Spring has been held back several times this year by cold spells after warm spells. Hence the first snowdrops and eranthis were still around last week, and were being joined by crocus, scilla, chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow), and pushkinia, which would usually come in succession. All of these bulbs are shorties. Did you know that spring perennials as well as bulbs are generally short, and those that bloom later get taller and taller? Think spring pinks, summer daylilies, fall asters. Or early scilla and crocus, late spring daffs and tulips, summer lilies and alliums.

Crocus almost everybody knows: vase-shaped cups of purple, white, yellow, or the wonderful white/purple striped Pickwick; the species crocus, usually a bit earlier (but not this spring!) are even shorter, and may be yellow or gold, white with blue markings, purple or burgundy. All can be planted either in beds or in the lawn.

Scilla are in their glory now; intense blue, no more than 6 inches tall, flooding the grass as they naturalize. Almost every house in the 5000 block of Greenwood has them in the front yard. If you want to see a "lake" of them, look two doors north of KAM Temple, right in front at the sidewalk line. Wow! Or look at the very modern house on Woodlawn, west side, just south of 49th Street. Another wonder, driving along Washington Park's eastern edge just north of 55th Street. If you want to do this on your property, plant 50 scilla bulbs this fall and wait. (Order them from the Garden Fair!) The bulbs multiply, and they seed themselves as well. So don't mow the grass too soon; let the seedheads form and the seed fall. Nature does the rest.

This is the time of the intense yellow (with just a bit of green cast) of the forsythia bush—absolutely gorgeous in bloom, but rather untidy after. Remember when there was a hedge of them right in front of the Robie House, clipped flat just under the front balcony. Spectacular in bloom, not much later. They seem to have been lost in the reconstruction. The other wonderful yellow, of course, is in the daffodils. An impressive display of different varieties can be seen on 54th Street, north side (Spruce Park), between Blackstone and Harper. Those earliest bits of red are likely to be the earliest botanical (or species) tulips.

Speaking of forsythias, have you been watching the new cedar fence on the northeast corner of 57th and Woodlawn? It is stunningly decorated with espaliered shrubs and vines, including forsythia trained in diagonal trellis lines, blooming now. It will be more beautiful every year as the fence gets greyer, showing off the yellow flowers. Aftercare of this shrub in such a strict situation will demand constant pruning.

Star magnolia is the large shrub/small tree bearing pale pink, soon white, ribbon petals making starry flowers on naked branches. It's a honey: mild fragrance, lovely grey bark, chestnut leaves in fall, big lumpy seed pods which split to show red berries. If only it held its bloom longer than a week! The saucer magnolia, its big tree cousin, is more impressive. The bigger flowers can be 4 to 6 inches long in the petal, in a white to deep rose shading, they are born like chalices all over the tree, and though their rich fragrance doesn't carry strongly, it's worth putting your nose into a big flower several times during the 2 or more weeks of bloom. Many people call them tulip trees, for the shape of the flower, I guess, but there is a real tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, which should hold this name. Various magnolia species are being crossbred to make new color shadings, like deeper purple-reds, ivories and pale yellows, but the main effort is to have them bloom a bit later than the saucer, or Soulangeana. Magnolias form their flower buds the previous year, and an early warm spell makes them crack their woolly winter overcoats, exposing the tender petals; then a cold snap may freeze and brown the tips. They will still bloom, but will be marred by these spots. So the later they can bloom, the safer the flowers from freezer burn. Look for two of these deep purple ones just south of 48th on Woodlawn, west side, at the front of the lot.

And lastly, the maples are blooming with raggedy little rusty reddish mopheads about the size of the end of your thumb, that may make you sneeze! So may the succession of street tree flowers that will be blooming inconspicuously for the next couple of weeks.

Flowering ornamental trees we have in abundance. Please send in your notes on where to see shadblow, crabs, cherries, dogwood, or whatever. Spring in Hyde Park is wondrous!