FIRST FLOWERS OF SPRING Post Your Pics!!

You can always 'do it" inside--and take the donation outside in a watering can...
Just remember not to use it for anything else....
There's always Styrofoam cups.....

Aren,t we a nice bunch? So helpful.......

All I have to say is: Eww.

I save mine when I'm outside to help feed the compost.
Love your gnomes Gita, I don't remember seeing those.

Check out your lilacs, mine are full of buds this year, possibly the brighter side of such a hard winter.

This may be the year I finally get bloom on my white lilac.

I am liking these 'fairy yard' ideas.

okay, Newbie question here about the caladium bulbs. When is advisable to start these outdoors? Or should I start them indoors in pots? Any tips?

thanks!
Robin

Caladiums want warmth so, since I plant directly outside (here in zone 7a) I wait for at least 50 degrees night and day, just like tomatoes, which means the end of May.

thanks, Pirl. So people start them indoors earlier than that, I'm guessing. Any tips for starting them indoors?

I bet you could pot it up inside and put it in a warm place in your house and they would wake up that way. Although I can't say from experience.

Yeah, indoor starting will wake them up, but don't expect them to take off. I've even tried in the GH with bottom heat, and they are still slow. I had them in 3" sq. pots so we could just transplant without to much disruption.

Finally have a few snowdrops blooming. No sign of the hellebores yet.

thanks, Ric and Typ. I should do that--at least get them started...

Aspen, I didn't have any luck with my hellebore, either. :-( Congrats on the snowdrops! pics??

My camera options are really limited right now - just the camera on my phone, and every thing I take comes out horrible. I'm finally getting a good camera with the birthday money from my parents - probably in the next week or two. For all I know, it is just me being a poor photographer and having a good camera won't make any difference LOL.

a new camera--what a great gift! :-)

The camera shop where I'm going to purchase it also offers photography lessons. I'd like to sign up for a few seminars if they have any openings left.

CatMint - I've never started them indoors. I did keep a few pots from last year so I'll put them in sunshine today and let you know when they sprout (or IF they sprout) but it takes awhile.

I went through old photos and this is the best I can show you - it took three weeks for them to show up and grow.

Cat--
I am with Typ om starting them indoors. I have always done that and plan to do it again.

I am not sure of what depth is proper? Long time ago--I learned to put the corms
all the way to the bottom of a small pot to start them. Maybe from Allan Summers??

I am talking, maybe, a 5" pot...Then put them where the pots will get some bottom warmth.
Top of the water heater used to be the norm, but not they are made so well insulated
that there really is not much heat there. Top of fridge is a bit warm...

If you have hot air heat vents on the floor--you could put a garden tray over them
and the pots on top of that.
I definitely would not want to wait until it warms up enough outside. They will be so late
to leaf out.

Just my 2 cents....G.

Sally--
I bet I could find all kinds of things you could use for your fairy abode...
All the shelves and drawers i have full of supplies--and thy just sit there,,,
I would be happy to pass things on.

Here is some idea how to make, to scale, flower pots.
Save the screw caps from toothpaste tubes. Paint brown, or whatever.
I have made those for doll house windowsills.
Lots of teeny, tiny flowers available in craft stores. Look in bridal or get those
tiny picks of asst. colors of paper flowers--I use them on my Potpourri sachets.

I am getting excited for you--and for me too---I have a lot of STUFF...and this
would be a nice way to look for them and pass them on to you.

You could check $$$ stores for tiny Gnomes. They are very popular...

I will start a box for anything I find....
Tell us what YOU envision this to be. May help. G.

Thanks, but bear in mind that things will be subject to weather so a lot of little detail will need to be nailed down or will blow away.

Gita, we will have to get Sally some sturdy wire, so she can turn all the little pretties into "Picks" - that'll hold 'em in place! =)

I was just thinking today that I haven't seen any forsythia blooms anywhere. It seems awfully late for them. And no sign of blooms on my creeping phlox, either.

Forsythia does seem late- it goes with soil temp right? I think that is why they say time your pre emergent with forsythia bloom. I cut some forsythia twigs a few weeks ago and they did bloom, so the buds were still OK then.

I'm not a big fan of forsythia as a shrub, but I LOVE how they look when forced into bloom indoors!

Pfff....I'll take this over forsythia any day. It's got lovely fall color as well :)

My primroses and crocuses are starting to bloom. I just spotted buds on a little crocus-like plant that I must have planted last year, but I have no idea what it is. I'll take a photo when it opens up.

That's beautiful, Sequoia - Hamamelis virginiana, right?.

I have a Hamamelis vernalis, which has very underwhelming blooms, at least in the case of my shrub. It had a H. virginiana tag on it when I bought it, but it definitely isn't. Still, it has wonderful fall color.

I took these pics yesterday. So it looks like Spring has arrived. Yay!

Those irises are gorgeous.

Thanks! I must admit that it made my day to see those had popped up, practically overnight.

Beautiful Seq- pictures today?

Lovely sight, Nanny!

Beautiful Sequoia and Nanny! Although the pictures make me want to cry a little as I stare out at the fresh 6" of snow we received last night. boo hoo hoo.... :(

6 inches, typwc? I think I see 8 or ten now! This looks like the deepest this year.

We got snow too :( But only about 2 inches. This has got to end soon,doesn't it????

Geez I feel for you guys with the snow. We got a pleasant dusting this morning.

The Hamamelis pic was from Saturday. It is Hamamelis Intermedia x Arnold's Promise. Virginiana blooms in the fall.

Those are beautiful, Nanny!

Waking up to the snow this morning seems like a particularly cruel joke... :-(

Sally, Based on the weather prediction maps, I think that sounds about right. My coworker in Gaithersburg is saying 8". The prediction maps had it wrong on the snow totals!

aha, just heard WBAL say 'parts of Pasadena, Gambrills pushing ten inches... I'm right between them.

Depth on the street is much thinner though. surprisingly our court got plowed already. How? with road surface being warmer, maybe main roads didn't need much, and they moved to side streets much sooner this time?

10 inches!?!? I guess I better stop complaining! I feel for you all. I am worried that some of the trees that are budding out are going to damaged from all the temperature swings. It is warm for a few days then it plummets to way below freezing. I know that has got to be hard on the plants and trees. I am wondering how many will not have survived when this is all said and done.

I have to come clean and say I measured only (!) six plus inches on my deck.
I tend to not worry about late freezes, (partly because, why worry, it happens anyway) but I did find that one winter flowering bush dropped its buds, they just could not seem to endure the dehydration of all these deep freezes and thaws and some wind.
At least, so far it has stayed cold so I hope things have stayed dormant so far.

I measured 8" in the front yard, and a little snow is still coming down.
Sally, did the snow start sticking to your deck as soon as it did to the lawn? If not, you might have 8-10" on your lawn.
Edited to add the back yard depth: 9 inches. It's a little shadier back there.


This message was edited Mar 17, 2014 9:49 AM

I shall don my boots and hat and head out to start the shoveling....
Will take my ruler along and measure the snow depth.

Sally--as I posted (somewhere?) earlier--I also think my beautiful
Camellia lost most of its buds this winter. I only see a few...

******************************************************************
..............1/2 hr. lapse............................

OK!!!! Back inside.....snow all shoveled (than G-D it was fluff), car cleaned off--
and measurements taken in 3 places.... 6".
G.