New (for me) Amaryllis

No going to plant stores for me, or my mother the enabler. Of course it is mighty pretty.

Bulbs are Planted

And the colchicum planted a few weeks ago is already up. I planted the hyacinth and garlic this afternoon, even though I can't find my good trowel. (It was sitting on the pond rim in plain sight)

Bulb Time

It's bulb time in my area. Meaning it isn't quite time to plant, but it is time to get them from stores so they won't suffer the sometimes abysmal storage big box stores put them through (outside or in the rain). For things like bearded irises it is time to plant, at least in the northeast US. So far I'm trying to control myself. I got some hyacinth as someone gifted a blooming trio last year and they smell divine (I planted them out in the yard after they finished blooming), so in case those ones don't re bloom I bought 6 more to plant. I also found one species tulip, and a black tulip. Tulips seem hit or miss here, so I'm going to try them in different places. I've seen species tulips come back year after year at Tower Hill, so I'm pretty sure they come back better then the hybrids. I may also talk myself into a bag of something to try to force.

Sunday in the Garden

Too lazy to label.

Daily Photo - Onion Closeup

More ornamental onions.

Daily Photo - Bearded Iris

First of the season.

Daily Photo - Ornamental Onion

I think this is the last of the bulbs I planted last year.

Daily Photo - Last daffodils

These guys have been nothing but leaves for a very long time. they were actually some of the first leaves up last month. Their variety name is geranium. I have got to stop planting flowers so close to the wire fences.

Daily Photo - Tower Hill Daffodil

Admittedly if you go to Tower Hill in April the main thing to see if daffodils. They have a whole field planted with some assorted types in addition to labeled varieties in all their gardens.

Daily Photo - Muscari

I'll try to go one day without the photo being of a flower but the daffodils are opening now. Enjoy the muscari.

Daily Photo - Reticulated Iris

These guys put up their flower one day, then bloom the next, I find them kind of sneaky.

Freedom Day 5

^because unemployed was getting depressing for a title. Today after getting a tooth filled (I'm catching up with not having cavities in my teens) I ventured outside. (I was less productive today as I tend to pretend getting a tooth filled might lay me up all day, so don't plan on doing much else.) It was freaking lovely out. When I let the dogs out this morning I had noticed the crocus blooms were up. When I went back out around noon they had all opened. They really are this butter yellow color. Normally I don't pick yellow flowers to plant, but after months of brown yellow looks awesome. These are Crocus - Golden Yellow. I even kept that in mind and grouped them in a few places.

I also got a cheap assortment so lots of purple and white.

I even saw some bees, not really closely though.

Most of the crocuses were up. My 4 Pickwicks look like maybe tomorrow or Saturday even will be when they bloom. I also have a bunch of purple ones on the other side of the yard that take longer since they don't get as much sun. Hopefully this year I'll get around to moving them when they're done blooming. I think they're purple striped but maybe I'm remembering wrong. I started on getting the patio usable and raked out some of the garden beds. A few things aren't coming up yet, but almost all of my potted stuff is coming up. The Siberian irises I got of eBay last year look great, though one had a chunk of grass in it I didn't notice wasn't iris until I looked a little closer. I should only go to HD with a chaperone, as earlier in the week I came back with more Siberian irises just in case the ones I had didn't come back. So I now have 6 more pots of them. At least they're different kinds. On my walk today I saw a yard with crocus inter planted and I really love the effect. It would never work in my back yard but I might be able to pull it off in the front yard. I'm going to try to get a picture of it tomorrow. Edit: I just dug through my photos from last year. The crocuses didn't bloom until April...I thought it was being unseasonably warm.

Daily Photo - Fall Digging Paid Off

The crocuses started blooming today...

Daily Photo - Spring is Coming

The ridiculous amounts of bulbs I planted last year are starting to come up.

Daily Photo - Colchicum

I received these yesterday from White Flower Farm. They look really nice. Two are already sprouting flowers, which I kind of expected. They're known for sprouting before being planted. I'll be planting them today or tomorrow, whenever it stops raining long enough to plant.

Digging Free

Well, I did get them all planted, though I got lazy and just bought some more mixed crocus and daffodils (actually 64 more) once I realized I wasn't sure where the ones from this spring actually were. It was all in the sense of time saving, honest. I didn't need more different kinds of daffodils or species crocuses to photograph next April and May. The mix ended up being Daffodils - mix and geranium, Allium - Purple Sensation, Crocus - species mix, Muscari armeniacum, Crocus - Golden Yellow and iris reticulata - Harmony. 174 or so in total, though at least 1 daffodil was squishy, and there were a bunch of offset muscari to add to the total. I had to move 5 plants to put the bulbs where I wanted though, and then had to fill in the spaces with dirt from other parts of the yard. So far the transplants don't look too upset, though I feel it was a little late to be moving them. They've been planted where I can't see from June onward. The plants in front of a rock wall grow tall enough that anything planted behind it becomes invisible. I might just grow tomato plants or beans up the fence next year, and ignore the space the bulbs are in. I've also got several more plants to move since they ended up almost a foot taller than I've seen them listed at. (same rock wall bed) One of my Black Eyed Susans and some Coneflowers are hidden behind monster bergamont and my surprise rose champion. I think I'll be waiting until spring to shuffle around that bed though. I did finally get a pic of the top of my porch spider. Every day it builds a web about 1 1/2 feet across. part of it attaches to the door frame which slams at least 20 times a day, and it just sits there, waiting. It turns out it's another cross spider.

Hole Digging

Well, I have lots of holes to dig tomorrow. I went to some more places that happen to sell bulbs, and got suckered into them again. I ended up with more iris reticulata, some yellow crocuses, an orange cupped daffodil, and the muscari and allium I already had. None of these were on my list... If I'd just stuck to the list I'd have what I wanted for the same price as my experimental choices. I've got a little over a hundred bulbs to plant. And I still have to order Colchicum bulbs. Not to mention all the bulbs I was too lazy to dig up this spring after flowering to move them into the fenced areas... I meant to do it today, but got distracted by a few critters. I found 3 of these guys on the Black Eyed Susans. They were freaking tiny. Every photo I've seen of crab spiders they look huge like above. They are barely the width of a flower petal. I also got my iris' from eBay today, and they look great. I totally recommend the seller ivygreen27.

Fall Bulbs and eBay Browsing

^Crocus 'Pickwick'^

They're appearing, some even two weeks ago. Most notably at Home Depot. They were storing them outside in 85 degree weather. I picked up a few bearded iris that hadn't dried out yet, some allium and muscari. I'm probably going to have to look elsewhere for everything else I want. This week I went back and more bulbs had been delivered and they had been moved inside, but all the bearded iris were already fungusing and getting squishy. The ones I bought 2 weeks ago are potted up and sprouting. Bearded iris should really be bought the second you see them at a big box store, as care in store is almost nonexistent. I liked the store I saw once that was storing their bulbs outside in the rain. This year I have a few distinct goal plants. I'm looking for Iris reticulata 'Katharine Hodgkin', Crocus Minimus, Saffron Crocus, Colchicum 'Water lily', and Siberian Iris. (Can you tell I took a bulb book out of the library in July). So far I've bought Siberian Iris on eBay. The seller I picked has over 1,000 positive reviews, and a 100% rating. I expect the plants should be nice. I'm likely going to buy the others on eBay as well since they have mostly positive reviews, and most of the online bulb retailers have some very impressive negative reviews, or don't carry what I'm looking for.

^Streptocarpus^

Of course randomly browsing eBay tends to lead to old obsessions. African Violets come to mind, as do Streptocarpus. I once bought a set of 10 ponytail palm seedlings as well. I've bought hosta seeds and strange miniature tomato seeds. It just occurred to me that right now is a good time of year for plant shipments. The weather is stabilizing and keeping from being horribly hot or cold. Guess I'm gonna lose some money to eBay this week... I grew this streptocarpus from seed a few years ago, before I knew microwaving the dirt might get me better germination. It was one out of 15 attempts.

Home Depot spring bulbs 50% off

I spent 45 minutes digging through the bulb bins finding things that were still viable. I did let myself put several back though. I don't really need any cannas. I also put back anything I've had luck with before so I can try new things. Except the Crocosmia which I've killed twice already, but it's just so darn pretty when it survives to flowering.

Bulbs Have Arrived...

The Early crop of Fall bulbs is now awaiting customers at your neighborhood plant or home improvement stores. Too bad they're rarely labeled correctly, and you get to wait months to figure out what they will actually look like. I mostly have this problem with daffodils. I buy specific varieties because I like what they're supposed to look like, and months later they aren't that variety at all... However every time I buy a bagged Astilbe it turns out to be white, even if I bought a pink variety. Same thing happens with Bleeding Hearts. This year I'm trying Bearded Irises. When I was in Washington DC in may it was that time of year, and they were blooming everywhere. So far I've bought 5 varieties to try out, Vita Fire, Color Tart, Full Tide, and Night Edition. I might return the Full Tide, as pics I've seen online look almost nothing like the pic on the package, another pet peeve of mine. I ended up potting these up rather than tossing them out into the garden yet. This year starting with the spring roots and bulbs I potted everything that was a perennial. I got bargain plants weeks after the sales, and potted them up to survive the winter and grow some actual roots. 5 or 6 astilbes, 3 or 4 day lily types, I tried to get more purple cornflowers, but only one of them is a cone flower. One of the others is a balloon flower judging by the actual flower I got on a little pathetic stem. I also got a number of nursery propagated wildflowers for $1 each. All the Christmas Ferns from that group came up, the other ferns didn't, but I dug them up a few weeks ago, and none had turned to mush, so likely they will come up next year. I also got a few trilliums, two trout lilies and a jack in the pulpit, which as far as I could tell might as well have been dirt, but I'll give them till next summer to do something. I also picked up some Dutch Iris bulbs this year, and I'm trying Iris reticulata again. Last year I had a few, but after they bloomed something carried them off. Never saw them again. Hopefully I'll place them better this year.