Now days are really lengthening, hinting at the season to follow.

Potted tulips appear in food markets and florist shops. In greenhouses and among the vegetables, buckets of tall pussy willow stems join cans of freshly-cut daffodils in water. Their presence suggests that soon, our own outdoor plantings will be sprouting.

Forsythia buds are starting to bulge. Recognize which are flowering branches — those whose buds encircle a twig — and those which will furnish leaves only: buds which lie flat in opposite pairs.

Right now, enjoy anything that looks like a blooming forsythia. It’s too early for them. What you’re probably seeing is some variety of witch hazel, probably Hamamelis mollis: happily covered with golden flowers. Also early is “Jelena,” a witch hazel with tawny blossoms.

Probably destroyed is the fragrant purply-flowered February daphne which used to bloom at the Kenniston Hill Inn around this time.

In sheltered, sunny flower beds, tiny Eranthis, better known as winter Aconite begin to appear. At first, their short-stemmed, lemon-yellow flowers seem like a mistake, but they’re real enough. A member of the buttercup family, each bloom is surrounded with a “halo” of bright green, straplike leaves. Make a note to yourself on an autumn calendar to buy and plant the little tubers for early spring of 2017.

Pussy willow branches come in four-foot lengths or in bunches of 12 to 18 inches. They all may be standing in water. They’re all decorative. If they’re in water, they will behave as any cut bloom: bud, set flowers, produce golden pollen and maybe produce leafy twigs.

To keep pussy willow buds much longer, remove from water and let them stand, dry, bearing longer-lasting soft, gray buds. It’s your choice.

To force any cut, flowering shrub or tree twigs or branches, bring them indoors and stand in a sunny window. Add water to whatever container you use: your choice. First, either mash the cut ends with a hammer or slash an X in that cut end before standing in water.

More than one year, storms have brought down tree limbs just when their ends are blooming. These may be brought indoors to force, too. Not noticed on trees, these tree-flowers lend a touch of the exotic to certain table arrangements.

Right now, these early-bloomers are rare, but they promise more to follow.