Judging from the "What we bought" threads of last fall, this spring is going to be a wild one, all of us egging eachother on as we do. Although a person could press "Skip to New," the number of joyful photographs were beginning (or had been for a while) to take time to load! No doubt this will be a greater issue as more and more plants begin to bloom. That thread is here for your viewing pleasure:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/575352/
So, if you are suffereing badly from the winter blues yet in your zombie zones of 5 and colder, or if you would like to see some plants in action to take note of for next year, take a look.
K. James
Spring Bulbs Pictures and discussion, Part III
Yeah! New thread! Thanks!
I'd like to report that I have two Eremurus (Foxtail Lily) showing nibs...
I am pretty excited about that (even though I planted 13!) I never expected any of them to show up.
And I moved some chopped leaves off my back garden and found a bunch of camassia about 6 inches tall under the leaves...
Tomorrow it's supposed to be pretty warm, so a couple of my daffs may bloom a little prematurely.
So spring is coming along...
boo hooo ... woke up to 2" of fresh snow this morning.
But the house is scented by a forced hyacynth so I'm going
to make it through 'til spring...
Kenton, I agree about the olfactory aspect of spring. I'm often saying "it smells like spring today". And I've gone so fragrant flower bezurk my sinus cavities will explode this summer, lol.
A few snowdrops and a lovely clump of crocus are it for me right now bloom wise. The sun is supposed to shine tommorrow so I'll get a pic.
Hang in there Tammy! It'll melt soon. Hey, wait, you've got a greenhouse; I'm not supposed to feel sorry for you! LOL Ok, I'll sympathize eviously :)
Neal
Aww, man... I wish we had snow! Only a dusting since the first part of December. Even had to water a few times starting in January.
Come on rain! That's Spring for me. You know those tiny fridge magnets with words on them? My son knows me well enough to put this one up ~
I love it. Give him a pat on the head or a German chocolate cake for me.
Tammy, is it you with the "well-lit" greenhouse? I could live in Martian weather if I had a greenhouse. Wait- If I lived on mars, it would have to be in a greenhouse!
Neal- you like green flowers, right? I have a certain Helleborus; I 've been waiting for it to color up- and just realized today that It's as the color it's going to be, and that I like green.
Bulbaholics Anonymous:
"I- I have to admit to the group that I have already made out my bulb orders for next fall, have you done this yet?"
K. James
Well I'd call that just a bit anxious, I have got plenty that need to be planted, sown, grown, won't even think about it for months yet! But just maybe you have had a little bit of encouragement?
Talk about green helleborus foetidus, I took some pics today, the sun was shining but turned very chill with snow flurry but fleeting, and look what there was hiding in the flower!
Wow, that thing bloomed some time ago. I have a whitish-green hybrid, I think it is a "Sunshine Strain," not that that means anything but a good dose of H. orientalis blood.
One orientalis/purpurea hybrid "opened?" today: It is spotted just so well. Pictures will come when I'm home during the day.
K. James
LOL Kenton ~ I'll do both, and he'll really like the cake. :D
My row of Crocus Flower Record, sun shining on them but they wanted to keep warm
Things are so much nicer en masse.
A stripy crocus, could be Pickwick
Those C Flower Record just make masses, they keep throwing up flowers and have around 2 dozen on each.
A white one poss Jean d'arc
Gorgeous pic's of the crocus Wallaby! And Neal & Kenton - ok. I've got my greenhouse to keep
me sane but I still want spring! And Moby - your son really does know you well. And if I put something
similar up, will you give me german chocolate cake too :-)
Tam
You bet ~ German chocolate cake for everyone! :)
Some tulips popping up!
Wallaby, love the way your Flower Records look against your path!
In coastal Northern CA so many plants are evergreen, but nonetheless January and February are rather dull with many gray rainy days. So I always look forward to what is late spring here, when my freesias start to bloom. They are getting bigger and showier every year. I try to encourage the red ones, but the yellow freesia seem to multiply faster. Oh well, they all smell so good anyway, it doesn't matter what color they come in! These are mixed with a Vibernum tinus 'Spring Bouquet' that is also in bloom from top to bottom.
Out here we have serious tulip envy. There isn't enough winter chill for them to come back so they have to be treated as annuals here.
Second post: Another early bulb bloomer -- I don't have many, so I treasure the ones I do have -- is ranunculus. I love the Bloomingdale hybrids, they remind me of peonies which is another plant we also can't grow well here in coastal Northern CA. This one's a rather gaudy color, but it goes well in a bed of yellow and red daylilies.
Oh, your ranunculus is so beautiful. It was always one of my favorite flowers when I lived on the west coast. It is so difficult to grow here - I keep trying but have no luck. I sure miss them.
jkom, I join you in the tulip/peony deprived club. your ranunculus is gorgeous. but I wonder if I'm in trouble. I planted some bulbs, DH was helping me weed a little, and as I see the shape of your leaves, I realized he 'weeded" my ranunculus. is it over for this year? pls say it ain't so!
Steve that's a pretty little group, tulips too! Mine are sitting waiting, I have some of the Botanical tulips which come back reliably, one is called Electra (I think), a bright double red, scented strongly of honeycomb. They are around the edge of the hosta bed and dry out well in summer, some have made lots of little bulbs pushing out of the ground so need tomove them. Another I have had for years is called Easten Star (think!), it is strange as sends loops above the ground to spread, also had them in a tub for a start and they went along the bottom. They remain green over winter, a couple flowered 1st time last year after 5 years, I think they take their time to establish!
I have Narcissus Jetfire behind the Crocus Flower Record, they mostly come in time to make a double show but I think the moles have done some damage.
jkom that Ranunculous looks like a rose, we are supposed to be able to grow them but I don't think they are successful. I have a pot of Freesia in the greenhouse, sometimes they look good then cold weather knocks them back, I do get some flowers, but I don't look after them very well either. If I had a heated mat under them they would probably do better, but they do survive and reproduce!
I found a list of Tulips that can be grown in warmer climates with more success
http://www.vanengelen.com/tips_a.html
Well, I cheated. Since it's been too cold for anything to bloom here in my garden yet (although I've got tulips, grape hyacinths, daffodils, and crocus poking through), I had to resort to more inside bulbs, and this week the paperwhites started blooming.
Goods stuff. The Ranunculus is deliciously tawdry. I wish I could grow them here. -And Freesia.
I have a few pictures on the camera not unloaded yet, several grand new things are blooming, but i've not been home during the day. I hope for tomorrow to enjoy this peculiar weather- no frost here for almost four days
And, my friend's crocus lawn is on its way; just a few C. vernus are peeking up. I'll post pictures when possible.
K. James
voss-- so too bad about your ranunculous... hope you get some show anyway! I miss those here in Ohio, too, if that's any consolation to you about your peony paucity.
Or do ranunculous grow here and I don't know it?
Do you have lilacs in TX? Maybe some of the new hybrids?
Nothing blooming here to speak of. A few things peeking through, though.
I'm through trying ranunculus; the most luck I had with them was starting them in a cold frame early and I got a few blooms before the heat melted them. I think they may be a good candidate for growing in winter in a cool greenhouse.
Tammy, did you have any luck with the ranunculus and freesia I sent you?
kbaumble, not cheating, no different to a greenhouse! Nice paperwhites, I bet the scent is overwhelming!
We're having a few much needed days of sunshine but it is still so cold, last night was 19F (-7C) in the greenhouse (colder out), night before -4C, tonight they say -6C but that was last night's forecast too. Sun tomorrow as well, not warm enought to garden, a real chill, around 35F yesterday, 46F today but chill. I saw 3 Mallard ducks in our beck at the front, 2 males 1 female, they were dipping their heads to the bottom and getting acorns. We get a pair every year, there must be a shortage of females this year.
I put my arisaema in a pot just before this chill spell, in the shed, so hopefully it will benefit from the warm sun and not suffer from the frosty nights!
Your chilly mallard scene tickles my imagination. Sounds very picturesque where you are, Wallaby!
I think it's the heat waves that 'blast' the ranunculus so quickly that makes them not worth growing here. They are basically for fairly temperate even climates, aren't they?
Am I spelling the r word right now?
Vossner, I hope your ranunculus recover from the accidental weeding, I did the same to one of mine and it has barely managed to put forth a few new leaves while the others are already starting to form big foot-high buds and a few blooms. We can only cross our fingers and hope!
I was at the drugstore and the tiny garden center had some pots of ranunculus so I bought another 3 one-quart sizes. One of them is absolutely glorious in shape and color, so I will take a pix and post it later on.
bummer. I have not seen any new ranunculus leaves. I bought them from easy to grow bulbs, under the assumption they grow here. I suspect they are going to be annuals for me, because I would NEVER call houston temperate. We are just one big sauna.
Vos, this article says they grow best in areas where springs are long and cool.
http://doityourself.com/info/ranunculus.htm
Ours springs here in Ohio are so variable. In Los Angeles the rans grew nicely in late winter until a heat blast took them out. They did better with some protection from the sun becasue of that, as I recall.
T, did you leave them inground? in calif.
Finally I have some pretty blooms! Crocus 'Zwanenburg'
A few tiny snowdrops to:
Those are very pretty, gemini - congrats on the blooms!
Little sweeties, they look so lonely with their heads drooping! i was lookong at a site here that sells snowdrops, there are several types but some of the rare ones are quite expensive, £'s just for 1 bulb.
Mine are still in full flower, I was trying to identify them, the double I think is the standard G nivalis plena. I have 2 different singles that I have seen, it's hard to separate them and look carefully! One largish single I think could be the G. caucasicus, the flowers are large and have a distinct horseshoe green bit, they are £3.50 each, some go to £10!
http://www.broadleighbulbs.co.uk/misc/1/galanthus_supplist.htm
http://www.broadleighbulbs.co.uk/misc/1/galanthusorder.htm
I got these snowdrops in a trade, and it's the first time I've grown them. Seems like I remember them being much cheaper a few years ago. I have trouble dropping the $ on something so tiny, but I really would love to have 1000 of them!
I planted some ranunculi (?) about 4 years ago and I have this one that keeps coming up every year in front and a few in back - and they seem to do OK inthe Texas sun. Has come up every year here. Not the biggest clump around for sure but the blooms always look nice - even though I had kind of forgotten about them.
I just shouldn't go to work! I miss so much here.
Neal - I've got pots of ranunculous and freesia with lots of folliage but no bloom yet.
I'm sure they'll bloom eventually! A few pots of ranunculous got those little spider mites.
I've been fighting them for a few weeks. Those are under lights in the basement. The
ones in the greenhouse are fine.
I do have indoor bloom to tide me over though. I've got a few orchids in bloom now
and way too many african violets. (A friend got 42 leaf varieties from ebay. I got 7 leaves
and now have way way too many. )
With the ice covering everything here, it sure doesn't look like spring outdoors!
Tam
Oh, how beautiful (says she, while wearing shorts and sipping on an ICEE).