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25-03-2003, 04:32 AM

In article ,
arden (NAearthMOM) wrote:

Our crocuses are blazing now.
The snow crocuses that is, the giant crocus are soon to follow!
I made my first container today.......sweet peas that I started from seed,
geranium, and pansies!
Love caryn
"Come into my garden, my flowers want to meet you!"

My crocuses (& reticulated irises) came & went by now, & today I realized
the winter cyclamens are finally winding down after such a long wondrous
show (their beautiful leaves will be with me some while yet to come). But
to replace these, the species tulips are beginning. Sunny yellow T.
kolpakowskiana just opened their cups today. T. humilis var. violacea have
very buds extremely colorful even before opening, will probably be opened
tomorrow. Many others are still closed buds, so this coming week is going
to be full of little drifts suddenly shining here & there. Also the
Chionodoxa "glory-of-the-snow" are blooming icy deep blue; another patch
is lilac-&-white but not yet as showy as the blue. Ranunculus in full
yellow flower, the leaves all mottled are more gorgeous than the blooms.
The intensely almost weirdly white Muscari pallens have just started their
flowers, & the M. boytroides have been blooming for some while, are now
maximally swollen in size & blue as gas-jet fire. Miniature daffodils of
sundry sorts have been blooming quite a while. White scillas have been
blooming a week or two, & blue ones started the last few days. Several
fritillaries are mature buds showing their color, many of these will be
opening this week. Most of the asarums have their bizarre cup-flowers well
along. As for the snowdrops, they've been blooming for weeks, & are not
yet about to give out.

One trillium sessile was way ahead of the others & its trio of leaves &
its flower bud is so big right now it has just GOT to open very soon; it
developed a second stem so it's going to have at least two maroon blooms
this year. Two other T. sessiles are trying to catch up. There are two
patches of T. ovatum, another of T. erectum, & they're all showing
multiple flower stems already, &amp one T. ovatum bud is already filled
out enough to look like a waded white hanky. Last year that particular
plant produced only one flower stem, but it lasted from spring all through
summer, slowly turning from blinding white to purple. There are leaves for
two other trillium species but they're not showing buds. Two kinds of
dogtooth lilies are getting bigger & bigger, with multiple buds, but not
showing color yet.

The "Silver Spectre" corydalis has white-&-purple blooms appearing all
over the clump. The C. flexuosa have been blooming some while, but are now
just thick with blue fish-shaped flowers. C. lutea died during the winter
apparently as there's no sign of the clump, but it self-seeded, & there
are C. lutea seedlings scattered around the area poking out of
leaflitter.

Among the rhodies & azaleas, the PJM & Karen Seliger & Hino Crimson are in
full bloom, others have buds cracking to reveal slits of color. Many
other things in flower.

But I don't have to see blooms to get all excited. Three aroid Dracunculus
vulgaris, though very far from blooming, are already decorative upright
soldiers with wonderful snake-skin stalks & coiling curly leaves like
crazy hairdos on top, 13 or 15 inches tall so far, & really only just
getting started. Something growing from two spots in the main aroid garden
I couldn't remember planting, they look like plain striped crocus leaves,
though certainly not crocuses, I just have to keep watching until these
give me more clues. Not terribly long ago I planted a bunch of "invisible"
things I got cheaply from an aroid close-out-sale, because no one would
buy them because there was no evidence of the plants showing, so it was
such a deal & I took them all. I'm beginning to think two of those
weren't aroids at all but are some kind of lily family thing (there were
some pots of rare species lilies at the same close-out-sale & I didn't get
any because I didn't know what any of them were & had no idea if I'd like
them, but maybe I got two by accident after all). A garden mystery! Oh,
every day is another thrill.

-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/