At Albemarle Plantation, we are ready to welcome spring with open arms.
Our community falls in the Plant Hardiness Zone 8A. The U. S. Department of Agriculture has devised maps that divide our country into zones based on the average lowest temperature the area receives during the coldest months. For us, that is 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Remember, this is the lowest average temperature, not the lowest ever.
Lucky for us, the Zone8A growing world has a remarkable variety and species of plant life, some of which are perfectly happy to flower and blossom in early spring. These bloomers come alive when the shapes of our flowerbeds and the paths between them are the only things in the garden after the last frost.
What are these early bloomers? Here are a few we’ve spotted around our community:
- Hellebores or Lenten rose: This beautiful winter-blooming evergreen plant has white, green, pink, purple, or yellow rose-shaped flowers.
- Snowdrops and crocus: These bulbs have been known to bloom even in the snow.
- Pansy or viola: Planted in early fall to grow during the coolest part of the year, pansies provide a show of multicolored flowers in the winter and early spring.
- Camellia: This popular evergreen spreading shrub has a showy display of rose-like blossoms, red or pink in color.
- Daphne: This small evergreen shrub is covered with small fragrant flowers in late winter.
- Mahonia: The evergreen leather leaf variety has a 3 to 6-inch spike-like cluster of bright yellow flowers in late winter.
- Winterberry: This deciduous version of holly loses its leaves in late fall, leaving behind a dazzling spray of red berries.
- Daffodils: In early February these hardy bulbs begin to push their green shoots upward, keeping us all in suspense, waiting for the first bright yellow blossom.
