Remember those bulbs I planted in January? Remember how I worried I’d waited too long and they wouldn’t get enough of a cold season to burst forth appropriately come spring? Well, the world is full of surprises. First, it’s February but feels like spring in New York. Surprise! Second, the bulbs are coming up. SURPRISE! They’re gorgeous. Look at all that color, just in the emerging leaves of the tulips. Man, spring is awesome.

A few more pictures of beautiful emerging bulbs:

That little daffodil makes me feel so excited and nervous, like watching those nature videos where baby birds fly for the first time. It’s so tenuous! So plucky! In my old backyard in Cobble Hill, it was at this very stage that squirrels dug up all my crocuses. Maybe it’s residual fear — squirrels have yet to scale the six floors up to my terrace — but when I see birds land in the daffodil planter I bang the windows to shoo them away. I want my daffodils safe and sound, uneaten and un-snowed-upon from here on out.

Just looking at those bold little crocuses, really shooting up. They look like they’re sailing into a stiff wind. I’m cheering for them.

And while we’re at it, there are few non-bulbs developments as well:

That’s a magnolia bud, opening with pretty, pretty pale fuzz. It’s the first of my magnolia buds to peep open. All the rest are still tightly closed, but swelling with such possibility.

And then there’s the peach:

Not ready, definitely not quite ready, but there’s color there that hasn’t been there before. It won’t be all that long.

Tags: bulbs, this week in the garden