I have a friend who once commented, “The promise of spring leans hard on you gardeners.” Oh, how right she is. Is it spring yet? I can almost taste it on the wind today. Soon, soon, my landscape teases.

My daffodils are almost ready to start blooming, but they aren’t very popular with pollinators if anything else is available.

In the last week of January, we had a few days that were far warmer than average. Even that early, my neighbor’s bees (he is a beekeeper) were buzzing around my yard looking for nectar. I didn’t have much to offer them, so I dragged the only flowers I had, two pots of coleus, out of the house and onto my porch. It didn’t take the bees long to find them. I counted seven bees at once on a single flower stalk.

The worst weather of winter followed those warm, sunny days, and after an ice storm and extended cold streak, there were no bees to be seen. I am reminded that unusual weather extremes wreak havoc with wildlife as well as with plants. While my neighbor’s bees could return to their hives, ostensibly stocked with enough honey to get them through the rest of winter, any bumblebee queens that came out of hibernation during those warm days faced a hard battle for survival in the cold that followed. It is unlikely they would have survived.

Today is glorious. Though neglected, I see many, many bulbs coming up in my new yard, some in unexpected places. Daffodils, day lilies, iris, and a few tulips are forcing their way up through grass and weeds. There are some mystery bulbs coming up, as well; with just the tips poking up, I can’t yet identify them.

This year, daffodils will be my first bloomers, and they’ll wait until the first week of March to share their golden glory. In other years, in other yards, I’ve seen them bloom as early as January.

Early blooming bulbs are a boon to bees and other pollinators. Because my neighbor’s bees were already out three or four weeks ago, I suspect they’ll check out my daffodils, even if they aren’t bees’ favorites.

There are early spring bulbs that are popular with bees:

• Snowdrops (often the earliest to appear)
• Crocuses
• Hyacinths
• Grape hyacinths
• Wood hyacinths
• Allium (many varieties)

Crocuses

Grape hyacinths

Hyacinths

Wood hyacinths.

Most spring-blooming bulbs need to planted in the fall, so it’s too late (or too early, depending on your point of view) to plant them right now. However, I will be evaluating my yard to see what I have and where, in order to determine what I need in the future. I’ll want to add snowdrops and crocuses, for example, because I want some flowers that might be out during early warm spells like the one we had this year. I will be moving many things, also, so I am marking clumps to dig up later, once they go dormant. For me, it’s already time to start planning for summer and fall by taking pictures and making notes.

I’ve already identified several clumps of bulbs that I’ll want to move.

Early spring-blooming bulbs are carefree and low maintenance. Many can be naturalized into both sunny and wooded areas. By planting a variety, you can begin attracting pollinators early, and keep them coming back until other flowers have started to bloom.