a sole bloom that I don't remember planting. but we'll take it! I'll have to get more crocus and daffs for the future. We don't have many spring bulbs. One of the only daffodils we have, Harry stepped on yesterday!!!! He was trying to show me an area where broken tree limbs were taken out by tree guys that stopped in the other night. The guys were in the neighborhood with chain saws, knocking on doors since our area has so many fallen limbs from the winter storms.
happy Spring!
I tried to be very careful but trampled a few in one of the beds I was cleaning, It's that big wide one in front with the stone walls. Just no help for it only way I can reach the bad bed is to climb in the lower bed. I have a few stepping stones in the lower bed to help move around but I still need to move out into the growing area of the bed. The bulbs I stepped on are just coming up so hopefully they won't really be badly damaged.
Yipee Catmint! Hooray Wind!
There's nothing like the first bloom of the year. :)
Thanks, SSG! And congrats, Wind--spring makes its way to us all bit by bit...
Speaking of spring flowers, I was able to stop by and see Coleup today on a trip back from over the Bay Bridge, and we went to Homestead Gardens. And oh my they had a lot of beeyootiful stuff there! Here are a couple photos:
1) The first is a type of hydrangea that we had never seen before and we were both quite taken with it! "New from hana bay flowers, it's Shooting Star, the newest addition to our family of Hydrangeas"--just gorgeous, and fragrant, too. I broke down and bought one. ;-)
2) The second is a tender perennial that neither of us recognized and that I can no longer remember the name of, but isn't it pretty?? :-)
The second one looks like an Easter Cactus....I have several...
Note that the leaves have no points on them. Nice, rounded edges...
A TRUE X-Mas cactus leaves look the same--sort of.
I would NOT call it a perennial, though. At least not here!
It comes inside for the winter.
Here is mine from a couple years ago.. Looks the same--Yes?
I have many new ones growing. I treat these just like CC's.
Gita
I've seen the shooting star hydrangea it is on my list! Great plant.
Shooting Star took a very long time to establish here and then one branch rooted itself so I have two now, a gift from a California buddy in 2007.
The other plant is one of the flowering cactus plants, like Easter, Christmas, etc.
Here's what's booming here SPRING PEEPERS!!!!
YAY spring peepers I heard them last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spring peepers!!!!!?????
YES!!!
Gita, we totally thought of you as we were admiring the red Easter cactus! :-) (Well maybe Coleup figured out what it was but I was clueless...)
Terp, I'll let you know how the Shooting Star does--it is sure pretty!
Pirl, how do you like your Shooting Stars? have they done well?
Coleup and Sally--spring peepers? um, sunglasses you wear in the spring? ;-)
I kept thinking I had lost it to the weather but last year it looked good - both of them. Maybe I'll get some good blooms this year. My CA friend gave up on his and locals told him they are very hard to establish. I wish you good luck.
Spring Peepers are frogs. Some years, the ones here are so loud that you can hear them inside, kind of like a nice nature lullaby. I haven't heard them yet, but I always seem to be a few weeks behind you Md folks.
thanks, Aspen. I love those night time sounds! We don't get much of that in my area.
good morning
heard a choir of tree frogs on the way home from Lambertville PA last night!
plan to look around for more blooms later today. also hope to get some seed flats planted and started under grow lights
Or I should say, for nighttime sounds, we get the occasional ambulance siren... :-( Sure miss the sound of frogs and crickets at night--and also a sky full of stars!! My grandmother lived in a rural area and I have fond memories of that from my childhood.
Lamppost bed is filling in pretty nicely. Lots of tulip tops showing.
That Shooting Star is great, that'll be on my wish list. I don't expect to hear peepers for a couple of weeks. We may have lost many of our pond critters, the ice was just too formidable this winter.
When you guys say shooting star, are you talking about a dodecatheon variety?
I heard the peepers at work on Friday!!! They are so loud because my office is right next to wetlands and the wildlife preserve. Glorious little amphibian harbingers of Spring!!! No new flowers yet but seeing lots of daff buds coming.
nice Holly - love your lamppost bed
I may have to put shooting star on my wish list too
The Shooting Star hydrangea is not the same as the dodecatheon.
Here's a link to dodecatheon:
http://plantsforshade.co.uk/acatalog/Dodecatheon.html
And here's a link to Shooting Star hydrangea:
http://www.weekendgardener.net/landscape-plants/hydrangea-macrophylla-shootingstar.htm
Found this budding as a volunteer in the lawn. Some kind of liriope?
CatMint, Picture????
I've been playing with my new camera. Everything is in auto mode for now. Not much blooming here but the snowdrops and one of the hellebores.
Sorry forgot the photo
Looks like crocus to me, catmint.
Aspen, very nice! Now go back and try to take those pictures from even closer to ground level, looking up at the flowers or at least on the same level as them. May have to take a few plastic bags to kneel on and put your elbows on so you don't get muddy. :)
My neighbors must think I'm a total wierdo, crawling around in my yard like a soldier.
Ha Ha. I thought about it, but it was COLD... It needs to be a little bit warmer before I get down on the ground. I might have to do some of that yoga too before I try it so I can get back up :)
Thanks TYP. Yes I was just at muddy's and she also confirmed it is a crocus! The variegated leaves and it's placement in the lawn really threw me off... :-(
I guess the squirrels dug up all the purple ones I planted (they left the cream ones alone) and maybe the squirrel forgot where he buried this one! „(Sigh)
I find crocus in the darnest places, places we never put them, like the veggie garden. I wonder if some may set seed that gets carried around, or as you suggested squirrels replanting them.
Setting seeds may be a possibility. In my case, the bulb had to have been moved, since all my crocus bulbs were newly planted in November. Now I am suspiciously eyeing odd little holes that keep popping up in the mulch here and there while the fat squirrels skip about happily...
doing great with that camera, aspenhilll
Great photos, Aspen!
Coleup, thanks for sharing that yoga-gardening-link link.
It's funny that the squirrels went after purple-flowering crocus bulbs, Catmint. They must have tasted better. Squirrels don't ruin my crocus and other small bulb plant displays nearly as much as I do, by deep-digging in areas where I've planted them.
Yes, I think the purple ones must have been quite yummy compared to the cream-colored ones! :-)
Cat--
I have Crocus scattered in my lawn near the bed they clumps are in.
Must be some way they get blown around...
G.
Almost all of the reticulated irises in full sun are blooming now. Now I'm wishing I'd mixed in some Katharine Hodgkins for color variety. Now I know what I want to get if we do this again next year. :)
Critter, how is the Joyanna crocus lawn doing? Do you have pictures?
