Hello everyone, it is that time of year again to start showing those gorgeous blooming bulbs. We have had a rather warm winter in the south, and so our bulbs are blooming much earlier than expected. Please share your bloom pictures, as we work our way from south to north. Annette
It does take some work to get multiple pictures to load on the same post, I've found that Windows Paint, and resizing the picture to 25% has helped me load more pictures, so here we go. Here's crocus Yellow Mammoth, iris reticulata Gordon and hyacinth L'Innocence.
Crocus Blue Pearl, a blue hyacinth, Jan Bos, and Narcissus Cassata which is just starting to bloom.
Ice King, Tete-a Tete, Soverign, Hyacinth Haarlem,and muscari. So come on ya'll, let's see your blooms for 2012.
Here's a better picture of Soverign, the above pic appears blurry.
Wow, you have some really pretty blooms going on. Only thing blooming here are some of the extra early daffodils.
We''ve had a lot of rain and warm temps in the past week, and so we have many tulips and daffodils blooming, much earlier than in years past. Here's the Parrot tulip mix, I love the texture and shapes of these blooms.
Here's Tete-a-Tete with Soverign, Hyacinth Haarlem with emerging Dutch iris Apollo, Narcussus Hawera which are tiny and adorable, N. Kedron with muscari.
Daffs and tulips around the mailbox, Ice Follies, Pink Daff mix which are bowing from all the rain and wind last night, and iris reticulata Cantab.
They are all beautiful.
Thanks Rita, I'm looking forward to seeing your spring blooms. Annette
Freesia laxa, Louisana Iris, rain lilies, Crinum>
Dale your blooms are gorgeous, thanks for sharing. BTW, I have zone envy, LOL. I love Florida, and used to live there in Jacksonville, and went to school in Gainesville.
If I ever moved down south I would really miss my bulbs like tulips a daffodils.
Here's Daffodil Irene Copeland, Eudora, Palmares, a combo of the pink daff mix, Tete-a-Tete, Soverign, and Ice King and some reverted Ice Follies, and a hyacinth.
It is very exciting to see the flowers popping up everywhere. You just want to stay in the garden all the time.
I agree dreamjourney, I love spending days in the garden at this time of year, when the weather is just beautiful and I can enjoy the blooming bulbs. More tulips are starting to bloom and add color to the garden and the daffodils are also doing well.
The tulips here are continuing to pop!!! This bed was originally planted with Narcissus Tahiti and tulip Sancere in fall of 2009. I added more Sancere in fall of 2010, and tulip La Courtine which I got in an end of season sale. This past fall I added tulip Gudoschnick and I can't wait to see the mix in colors. I had about a 50% return of the 2009 tulips in spring of 2011, which was exciting and surprising, since they're reported to not return in GA. I didn't remove the previously planted tulips this past fall either. I just keep adding to the bed. I won't be adding anymore tulips to this area for a while, until these tulips peter out.
This message was edited Mar 10, 2012 8:10 AM
Only 2 of my multi-branching tulips have bloomed so far, but I like the pattern inside of the blooms. The Parrot mix continues to bloom well, and I love the play of their colors against the lorapetalums.
The first blooms of the season in my border - narcissus 'Tete-a-Tete'
So pretty LG, thanks for posting. I love Tete-a-Tete, and they've multiplied nicely for me this year. How's your bed of tulips doing? I can't wait to see your blooms this year. I'm sure it's going to be spectacular. Annette
This message was edited Mar 6, 2012 8:34 PM
Great pictures! I love the 'Tete-a-Tete' and I heard it is one of the bulbs that will naturalize in Southern California that doesn't need chilling to flower. How long does it take to grow into such a big clump like yours?
Thanks, Annette. The bed of mixed Mayflowering tulips (saved from last year's display in the big bed) are now coming up in a bed by the columns in my border. They are fairly far along (this photo is from last Saturday).
The large bed of 'Olympic Flame' tulips and 'Purple Sensation' allium are emerging slower, but I'm not sure why. I chose the 'Olympic Flame' tulips because they are one of the latest blooming varieties and I hope to have both the allium and tulips blooming at the same time.
The yellow 'Mrs. John Scheepers' tulips that were in the large bed two years ago and by the columns last year are now part of the border, and they are emerging nicely.
We've had unusually warm weather so far and today we may get some rain, which will probably stimulate growth everywhere.
The 'Tete-a-Tete' narcissus have been in the border for 5 years. They were originally in pots of bulbs I forced to use in the iron garden urns around the yard. The last two photos below show how they looked in the border last year. I apologize for the messy border garden - I'd had a heart attack in January and had not yet cleaned out the bed from the previous fall.
LG, I'm sorry to hear about your heart attack, I'm glad to see you posting and please take care of yourself, and continue to make a good recovery.
The tulip beds look great. You're going to have some amazing color this spring, and the combination of the alliums with the tulips will be gorgeous ;~)
dreamjourney, I planted my Tete-aTete in the fall of 2010 in groups of 10, to give the clump effect. Which zone are you in, and do you have any bulbs blooming now?Annette
LG, I hope you have a quick and complete recovery so you will fully enjoy the beautiful spring. And thanks for the information about Tete-aTete, they are really tough and cheerful little guys. I love them.
Annette, I live in San Diego coastal area. My sunset zone is 24 and USDA zone is 10. We got mediterranean climate here, that means we only have spring and autaum here. This is the third year I started gardening and I found it has therapeutic effect to me when I feel moody or overwhemed with life(although it hasn't cure two of my other problems, ant that is short of patience and greediness ). I just checked my garden blog and here are the bulbs in my garden:
~120+ Freesias. --------------- Over half of them are blooming now.
~200+ Dutch iris -------------- 1st flower bloomed yesterday, numerous buds.
~12 Amaryllis ----------------- 4 finished flower during new year, 8 in buds now
~30 Calla Lilies --------------- 3 flowered
~120+ Daffodils --------------- Almost all flowered. (60+ ice follies, 20 trumpet, 20 Thailia, 20 dutch master )
~40+ Ranunculus.-------------- only one flowered. And rest is still growing.
~6 reblooming iris -------------- leaves sprouted
~19+ Hyacinth ---------------- All flowered.
~100+ Queen Fabiola --------------Growing leaves.
~??? Unkown bulbs from l2010. -----------------I just found some sparaxis
About greediness, I just bought 6 more Amaryllis and 20 paperwhites (nir and ariel) yesterday. Now I need to find place for them and it is gonna be challenging.
Here are some pictures.
More pictures
WOW dj, just beautiful. I like the way you presented the freesias in the vase. I agree that gardening is one of the things I love to do to relieve stress, and I enjoy looking at the beauty it creates. I visited San Diego several years ago and stayed in Mission Bay and loved it. It's one of the places I told my DH that I could live, and the seafood was fabulous.
Hi, Annette, I found that vase for freesias from a thrift store for $4. It is well made, in perfect condition and perfect for the cutting flowers from my backyard.
This message was edited Mar 7, 2012 8:36 PM
What a bargain, the vase and blooms really compliment each other.
I'm truly enjoying all those gorgeous pictures! Just can't wait for spring to pop here. I have some nice fancy new daffs I want to see.
LG, sorry to hear about your heart attack. Hope you are doing well now, and can enjoy the nice weather.
Thanks for the well wishes everyone - the heart attack was a year ago in January (1-27-11), so I had a slow start to my garden last spring, but I was back to 'normal' by April of 2011. My cardiologist says my heart is fully recovered and I'm doing great.
Fortunately, I found a healthy, strong young guy to help me in the garden last March and he's done all of the heavy lifting. It's great to have someone who works along side me, shares my love of gardening and doesn't try to tell me what to plant (LOL).
Looking at the border yesterday, I noticed several tiny iris blooming. They are cute, but I don't recall ordering any iris last fall, so all I can think is that they came to me as a 'bonus' with some purchase and that I stuck them in the border and forgot all about them.
LG, I blue+yellow color combonation is one of my favorite , the color just pop with the constrast. I like most of the opposite color combination except green+red :-(
LG, I'm glad you've made a good recovery, and it's always nice to have help with the heavy lifting in the garden. Also, I agree with dj, I like the yellow and blue combo. I've planted a few hundred iris reticulata the past two falls, Cantab which is a light blue and Gordon which is a darker blue.
These are so small I think I need to plant hundreds, as you said, to have a show.
Well with this early warm weather and rain, the tulips have burst forth, so here we go tulips, tulips, tulips, LOL! I have to say of all the tulips I've ever grown, I LOVE this Parrot tulip mix from Colorblends. Excellent bulbs were sent, that are giving fabulous blooms. Here they are in the front and side of the house. The colors are just beautifully saturated.
Gudoshnik is also blooming along with Sancere. La Courtine is also in this bed, but hasn't started blooming yet.
Beautifully done! Fine, fine gardening! Love the setting Annette.
Blushing Lady has also started blooming, and some of the Pink Impression is starting to bloom as well. The second picture shows Pink Impression and Sancere that are returning again this year, and these two were last planted in fall of 2010. I'm glad they've come back.
