Marg wrote:

I live in the Northeast, and I was just wondering what the
first spring blooms are. Or I should say, what should I plant to have
my gardening bursting in color early on in the spring? I live in zones
5-6

Well crocuses are the most obvious at the moment, though my spot in the NW
is zone 8. Gold Crocus "Fuscotinctus" is in moderate bloom right now.
Crocus sieberi atticus "Firefly" is in fabulous full bloom, a big drift of
them under the Oyama magnolia. On heavily overcast days like today they
don't fully open but are pretty even when closed. Many other crocuses are
on the cusp, so by the time the "Firefly" is done, there'll be many others
to replace them. A winter crocus (C. laevigatus var fontenayi) is still in
flower, though right now it is beyond its high point, it was amazing
through most of January though. Kaffir lilies have bloomed continuously
since autumn, still very flowery. Primroses in bloom for a few weeks now.
Cyclamen coum have had tiny pink buds for some while, & this past week
burst into blossoms much larger than seems possible to have been folded up
in those tiny slender buds. A huge evergreen abelia was best in flower in
autumn, but always had a least a scattering of flowers right up to now.

Although out-of-season winter blooms on vinca minor & ornamental
strawberries were nothing to boast about, they have nevertheless been
continuously flowering at least a tiny bit all autumn & winter, & tiny
bits can sometimes stand out that time of year. Pink Jasmine is in full
perfumy bloom right now but even in my zone it sort of needs to attach to
the house to get some residual warmth, so it might not do well in zone
5/6, probably the yellow jasmine Bill suggested is hardier for you, I'm
guessing. The witchhazel is fabulously aflower right now, has been all
month. The Dawn Verbanum is beyond its bloom prime now, was thick with
pink flowers early in the month, thinner with bloom now though still a bit
impressive. "Showa-no-Sakae" has what seems like an abnormally long bloom
time; it was in full bloom in November & is still opening MANY buds weekly
(whereas another November bloomer nearby in identical conditions was done
in four weeks). There's also a lot of winter color provided by berries, &
some of these, such as on the wintergreen, will still have their winter
berries intact through spring, it sometimes seems like those berries never
wear out.

Though leaf buds don't really count as flowers, they are nevertheless
exciting to me, & just about everything is budding, a list would
practically be the complete deciduous shrubs documentation of the gardens.
Two examples: Cascade Huckleberry (Vaccinium deliciosum) is a tiny
groundcover shrublet that spreads almost aggressively, & doubled the size
of its patch since last year. On all the tiny twigs springing up all
around the parent plant, besides on the parent, are bright pink leaf-buds.
It's not big & obvious or anything, but it thrilled me. Plus I have
honeysuckles which in warmer zones would've been evergreen but are
deciduous here. The fruits lasted about to winter, & it seemed like the
vines were bare hardly any time at all before the tips were repopulated by
starts of leaves.

For February I'm looking forward to the grape hyacinths & scillas probably
being first -- they were naturalized long before we bought the house so
much in command of their spots of ground. Many new bulbs were planted in
autumn & this will be my first experience with most of them, the majority
of choices being small things that should naturalize, but so many now have
their leaves pushed well up so probably will be blooming in February; will
soon see. I swear it feels like I planted bulbs only last week, autumn &
winter flew by so fast. Lots of perennials that are alleged to stop
blooming "at first frost" didn't regard our mild frosts as worthy of
noticing, so bloomed to the end of November or never quite stopped at all;
the garden was just never all that dormant, so winter has seemed
particularly short since summer/autumn bloomers bloomed into winter, &
some of the crocuses consider it already spring.

-paghat

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/