In article ,
(paghat) wrote:


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.

I didn't want to leave my above error uncorrected re "China Town." The
earliest blooming crocus-tulips ("Violacea") made me go around looking to
see if any other tulip was preparing blooms so early as this, & I spotted
bright pink buds for "China Town" WAY ahead of expected bloom time, but
none others so early. A couple days later, these entirely bright pink buds
have opened into pink-edged leaves, & would no longer fool anyone into
thinking they were flower buds. I just updated my garden diary so that in
the future I'll remember the leaves add spots of color between second &
third week of February, which is pretty cool in itself, but by no means
preparing to bloom already.

A second patch of "Violacea" from another source has skinnier leaves than
the blooming patch, & no buds yet on the skinny-leafed ones, but they are
not in as sunny a spot, so I don't know what percentage of the
"difference" between these two patches is different sources providing
different strains, or just not enough sun. I will lift the shadier drift a
couple months from now when the leaves start dying back & move them to a
sunny space to encourage February blooming for that drift too, plus I'm
going to plant moer crocus-tulip bulbs all over the place next autumn;
I'll look for many varieties as I can find from specialists, hoping many
of them are also this early-flowering. Tulip season getting a head-start
in February just seems too amazing.

The only other leaves as colorful as the "China Town" are for the greigii
tulips, some of which have intensely bright red stripes all over the
leaves, others with fainter red mottling. The brighter stripes tend to
fade a lot before flowers appear, so they are at their height of
leaf-beauty right now. If there was a hosta this colorful they'd be the
most popular hostas in the world; I think the leaf-beauty of greigii
tulips gets underappreciated because of too much focus on blooms.

A couple of our several kaufmanniana tulips also have red-striped leaves
right now, but this invariably means they were hybridized with greigiis, &
that also means they won't naturalize the way purer botanical tulips well,
despite that the hybrid kaufmannias even so get listed in catalogs as
botanicals. They at least perennialize super well, but will never really
spread. We have a small patch of a pure wild kaufmannia, & these get huge
elongated seedpods on them, & naturalize fine.

Trillium leaves are popping up now.

Little flat-blue buds are appearing a half-inch to an inch tall for
Muscari azureum; if you get down real close to the ground these already
look like grape hyacinths for the gardens of dollhouses.

The earliest jack-in-the-pulpit horns have just peaked out of the soil
too. Every day is just so exciting in the garden, to me anyway -- some
visitors don't always get it when I say "Oh! Oh! look at that!" & all they
see is a tiny green pencil-point sticking up half an inch.

-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/

Are you really that nostalgic for hot weather, Geoff? I love where I live,
but I often wish July, August, and early Septembers weren't on the calendar.
I suggest that people visiting us select April or early May because our
springs are incredibly beautiful. Everything seems to be in bloom or showing
color. The woods in the area have drifts of white dogwoods, interrupted by
splashes of redbuds, and daffodils are naturalized in abandoned houses and
ditches. Our azaleas are nice, but they can't compare to a four foot, dark
red bush that we pass on our way to the shopping area.

If your schedule ever allows, you're more than welcome to visit us in July.
I always have a lot of weeds that need pulling in hot weather.

John


Hi John

I guess that the advantage of much of the US weather is that if you
plan a barbecue several days in advance , there's a good chance you
can hold it. That's an iffy statement in the UK.

But I am a good weed puller, and if I have to turn up in person to put
a face to B & J so be it! We would love to visit friends made in this
ng, so (depending upon ongoing circumstances back home) we haven't yet
ruled out turning up on your doorstep!!



Best wishes
Geoff

I got our of my car yesterday morning, and glanced at my front flower
bed and lo and behold, there were yellow crocuses peeking out amonst
my pansies. What a cheerful and uplifting sight!

loony


On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 12:48:05 -0500, "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

I got our of my car yesterday morning, and glanced at my front flower
bed and lo and behold, there were yellow crocuses peeking out amonst
my pansies. What a cheerful and uplifting sight!

loony


On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 12:48:05 -0500, "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