Slowly, winter gives way...

 ...to tiny signs of spring.
Mahonia aquifolium is budding out.

So is the mahonia nervosa.

Archtostaphylos "Austin Griffiths" is blooming.

And a no-name camellia is getting ready to bloom.

For three years now, I have dug these daffodils out of this bed. I'm not a big fan of most daffodils and these are a weak yellow and frankly just not very attractive. But here they come again. I grudgingly admire their tenacity, so I'll probably cut and bring them inside.

I am a fan of daphne. It's easily worth my precious garden space given to this somewhat ungainly shrub to have its scent this time of year.

Hemerocallis "Stella de Oro" is actually sending up a flower stalk from the middle of its new foliage.

This lime-green kniphofia has been leafing out for a few weeks. It looks like I lucked into a real survivor here: it was missing its tag when I bought it so I don't know much more than its color.

The evergreen huckleberries, vaccinium ovatum, are budding.

Potentilla 'McKay's White' is leafing out.

Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge' didn't seem to know it was winter, and it's looking just as good as spring nears. Its wonderful stripes are a real kick in the garden, especially this time of year when there's so little color around.

 

Speaking of color, this succulent has taken on a great reddish-purple, and so has the small heather below.

 

Here's another colorful plant that laughed at our wet and freezing weather this winter. I'm so impressed with the stamina and good looks of these two carex morrowii 'Evergold' in pots on my front porch. They look as good now as they did when I planted them in October - maybe even better.

This row of dwarf sweet box, sarcoccoa hookeriana var. humilis,  was planted to be the perfect mid-century accent for the roman brick planter along the front of our house, and it's filling in well after two summers. In addition to tolerating the deep shade created by two huge acer negundo street trees, it blooms in winter with tiny pungent flowers.

They're hard to see, but great to smell while I'm watching for tiny signs of spring.