe we still have 25 days of Winter left. While walking through a nursery on a sunny day last week I had to keep reminding myself, "It's still February, no reason to buy every plant I have on my list today, pace yourself." I was eying a Hydrangea 'Annabelle' (thanks to Edith Hope mentioning it in a post and it sounding like the perfect plant for a difficult area in my yard), but it was still sticks and not one leaf on it yet. Despite my excitement in finding it, I knew it was too early to buy it, especially since I couldn't tell if it was alive or not. "It's only February" I told myself, "still plenty of time to come back and find an 'Annabelle' that has signs of life."
I know that even if our Spring is early I still need to pay attention to the last frost date, which for my area is April 9th. I also need to remember that it's generally around Mother's Day or mid May when it's warm enough to plant things such as annuals or tomato plants outside here. Our Springs are generally not that warm and quite wet.
These plants are some of why it's hard to believe that it's still February:

Pink Flowering Currant (ribes sanguineum) is pretty close to my favorite blooming shrub. In another month or so it will be covered in drooping pink flowers. The flowers don't have any scent, but hummingbirds do fight over this shrub while it's in bloom. When I bought this plant 6 or 7 years ago it was a tiny 1 foot tall stick. I couldn't imagine it ever getting very big. It's now about 8 or 9 feet tall. It did take about three years before it began to bloom heavily, so be patient if you try this one. It's worth waiting for. I have it growing right under a large Pine tree and it does great there.

Mock Orange (Philadelphus coronarius) has the most delicious smelling blooms. This one has chartreuse colored leaves and just pops out in this part of the yard. The leaves tend to change to a more green color as the summer progresses, it may be because it doesn't get as much sun as it would like.

Lilac 'Ludwig Spaeth' ( Syringa vulgaris) buds are growing quickly. This is one I'll be concerned about if we get a late freeze. I moved this from the back yard a few years ago because it wouldn't bloom. It's gotten really tall and has lots of flowers now that it gets the full sun it needs.

The top of the Lilac is a favorite hangout for the birds visiting the bird feeders in the front yard. This guy was singing his heart out.

The Weeping Cherry tree is blooming a little early now. This was the first tree we planted about a year after we moved in to our house 10 years ago.

Two years ago we planted two Pear trees in our front yard, one for each daughter. It's important to plant different varieties that will cross pollinate each other. We're hoping to get our first pears this year.

The Water Hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos) is really beginning to bloom a lot now. They begin blooming when the water is about 50 degrees. I've told in earlier posts that I had read these blooms smell like vanilla. After I took this picture I picked this flower to give it a whiff. It does smell good, but I wouldn't compare it to vanilla. I think these flowers are so pretty, I love all the brown seeds contrasting with the white flower.

So while it does feel and look like Spring, it still is only February.