Perennials Getting an Early Start

Does it seem to you that when the flowers start popping, everything happens overnight? Here are some things in bloom in our garden today that I did not notice a few days ago. And it seems that most of these are making an appearance very early this year.

Wood Poppy 

Stylophorum diphyllum

Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphrite'

Epimedium

Epimedium x rubrum

Coreopsis

Hardy orchid

Bletilla striata

Camellia japonica 'Pearl Maxwell'

Here's the one that concerns me with the cooler weather forecasted for the next few days. This camellia has blooms that remind me of the tissue paper flowers we use to make as kids (remember those?). The blooms both look like those tissue paper flowers and act like tissue paper when the temperature dips. Low temperatures won't damage the plant but can turn the blooms to mush. I bought a frost blanket especially for this camellia and I'll get it out for the 34-degree night forecasted for the weekend. Thiry-four degrees may not damage the bloom, but just in case. . . .