When Jim Waddick announced that he had winter aconites in bloom recently, I really came down with a case of the grumps. How can he in USDA zone 5 already have aconites when there is not a trace of them here in my zone 7 garden? Two days ago the snow finally cleared on the sites where the winter aconites grow here. There were plenty of snowdrops in bloom, and even some garden forms of Crocus tommasinianus, but at first no aconites. Yesterday I took another look and there they were, little bright yellow globes poking up through the mulch. The flowers have not opened yet, but they are nevertheless providing some of the brightest yellow in the garden right not. I’ll have to check my records: this might be the latest they have appeared here. Other than the aconites, things are getting off to a slow start here. There are about a dozen snowdrop varieties blooming, two or three crocus varieties (and not many of each so far), winter jasmine, witch hazels, wintersweet, Helleborus foetidus and the garden hellebores (but the garden hellebores are still in early bud stage mostly) – really lean pickings for the first week of March. The local wild Acer rubrum are not quite in bloom – their flowering marks in earnest the beginning of the allergy season for some people. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/