Crocus Planting Luncheon!

please see next post

Heya! As many of you know, we have a delightful baby girl we're planning to adopt. There's a "crocus shower" underway for her, so she'll have a zillion blooms to traipse through next spring. (Dmail me if you want details on the shower.)

A couple of people have offered already to help plant the bulbs for her "Crocus Lawn," so I figured I'd issue a general invitation and make an event of it. I've got a bunch of bulbs coming from Bleek (eFlowerGardens), and extra hands to help get them in the ground would be much appreciated!

*** NEW PARTY DATE ***

With apologies for having had to twice delay it, here is the new party date:

Friday, November 6

Bring your favorite digging tool. We'll take a break for lunch, and baby-cuddling breaks are a given. :-)

If you think you can come, please post here so I can Dmail directions to you. Thanks!

People who may be able to come (let me know if I missed you, as I'll Dmail directions to those on this list)

HollyAnnS & Ric
SallyG
Aspenhill
Nutmegnana
Miatablu


If you missed the news of her arrival, check out the threads in the prayer forum ("Miracle of Hope & Joy").


This message was edited Oct 20, 2009 10:29 AM

This message was edited Oct 29, 2009 8:15 PM

Wow, congratulations! What a blessing!

I would love to come help plant; let me talk it over with Dan and make sure the date is okay before I write anything in stone, though. I needed to make a trip out your way sometime this fall, anyway.

A baby! Yay!

Oh, wonderful! There are a couple other people who are planning to help out (they just haven't found this thread yet), so I think we'll have a few extra hands.

Don't worry, I won't be too much of a taskmaster... it'll be as much a social event as anything else, I think. I know we're all pretty good diggers, though, so I'm sure we'll get in quite a few bulbs even if we're only planting for a bit. LOL

This is going to be fun!

Wouldn't miss it for the world!

Wish I lived closer.

If Mom's not here that weekend I'd love to come!

She'd be welcome too, of course, Becky... I know she's having a rough go of it at present, so I promise no digging for her... light duty, perhaps making amusing faces at Joyanna. ;-)

Oh, that's a lovely idea - she could meet some of the people who are praying for her ^_^

jen--me too, on you!
I could have sworn I sent in a tentative yes here--??? odd

Cool!

If anybody who's coming wants to get in on good deals on the crocuses I'm ordering, just LMK and I'll see about ordering extras... at present, looks like there are a lot of varieties we can get from VE in addition to what I ordered from Bleek, most C. sieberi & tommies for about $10 per 100. (If you want larger quantities and aren't pickly about just what kind, wait for VE's sale in November.)

Crocuses from Van Engelen: http://www.vanengelen.com/catview.cgi?_fn=Product&_category=Crocus

We may well end up with the 500 bulb pricing if a couple of people want some...

Dmail me if interested in sharing an order.

Critter, Just found the thread Ric and I will be there.

:-) I knew you'd spot the thread after a bit! We're looking forward to seeing you both.

Critter, I'm waiting to hear back on a family event date, but barring a conflict there, I'd like to try to make it.

It would be wonderful to have you join us!

I'm really looking forward to our party. :-)

I really wish I could make it but have a prior committment-a newborn baby care class with my daughter-she is due Nov 19.

Ooh, how exciting! Congratulations, Grandma! If you have even half as much fun as my mom is having with Joyanna, you'll be smiling nonstop.

My folks were able to stay until this morning, which meant we had a lovely relaxing day together yesterday. I tried to be good about sharing her around during the party, and she was mostly with Grandma yesterday, so today I've got Joyanna in the sling so I can get in a good dose of baby-cuddling!

I'm just bumping this up! I'm getting ready to place that order with Van Engelen, so if anybody wants Tricolor at a good price ($8.25 per hundred plus 10% shipping) or anything else, LMK.

It looks like we'll have plenty of hands on deck, so this is shaping up to be mostly a party... definitely not an all day digging event, LOL, in case anybody was concerned about getting too much of a workout.

:-)

LOL Jill, I can't imagine how you'll get anyone to do any digging, they'll all be "digging" Joyanna! Once again, sorry I won't be able to make it but I'm trying to plan a getaway with my best friend and I'm pretty sure that's going to be the only weekend we can do it :( Just make sure someone takes pictures! I know how easy it is for everyone to get sidetracked and especially now with a new bundle of "Joy" to distract them!

We'll miss you!

I admit, the party is more about digging Joyanna than about digging in the crocuses, although I think we can get a bunch in pretty quickly, working in pairs. :-)

I wonder how you'll keep the later diggers from digging into what the earlier diggers dug, or keep everyone from digging at the same time and stepping on each other. ??

LOL I'm planning to use landscape chalk to mark off a grid pattern on the lawn... each square will have its own set of crocus baggies, with varieties separated so we can plant quickly in clumps. It's probably not a bad idea to mark off the squares as they're completed, also.

I'm figuring on a density of about 100 bulbs in each square yard (about 11 per square foot).

I should have known you have it super organized already!!!! Chuckle! Well, when the baggie is gone the square is done...but maybe a plant marker , little flag or fake flower to stick in the square when its done?

I've got flags... but I like the plastic flower idea better!

I'm not gonna be real "type A" about this (not my style anyway), but I figure a little organization like that will help get the crocuses spread out reasonably evenly and keep people from tromping each other, as you said.

I thought about just mixing everything, but I think it'll be a better look if we plant in clumps of the same variety... we'll get splashes of color.

We're planting C. chrysanthus (snow crocus) 'Blue Pearl', 'Prins Claus', 'Cream Beauty', and 'Goldilocks' and I'm about to order C. sieberi 'Tricolor' and 'Firefly' and a few C. biflorus 'Purity' and C. t. roseus.

I am with you on the clumping aspect. Think It'll look better with waves than with sprinkles.

I'm not sure we can quite manage "waves" or "drifts" of particular varieties, not without a more complicated planting plan... trying to keep it simple! Clumps may spread into drifts over time... :-)

Just meant--that I think I'd prefer a look of 'clumpiness' over the total mix spread out. Having thought bout it with regard to my naturalized daffs.

I've planted "mixed" daffs, but prefer clumps. The new-ish daff border in the back has clumps of a couple dozen different varieties. I "randomized" the look by planting them alphabetically by name, rather than than trying to figure out which ones "went" best next to which other ones... It also gives me a better chance of figuring out a lost-tag variety.

I'll be submitting a spring article about Joyanna's crocus lawn, so I'll be taking how-to planting photos (not to worry, as a general policy I don't publish face photos)... and next spring I'll have photos of tiny tootsies traipsing through the blooms!

Hi Critter,

Bob and I are leaning toward joining the planting of Joyanna's crocus traipsing garden. So far, this is the first weekend that our schedule looks clear. I will confirm with you very soon. Aside from my gardening my heavy babysitting for our 7 grandsons is the greatest joy in my life.

The children are so responsive to affection, humor, new ideas, helping, empathy, companionship and constantly have new ideas and introspection of their own. It is all so uplifting and refreshing and, miraculously, ALL the kids have it!

Your Joyanna will bring you more joy than you can imagine, even when the road might get bumpy.

The whole situation gives me a vicarious thrill!!


Regards,

Teri

Hey, I lost you guys a bit and just caught up!! So, you are having a crocus planting, and babyfest??!! I'd love to come, of course, but I need to confirm that date and see if I can get a ride up there. Do we need to bring any bulbs of special type or color?

So, the baby's name is "Joyanna?" That is lovely!!

Hi Critter,

Unfortunately, we will not be able to make it to the "crocus shower". We do not want to drive back on the same day. Our plans were to stay over somewhere, but some of our family will be arriving from Florida late Saturday. We will be picking them up from the airport and having them with us for a week.

Sorry that we will be missing such a lovely event.

Teri

Sorry you won't be able to join us after all... but I'm glad to hear you'll have a fun week with family! :-)

It would probably make for an overly busy weekend for you, but let me know if you think about coming down Friday night... we could have dinner or brunch together... :-)

Critter,
Count me in! I haven't been checking DG lately. Before I realized it, about 6 weeks have gone by - boy does time fly! I made a point to make time at lunch today to get online and try to catch up. I'll send you dmail when I get home this evening. Terri

Hi All, I have already let Critter know that Ric and I will not be able to attend. I have a SCUBA Diving trip scheduled for next month and the organizer of the trip is having a pre-trip meeting. I'm sorry to say that it is on the same day, we can't make both and the dive trip meeting is too important to miss. We will be going down to Critters a few days after the Crocus Luncheon so leave a few bulbs for us to plant. I am so disappointed that we will not get to see everyone, we were both really looking forward to another get together. Holly

Holly: I'm sad! But scuba diving sounds fantastic!

I'm sad Holly & Ric won't be there on party day... but how sweet of them to come down later in the week! We'll save a few bulbs... and more than likely there may be some refreshments left also, LOL.

Terri, I just Dmailed you... didn't realize you'd found this thread... I'm glad you'll be joining us!

We're looking forward to seeing everybody!

Heya, DOC! You claim to have some pull with Punxy Phil... please get on the horn with him and see what you can do about Saturday's forecast ("thundery rain" does not sound good!).

I'm hoping that front will move through earlier or later than forecast, but the Sunday forecast right now looks pretty good.

If the weather on Saturday looks truly dismal, would anybody be able to make it on Sundayx (Oct. 25) instead? We could start a little later to accommodate church services. Please post and let me know if Sunday would work for you...

And meanwhile, let's hope for a little shift in the weather pattern!

I previously said I'd come but I just can't make it, either day. Sorry, Jill. Too much other stuff going on lately.

Saturday's weather really doesn't look good. I think we need a rain date (or two). Sunday looks fine, and so does Wednesday (when Holly & Ric are planning to come down).

Rain Dates!

Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25

Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 28

Depending on who can come & when, we'll do lunch and/or dinner here.

I sent out a Dmail blast last night to all who are on the list above.

THANKS!

:-)

Jill, send me the blast too please. I was planning to come Saturday afternoon, but would have only been able to stop in for an hour or two because I accidentally double-booked my Saturday.