LOL It really was under the snow more than not... we missed at least half the display.
I did get a couple of photos in 2013. As showy as they are, it's hard to get a photo of the whole lawn that really does it justice. Click to enlarge, and you'll see the little blooms better.
We put in both early and later-blooming crocus species, so fewer than half are in bloom at any given time.
The sign was a gift from Deb & Frank ("Herbie").
Oh, and I found a couple photos of N. 'Precocious' and a look at that rim on N. 'Audobon'. 'Precocious' is the closest to "real" pink that I've seen, at least in the daffs I've viewed in person. My VE order arrived today... LMK if you want to share!
SSG: how deep do you plant your daffs?
Our pest control company started putting out vole/mole bait traps around the house so that should be a big help for us.
GT: I just read your response on the crocus bulbs in the lawn. I'll have to experiment with that this fall. I still have some crocuses left, maybe I'll stick a few in the grass and see how they do.
Critter, I think it looks like a very nice, natural-looking naturalized bulb display. Do you ever divide the clumps? I would find that a daunting task and probably wouldn't do it. Change that to definitely wouldn't do it. Heck, I've had several crocuses popping up in my lawn for decades and every year I intend to dig them up. Maybe 2015 will be the year!
I still have 80 crocus bulbs in the fridge - last minute HD impulse buys that I'll plant this weekend.
Crocus popping up in the lawn? I have many!
How do they get there????? Is it squirrels digging up and re-burying them?
What else would cause this/ ? G.
Seq, it depends on the size of the daffodil. The one they dug up was smaller so it had been planted about 3 inches deep.
I don't think they're digging to eat the bulbs, but just looking to bury their acorns. Pretty much all of my gardens have been sheet mulched, so it's hard to get those area tamped down.
Critter, I love the snowy crocus pic! It's too bad you missed the big show this year, though.
Gita, was your house new when you bought it? If not, it's possible a previous owner planted them.
No plans to ever dig & divide in the front lawn! We planted the bubs in small clumps, and those clumps have plenty of room to spread outward... I suppose over time the centers could contain lots of bulbs that are too small to bloom, but I'm hoping there will always be plenty of blooms!
We still had a few days when the lawn wasn't snowy, and the kids had fun picking many of the crocus blooms... I just didn't get any decent photos. :-)
The crocus planting party was a fun day, and seeing the results pictures is great. It looks so pretty! My little patch of grass at the front of the house has been struggling for years and has been on the "to do" list to focus on it. Never seems to be a priority though. The idea of adding crocus bulbs to it is the incentive I need to tackle this project next year LOL.
muddy--
Nope! This house was freshly built when we moved in.
Yukky dug up soil and all...took a lot of work to create my beds.
I have had a clump of Crocus at the edge of my YUK bed.
The ones showing up in the lawn are in that area.
Maybe birds pick off the seed bumps and eat them--and then poop them out?
G.
I've never noticed seed pods on crocuses... maybe I just need to pay more attention; they sort of fade from notice when they're done blooming, LOL
Crocuses set seed, which is available for purchase. For an article on growing crocuses from seed see: http://www.timberpress.com/blog/2011/01/everythings-coming-up-crocuses/
A way to establish a crocus lawn without the problem of critters digging up freshly planted bulbs might be to sew seeds. Takes about 3 years to bloom, but no gigging involved.
DAVID---
The Author of the article, Jānis Rukšāns , in the link you gave, is a LATVIAN!!!!
I can tell--it is totally a Latvian name. "Janis" is John in Latvian...
Gita
Fern lovers!
Take a look at this article from a DC gardener:
http://dctropics.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-mystery-maidenhair-fern.html
He has a hardy, almost-evergreen fern that he can't identify. What do you think this could be?
The article already uses the name--Maidenhair Fern. So--it has been ID'd.
That is what it is. One of the beauties in the fern World.
I just did not know it was hardy.
G.
Gita, the writer's looking for the exact species.
He thought it was a Adiantum raddianum, which isn't supposed to be in our area, but it survived our very cold winter last year.
So if it's not A. raddianum, what else could it be?
Hmm...my guess is that if a fern expert isn't sure but thinks it's Adiantum raddianum, then the writer might indeed have stumbled across an unusually hardy version of A. raddianum.
Or, it could be growing in a warmer-than-normal zone 7 microclimate like yours, ssg.
Muddy, he's in DC, but not in the warmest part of the city. He lost some palms that were supposedly zone 7 hardy, so he's not in a super warm microclimate.
Also, A. raddianum is supposed to be zone 9 hardy, so even a microclimate wouldn't be able to give it 20+ degrees of protection! What's interesting is that even its seedlings survived last winter.
I'm very curious because it's such a pretty fern. It'd be so interesting if he ended up with a hardy cultivar and started selling it! I'd love a hardy maidenhair!
His A. ×mairisii looks pretty nice, and it's hardy.
SSG - Adiantum pedatum, Northern Maidenhair Fern is plenty hardy for the DC area. See ours below.
Geez--David---You have everything!!!! And--You know the names of them all too....
I am so impressed!....;o< G.
Those ferns look great!
Greenthumb, A. pedatum is nice, but it never intrigued me enough to get one for myself.
The mysterious hardy Adiantum is so much more delicate and really looks just like the tropical maindehair fern.
Muddy, A. ×mairisii is pretty but not evergreen like the mystery fern.
I'm on the same DC tropics listserv as the author. I wonder if he'd be willing to part with some spores next year. :)
guess it doesn't hurt to ask, ssg! he might need trial gardens for developing his plant, lol
Even though Adiantum capillus-veneris, Southern Maidenhair Fern is marginally hardy in our area, I really like its look. It can be ordered from Casa Flora in flats, and they are regular participants in the MANTS (Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show) each January in Baltimore. Could probably arrange a pick-up at show if there is any interest.
Has anyone ordered from Living Gardens before?
Their crocus prices were so good that I couldn't pass it up.
I'm interested, greenthumb. Do the exhibitors normally sell plants at that trade show, or would this be a special arrangement?
ssg, I hadn't heard of Living Gardens, but they have interesting things on their site. I'm glad you got some bulbs.
While planting crocus bulbs today, I spotted a clump of what I think was safflower sprouts, which I dug up to plant bulbs. It occurred to me that maybe squirrels dig up bulbs because they buried something there, or think they did, and that maybe they think we're digging up their things!
tee hee just a big misunderstanding!
Muddy, they do not normally sell plants to carry away from the show except their display samples. If I could convince to include Adiantum capillus-veneris as part of one of their display flats, I could buy the flat if I attend the last day of the show. Not sure at this time if I will attend.
I just looked through their online catalog. They sure have a lot of different kinds of ferns.
Speaking of ferns... I have a box coming from MamaJack this spring, with a couple of goodies from Walters. I took another look at the list for this sale (dangerous) and she's included a huge variety of Japanese fern named Godzilla. I may have to have one just for the name. It's supposed to get 3 feet tall! If anybody wants to order one, I can add it to my box. The sale page is here: http://cubits.org/notfortheserious/thread/view/79224/
I'm not sure when they started, but last night I noticed that Brent & Becky's was doing 50% off. Shipping is 10%, based on original price, so expect 20% of your total.
I was just reading questions and comments from IMDB users about a new movie. They go into such detail about odd things. They must feel about movies the way we feel about plants...
X^D
Yeah probably Sally. Sometimes I check the reviews of movies I like and they're rated terribly but other times movies I think are terrible are rated really well. I guess I have no taste in movies...LOL
Santa Rosa's having their 50% pre-order sale!
Woot! Woot!
A lot of 'fun' reading here for true plant geeks
http://www.botanicalaccuracy.com/search?updated-max=2014-02-26T21:54:00-05:00&max-results=10&start=15&by-date=false
A whole blog of examples of bad botany in media, plant trade, and common usage
Beware the Stock Photo sites, many have mistakes in ID.
Hmmm...Many interesting and pretty pictures....G.
Unfortunately, not everything's at SR is 50% off. :/
Sally, what a neat site! Very interesting information.
Are we doing a group lily buy next year? There's a group buy going on right now at ATP that I'm thinking about joining.
I'll likely offer an ADR group buy for spring, but it may be fairly small scale depending on interest. ADR's spring catalog hit my mailbox just the other day, but their website seems only partially updated with spring offerings. I'm not sure if their lily selection is simply smaller than in previous years or if we can expect them to add to it.
I do know we'll need to purchase lilies in bags of 25 per variety. (They have a couple of assortments where we'd need to purchases just 18 of a kind, but I'm not sure I want all the varieties in the assortments, and it may be simpler to think in terms of ordering single varieties.)
Prices -- range from just under $1 for $1.30 per bulb on those I've looked up. We paid over $2/bulb to VE during the fall group buy, and I think the bulbs were smaller than those we've had from ADR in the past.
We can certainly put up an interest thread in the group buy forum and see what happens. I'll check to see what our order deadline would be for getting free shipping.
I'm personally interested in bare root perennials from ADR, since those we've ordered in the past 2 years have looked great & done well.
For lilies, we might also consider B&D Liliies -- a premier US source. Their bulbs cost probably 5x more than we've been paying, but they might perform correspondingly well. They get hugely good reviews in Garden Watchdog. They offer a 10-12% discount if you order bulbs in 6-packs. Placing a larger order as a group would also let us save on shipping.
B&D also has countless varieties, a much better selection than ADR. My suggestion would be to use them for special lilies that we can't get from ADR... if we can get 25 lilies from ADR for less than the price of 6 lilies from B&D, then my preference would be to plant 6 ADR bulbs (3 at a time, in 2 different places) rather than 1 B&D bulb.
ADR: http://www.adrbulbs.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/home.home/index.htm
B&D Lilies: http://www.bdlilies.com/s2015.html
