In article , "madgardener" wrote:
I decided with temperatures predicted to be near 60o F today and it already
being 61o F, I needed to go back outside and sweep and clean the dog run,
pull out some more vinca and begin to assess the spring showings. Not that
there weren't showings already, but as I was sweeping the fallen soil and
leaves and debris westward, noticing that there were smiling clumps of vinca
grinning out at me from between the landscape timbers that I have decided to
replace with an idea I saw I think in Lee Valley garden tools. A brace of
sorts that holds stepping stones verticle that you attach a top piece to
make really decent raised sides on a garden box.
Suddenly a soft mother of pearl blue caught my eye. Blue?? I stopped and
focased on where I saw it and YES!!!! The first crocus!!! WOO HOO!!!!!
This excited me to the point of stopping my sweeping and I ran over to the
Colorado bed and sure enough, there was another clump of grassy leaves and a
YELLOW one. ALRIGHT!! Although it seems a bit late for my crocuses to be
just beginning, I am pleased beyond description. And add to that the fact
that I with the warm temperatures today, my Cornelian Cherry tree will burst
open today. GBSEG Spring is on it's way here in Eastern Tennessee!!!
madgardener up on the sunny ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain, zone 7, Sunset zone 36
And from this day on it's just flowers, flowers, flowers.
In some zones the snowdrops are first, but I've had crocuses for weeks
already, & snowdrops just getting going. I guess the snowdrops remain
"Fair Maids in February" through many zones, but crocuses can leap up way
earlier in some zones, way later in others.
I've got my first TULIP this week. In the past it has always been
kaufmannianas that appear first, but never before March, & they're still
just leaves right now. But to my utter astonishment, appearing way sooner
than expected, a small drift of ultra-short crocus-tulips (Tulipa humilis
var. violacea) had bright pink buds that I noticed about three days ago, &
today I see the petals are just beginning to open. This made me run about
looking everywhere there are tulip-leaves to see if any others are showing
actual buds of color, & one other is, a green-flamed variety called "China
Town," purportedly a May-bloomer, but already has little nubby bright
white-striped pink buds peeping out of the soil; these'll probably be a
long while developing however, whereas the crocus-tulips are on the cusp
of bursting full open.
The dwarf irises have been in full bloom for a week or two also. The first
to bloom were the dwarf yellows, Iris danfordiae. These unfortunately are
easily beat to death by rain so already look a fright. But I. reticulata
are impervious to rain, & are in full gorgeous sway now. I doubt I'll
ever plant more of the I. danfordiae, but I will be adding more I.
reticulata bulbs every autumn so that there'll be more & more & more of
those year by year. Their only fault is a small one, after they are done
blooming, their little leaves suddenly get quite tall, turning into
stringy grass with nothing to recommend it (as opposed to muscari & ipheon
& scilla grasses, & larger bladed irises, all quite lovely even without
flowers).
A clump of Ipheion is also flowering now, not dramatically so far, &
perhaps I have it in too harsh a location to be real flowery, if so I'll
divide it later in the year & move part it someplace where it'll get more
sun. I remember deciding to plant it in that out of the way shady spot so
it wouldn't be so near a path I'd have to smell its onioniness
interferring with nicer-smelling things, but maybe I over did it, then
again, maybe it'll be super-flowery in another week or so.
Scilla Tubergeniana is also right now in full flower, though the Siberian
scilla is only big grassy clumps so far.
Plus several clumps of cyclamens, the latest to flower, are only just now
opening their many pink buds. Oh, and among shrubs, one of the
autumn-blooming camellias is really super long-flowering to the end of
winter, so still going gung-ho, plus the witchhazel hybrid's in full
bloom, & another all-winter bloomer, the dawn viburnum, has not even begun
to calm down for flowers.
But to stick to late winter/early spring bulbs, not yet blooming but with
enormous pointy-snout buds that could burst open any day now are the "Rip
van winkle" narcissus. These are pompom flowers, looking very little like
a narcissus, & U have them growing in three places. I don't usually
duplicate narcissus plantings like that, but these little things are too
cute. The first ones I ever planted only did so-so, but after an exchange
an April ago with someone in this newsgroup (Shelly), I was inspired to
research them more fully to see if it was possible to get them to
naturalize better, & I ended up planting two more groups of them last
autumn, in locations that seemed likely to be more to their benefit, & so
far so good.
The only narcissus that's in full bloom already is "Chinese Sacred Lily,"
not a lily of course, but a very sweet-smelling narcissus more suited to
places further South. It doesn't recognize the existance of winter & has
been blooming since the last day of January.
I used to not like narcissus all that much, but Granny Artemis loves them,
& began collecting miniature types since I didn't want big huge ones
conflicting with the woodland flavor of the gardens. These grew on me bit
by bit until now I find them terribly exciting. Some of the alleged
"miniatures" actually get two feet tall instead of the ten inches
promised, but others really do stay small. I find myself increasingly
enamored of them, & am even thinking of adding some full-sized biggies
in the future, though only between the rugosas in a property-corner
streetside garden that's brand new, will decide next autumn whether to do
that or not, & depending partly on whether some fancier big ones like with
pink trumpets seem likely to be able to tolerate the harsher conditions at
that end of the property. Overall, watching narcissus blades pop up
everywhere is terribly exciting even long before there are signs of
flowers.
None of the muscaris are in bloom yet, but will burst into bloom in March
along with scillas & hoop petticoats. There for a few weeks around the
time of the January snowstorm the winter-garden was changeless day after
day, but now it just gets livelier by the day.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"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/