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

The first crocus is a gift, and assures us that spring WILL arrive.
Somewhere I read a line that gets me through the Cape Cod winters: So far,
the crocuses have always come up.

Felice

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


Here in the land of ice and snow crocuses have been abloom for some time
now. They began to appear in the supermarkets weeks ago.

LOL well for icy lands, there is that..............madgardener
"WiGard" wrote in message
news
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


Here in the land of ice and snow crocuses have been abloom for some time
now. They began to appear in the supermarkets weeks ago.

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


Here in the land of ice and snow crocuses have been abloom for some time
now. They began to appear in the supermarkets weeks ago.

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, &amp 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/

LOL well for icy lands, there is that..............madgardener
"WiGard" wrote in message
news
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


Here in the land of ice and snow crocuses have been abloom for some time
now. They began to appear in the supermarkets weeks ago.

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, &amp 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/

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



Snap, Marilyn!!! Mine are also just opening in my Scottish (Dundee)
garden - we have been around 40s - 50s F this month, and it's been
yet again a pretty mild winter overall here! I just wish that in
another five or six months I would be able to say that I was
experiencing the 90+ F temperatures that you will have in Tennessee,
although some would say that the 60s - 70s that we usually get here
are more civilized! However, as you know, the two and a half years
that I lived and worked in East Tennessee (Knoxville) way back made me
a definite aficionado of summer heat, something I certainly miss back
here!

Best wishes
Geoff

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



Snap, Marilyn!!! Mine are also just opening in my Scottish (Dundee)
garden - we have been around 40s - 50s F this month, and it's been
yet again a pretty mild winter overall here! I just wish that in
another five or six months I would be able to say that I was
experiencing the 90+ F temperatures that you will have in Tennessee,
although some would say that the 60s - 70s that we usually get here
are more civilized! However, as you know, the two and a half years
that I lived and worked in East Tennessee (Knoxville) way back made me
a definite aficionado of summer heat, something I certainly miss back
here!

Best wishes
Geoff

aint it the truth... they start talking about it on line and I head to Steins for a
pot-o-spring. actually, DH brought me a nice big cheery pot of daffs ... they are
way my favorite flower. Ingrid

WiGard wrote:
Here in the land of ice and snow crocuses have been abloom for some time
now. They began to appear in the supermarkets weeks ago.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

aint it the truth... they start talking about it on line and I head to Steins for a
pot-o-spring. actually, DH brought me a nice big cheery pot of daffs ... they are
way my favorite flower. Ingrid

WiGard wrote:
Here in the land of ice and snow crocuses have been abloom for some time
now. They began to appear in the supermarkets weeks ago.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

wrote in message
...
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



Snap, Marilyn!!! Mine are also just opening in my Scottish (Dundee)
garden - we have been around 40s - 50s F this month, and it's been
yet again a pretty mild winter overall here! I just wish that in
another five or six months I would be able to say that I was
experiencing the 90+ F temperatures that you will have in Tennessee,
although some would say that the 60s - 70s that we usually get here
are more civilized! However, as you know, the two and a half years
that I lived and worked in East Tennessee (Knoxville) way back made me
a definite aficionado of summer heat, something I certainly miss back
here!

Best wishes
Geoff

I have some miniature iris "purple gem" starting to show color, but that's
as close to anything in bloom in my yard in northern AR if one discounts the
pussy willow that is beginning to have catkins show. I cut a bunch and
brought them inside the day before yesterday, and it's amazing how rapidly
they are opening in a warm house. If they are left in water long enough,
most of them root and can be planted. Many friends have pussy willows in
their yards from this early spring cuttings that rooted.

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

wrote in message
...

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

Hi Geoff,

That was a serious invitation, Goeff. If you and your lovely wife ever
decide to return to the U.S. for a visit, you're welcome and more than
welcome to stay with us. It's not as pretty as the Smokies in the Knoxville
area, but we do enjoy living here. I know we made a good choice for
retirement. We have many friends and so much to do that we're never bored.
The Springfield, MO, airport is about 120 miles away, and we'd be happy to
meet you there. We have a relatively large home with a guest bedroom,
complete with a bed spread that was hand quilted by Barb, and a private
bathroom for guests.

Please give it serious thought!

John

P.S. Don't worry about the weeds, Geoff. I have a personality that insists
on pulling weeds as soon as they stick up their noses.

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/