Spring may begin in March, around the time the daffodils bloom in the Lower Midwest, but that doesn’t mean the color calendar isn’t already underway before then.

Did you know that even before the daffodils bloom, quite a few plants have already stepped into the spotlight?  Here are ten of them:

1.  More often than not, Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) opens its first flowers during the second week of February in Cincinnati.

It is so anxious to get the ball rolling that it melts the snow around it.  The warmth of the sun coaxes its buttercup flowers open.  Get your knees dirty and take in their perfume:  that polleny-sweet scent that many early bloomers have.  Bees must like it, because they get right to work on the flowers.