Yesterday was sunny and in the 50s. Today started out sunny but is now overcast. The forecast calls for snow tonight. It's in the 50s right now so if we do get snow, I hope that it doesn't stick. Even if it does, it should melt fast because the weather is supposed to be in the 40s and 50s this week.

Some of the Tete-a-Tete daffodils are beginning to bloom. There are a lot of the minature daffodils coming up in this bed so I'm looking forward to the rest of them flowering. I am planning on transplanting some perennials to this bed in a few weeks.

I went to see Janet Macunovich speak this afternoon at English Gardens. (This is the third time that I have attended her lectures.) The topic was Perennial Designs for Continuous Color. She has a great gardening philosphy--if it doesn't work, dig it up! One of the points that she made was that she plants perennials that will thrive in their site and not just survive.

I always pick up something new from her. She said that she doesn't let the leaves of tulips and daffodils die back. Instead, she cuts them back when they are done blooming. We are buying bulbs that are already at top size so it's not necessary for them to grow larger. I'm going to cut back the foliage on the bulbs this spring so that they don't get brown and "ugly."

She also believes that butterfly bushes should be cut back hard in the spring. (I just finished reading April's Michigan Gardener yesterday and she wrote about this in her column too.) Several years ago, I was at at presentation about Butterfly Gardening and the presenter was aghast when I told her that I cut back my butterfly bushes hard every year. She said, "I don't think that you can do that" even though I had made it clear that I had been doing that! In fact, I need to cut back my butterfly bushes soon. I have had the current ones for two years and they have thrived in their current location.

These are the scillas that I took pictures of several weeks ago when they were just beginning to bud. Now they are in bloom and are beautiful. I really enjoy this bed (by the front door.) It has a variety of small early blooming bulbs planted there and it's always a joy to see them each spring. The only problem is that a few bulbs get dug up accidently and discarded when I am planting other flowers there in the summer and fall.