Today I went outside to check on my winter blooming jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum).  This plant, which is nothing more than an annoying tangle of long, thin branches much of the year, is often the first or second plant to bloom in my garden.  Like forsythia and some other early spring shrubs, it is also amenable to being "forced" for indoor bloom.

It's cold outside, but the jasmine's warm heart is beating.  Several branches had swelling buds, so I cut a few to bring indoors.  When the buds open in a day or two, the flowers will perfume the air around them.   

While I was outside I also checked on my new flowering quince shrub.  Though I only put it in last year, it had the beginnings of buds on several branches.  They were too young to cut, but they were definitely developing.  I'll keep checking every couple of days or so because few things are as beautiful as quince flowers.

My "stinking" hellebore  (Helleborus foetidus) also has buds.  I clipped a branch with several well-developed buds and it joined the jasmine branch on the kitchen windowsill (in a separate container).  The flowers are green, but at this time of the year even unusually colored flowers are a welcome sight.     

The jasmine is happily residing in a miniature brandy snifter that I picked up at a thrift shop.  The hellebore looks lovely in an old blue and white egg cup that I inherited from my grandmother.  Both are right above the kitchen sink where I can see them often and catch the first sweet whiff of springtime when the jasmine blooms.