Just last week I spent four days in the Philadelphia area while in town to do a talk at the Hardy Plant Society, Mid-Atlantic Group spring conference.  My gracious hostess, the inimitable Stephanie Cohen took me to the Morris Arboretum for a day of plant-sighting.  Check out a few of late winter/early spring divas in full regalia below.  Having been born in March, I have an innate love, though one only recently realized, for the late winter garden.  I hope you enjoy.

But I don’t have to fly to the other end of the country to enjoy harbingers of spring.  In fact yesterday I popped out to Ledges State Park, just west of Ames, Iowa to check on the status of spring.  Winston Beck and Josh Schultes captured these images with my camera while I was busy being giddy.  We’ll relay more reports from our travels as the season progresses here and on our new blog project at www.digthismag.com.  These petite little kiddos are liverleafs or Hepatica americana.  Just look at the genetic diversity!  We saw thousands upon thousands, more than I can recall seeing in recent years.  Though delicate and bijou, these darlings of the first days of spring deserve a place in our gardens if only to herald the arrival of the new season.