Spring has sprung here in MD! So far, only crocci (crocuses?) have started blooming, but lots of the many bulbs I added last fall are popping up leaves!
I'm especially enthused about these Tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant' crocci I planted along my new walkway..... lovely violet color shading to lavender in the center! Yes, I have seeded grass along that sorry looking edge, but it hasn't sprouted up yet.
Here's a shot of the more standard striped & purple crocuses in my front lawn.
and here's one I don't remember the name of.... it was a KMart / Martha Stewart selection, I believe
I have Oriental Poppies - they came up during the last warm spell and then froze, but are now thawed out again and happily poking up. I was out spreading some peony poppy seeds and they totally surprised me. I'll take some pics this weekend. The rest of my garden is on the north side of the house and yesteray was its first snow-free day. It wants so badly to be green again.....
Edited to say: I just realized, they're not from a bulb....oh well, they make me happy anyway....
This message was edited Mar 31, 2005 4:57 PM
I have crocus, too, and very soon (I hope) daffodil. Unfortunately I have deer, too, which just "mowed" the emerging tulip foliage and the TB iris. I hope I can get them to go away so the tulips may still perform.
In my yard, the daffodils & iris have already come & gone. I've still got tulips and miniature daff's. The lilies are poking up (I think) and there are callas coming up. Same with cannas.
Michelle
Hi! Sorry my camera is not working but I've got mini-daffs blooming like crazy - my lilipution rays of spring sunshine in the snow.
For some reason NONE of my 'croci' have come up!
Also a few Hyacinths poking their heads up - look like little blue tinged artichokes stuck in the mulch! And tulips and big daffs are on their way up too. All of my perennials have started coming up and greening up too, very exciting here - just have to get up real close to appreciate it.
OH, I almost forgot (shame on me) - the bluebells have started too!!!
My Crocus and Hyacinth are done blooming, my Tulips are on their last leg, and my Daffodils are just starting because they were late varieties.
Picture was yesterday. There are two daffodils blooming in the front of this bed, but they are hard to see. If you look back in the pot next to the bench, that's where my hyacinths were. And, there are three more daffodils opened behind the pot at the top of the picture in front of the climbing rose.
ooooh, lovely!! I'm having "zone envy" again!
I did have a nice surprise this afternoon... a couple of the miniature iris I planted last fall had started blooming! Fun! I'll get a picture posted, because they're just so elegant & dainty, with their slender little petals.
Here they are! Just 3 blooms this afternoon, but I'm looking forward to more (planted purple, blue, and yellow mix -- I think).
Wow sweezel, your yard looks kinda like mine! Very pretty setting - love the bench too. Late daffodils and tulips here also, with Irises kicking in and lilies starting to bud.
My 'Ice Follies' finally started opening yesterday; we finally had a sunny day in the 70's. Everything here is 3-4 weeks behind this year, I guess because of March being colder than usual. But the warmth yesterday sure did the trick-my tulips looked like they had grown an inch while I was at work!
Very pretty Dwarf Iris, Critterologist!
Thanks Steve. :) The last of the Tulips opened this week - the 'Greenland'. They are alot smaller than I thought they would be though. I think my favorite of the five cultivars I ordered from Aknapp's co-op was the 'Blushing Beauty'. Those are the tall ones on the right and left. They were one of the first to open and still look pretty, though they are declining. They seem to be lasting a lot longer than others.
I am so dissapointed - it looks like the daffodils and Hyacinth I planted in '03 are not going to rebloom. Only 1 on of the five Hyacinths sent up foliage and the daffodil foliage came up almost 2 months ago, but no buds. I did plant varieties that aren't known for coming back here though - did not know that at the time.
Here is Blushing Beauty - 2 weeks ago and then again 2 days ago. Sorry the second one ended up blurry.
'Blushing Beauty' is indeed a beauty! I noticed those lovely blooms in your first photo, but had no idea they had started with such a different color. I love the soft, subtle shading of the colors. I'll have to remember the variety name!
My 'Greenland' tulips are just now poking the tips of their leaves through the mulch. My front bed just takes forever to warm up! But last year, their blooms seemed to be about standard size for a tulip -- I'm thinking maybe 3 inches or so? Were yours particularly small, or were you anticipating that they would be a very large flowered variety?
Actually the my Greenland are about 2 inches tall and almost that wide. They are cute little blooms but dwarfed by the others. Two of them are blooming in the group picture above. One is just to the right of the 'Blushing Beauty' in the far left side of the group of Tulips.
One extra tidbit of good news - my one of my perennial Species Tulips (T. Clusiana) has a bud forming at the base of the foliage. I can't wait to see it bloom.
Like the TX folks, our CA spring is already sliding into early summer. Folks are itchy to get their tomato seedlings in the ground, although in coastal Northern CA it's best to wait until at least mid- to late April.
Tulips are an annual here so I skip them, even though they're so beautiful! Instead, we have freesias, clivia (is that a bulb? sorry!), alstroemeria (Peruvian lily), and iris. Although my iris rebloom all year round, so I'm cheating a little here:
Hi sweezel,
If you got no foliage, chances are your bulbs rotted. The soil here is so heavy, mostly clay and doesn't drain well, so you might want to consider another site or a raised bed. Virtually all of my hyacinths and daffs in my large raised bed in my back yard have returned for three years now. Tulips are best left as an annual here, though I have had a handful return for three years now, though somewhat smaller than the first year. Very pretty flowers you have though.
We still have some snow left on the ground, but the crocus are starting to bloom. Some of my other bulbs - Tulips and Daffodils are about an inch high. Not all have started up yet, but they all were under snow a week ago (thank goodness the last 2 storms were rain and not show!)
"my iris rebloom all year round"
JK, you're causing me some serious zone envy here. Those alstroemeria are delightful! I have some "hardy" ones that I put in last summer & enjoyed; we'll see if they made it through the winter.
No snow here this weekend, but the back yard was mostly puddles this morning.
BTW, love your handle, "ownedbycats" -- ain't it the truth! :-)
They tell me when to get up and feed them - and when to go to bed
I'm just lucky they allow me to live in their house :)
"I'm just lucky they allow me to live in their house"
hey, you gotta have servants to open those cans and empty the litter box, LOL!!
More than a dozen daffs popped into bloom this afternoon! Hooray!! Lots more to come, but they're in all different stages.
I also have some pretty little species tulips in bloom that I planted a couple of years ago. From Brecks, I think, and they called them "waterlily" tulips.
Here's our front narcissus garden this week...
and a close-up....I think these are n. 'jetfire'--very long bloomers and prolific. Very nice garden flower.
My daffs are starting to bloom, but with older & newer ones in warmer & cooler areas of the yard, it's a pretty random showing this year!
Here's a clump of 'Persian Princess' species tulips I put in last fall.... They're more of a true purple than the magenta shown in the photo.... lovely little flower!!
The new daffy area by our little maples is going to look gorgeous when it fills in..... part of the bed was dug & mulched, part was planted into the grass the year before..... eventually, it'll look more unified!
Well I found this unidentified bulb blooming today!
Thanks for making me smile so early in the morning.Linda
What a cutie! Better than anything I have in my garden!! :-)
Erythronium americanum is blooming for me now. I planted one bulb a number of years ago and it had made a large clump over time, then last fall I dug it up by mistake, so replanted them to make a couple groups of them. In a few years when they clump up, they should be so pretty. Really a sweet little flower. Common name is Dog's Tooth violet or Trout Lily. They are in the lily family.
Susan
Oh, lovely -- trout lilies are just gorgeous! There's a park north of here (trail to Cunningham falls) where we saw a whole hillside of trout lilies blooming last spring, which was just breathtaking. They're such dainty looking little flowers, but once they get established, they seem to be pretty tough..... I'll have to find some & try to get them established in our yard! (no, I will not snatch them from the park, even if they do seem in need of dividing..... :-)
