Are your daffs and crocus starting to show green? (Part II)

JamesCo I don't look to fill a space, i just get what i like and then find a place to put it!

Could you put your fall crocus near tree roots that dry them out? Mine are near an oak tree, and they drink lots.

Steve that sounds almost impossible to have that difference in temps, we do have our dips but not like that! We had 44F today, it was still and sunny and felt a lot warmer than that, at least like 12C or 54/5. Two days ago we had 13C.

I think your pink one is Lady Derby? Pink pearl is mostly darker, not sure if that is offered at garden centres either, will have to look, autumn is the time they sell them. It looks great with Woodstock.

My L. African Queen was trodden on in its first year, I broke it off as I was trying to rescue some selfsets of aquilegia as my partner put compost on. It was only just through the ground, near a shrub and dark maroon. It didn't grow again until the next year, and possibly made a bigger bulb because of that! it made 2 stems last year, its 2nd of flowering.

Wallaby,

I have done that :-( In fact, I really avoid spring planting in beds where I know I have lilies for that reason. The shoots are easily cut or torn off and you don't always know when they've started to come up - and I have destroyed more than a couple through careless digging. Then of course you have to wait another year!

I even avoid using shovels and instead get my fingernails really dirtty - the worst sound to a bulb gardener is that "biting into an apple" sound that means you know you've killed something important!

This message was edited Feb 18, 2006 3:57 PM

Sickening isn't it! With all the best intentions though, sometimes just a step backwards......crunch!

Steve, the highs and lows here are insane to. Thursday in the 70s, tonight down to 12 and snow on the ground (thank goodness). I think your fantastic lily is a longiflorum. My Regale have dark stems and narrow, almost grassy leaves. They reached 4' their first year.

Kenton, waving hand feverishly! me,me,me! I'd love to trade for those autumn crocus. I have tons of stuff, and hardly any of it listed on my trade list, but dmail with what you'r looking for if you're interested :)

Wallaby, those African Queen are awsome. Love the yellow foliage with them.
Neal.

Steve, I'm under the 4 in 45. So much like Neal, but not as wild: It topped at 49F today, even while it was 15 last night. Even so, the ground is warm and things are growing.

The soil in my new big bed it maturing well. I am going nuts with all of the plans for it, especially looking at these pictures.

Neal, it is so hard to remember all of things... We can relate; it is hard to comprehend it all when one has so many plants, eh? Do you have any... (Dmail)

Just thought I would make a note for those of you who, like me until recently, had to scroll all the way down on this thing. On your keyboard, press "End" and then "Page Up" to be right where the newest posts are!

K. James

JamesCo, I too was a bit slow on the quick method, but there is an easy way!

At the top you have 'Skip To new' that takes you straight down. At the bottom it is 'Back to the top of this thread'.

Neal, the yellow foliage is Ceanothus Pershore Zanzibar. It has powder blue flowers, and is supposed to have some darker green striping on the leaves. It does, but just on one small branch near the bottom. It is strange how these things work out, I didn't imagine the lilies towering above the shrub, it has grown very quickly.

Our 10 day forecast was giving cloud and showers all except the last day, nearly to the end of the month. No rain today, no clouds until later in the day. Every day supposed to be 5-7C, 1-3C at night. Some winters, like the last one, there is very little difference between day and night temps. It was often around 8C, or 46F.

Gee whiz, go to bed, Wallaby. -And stay warm!

Every time I see this thread it irks me. But it is because I have to say yes I see green, But they are still in the bags they came in. Okay now I have said it. I haven't wanted to say it, but this thread won't just go away. ;o) LOL

I hope my little bulbs still have a chance. I am a horrible momma to little bulbs. They are probably screaming and I can't hear them. "Please put us in the ground, We are dying to not be cramped
in this little space." ROTFLOL but it really isn't funny I guess. I should never buy anything on clearance unless I can run out and put them in the ground and let them be free. LOL

Blessings
Sandy ^8^

can ya pot 'em up to give them a little life extendor?
Tam

I got some potting soil and a window box friday. I am going to do that
either as soon as it is a little warmer outside or bring the dirt in here and do it. I put the Hyacinths in little vases yesterday. Even if they don't bloom this year I think they will be ok.

I have got loads of bulbs waiting to go into pots, yesterday my order from jacquesamand arrived, much too cold to do anything for a few days yet. We're having days of 4C, cold North winds with some sleet or snow. They will be best left in a cool place, but if warming up then it will be all go. Lets hope March takes a sudden turn for the better, as it sure is arctic now. I have an Arisaema griffithii var. pradhanii, it is huge, a bit soft and squidgy dry, but has roots waiting to grow. The growing point is there too but also a bit soft. I put the ordinary one in the ground about 5 years ago, it took 2 years to show, had 2 leaves for 2 years then didn't show again last year! This I will put in a pot and leave in the greenhouse, they seem to do well there. I might even have a dig and try to find the other one!

Wallaby - Just had to go look this up. You'll get a kick from the dewcription I found.

"... prized for the more prominent yellow striping on the spathe. Looking like drool from a lusting gardener's mouth, its thread-like "tongue" can reach 18" long. You usually have to go to a skinhead rally to see anything this bizarre."

Funny! That sounds about right, I love the plants. I also have A. consanguineum, fargesii, ciliatum, tortuosum. Look at PF for my consanguineum, that is the one I have had growing best and longest. I have my eye on a few more exciting ones!

Iris "Katharine Hodgkin" blooming February 18, 2006.

Hey- it is as lovely as the pictures in catalogues.
(Adding it to next fall's list...)

We have some native Jack In the Pulpits up north where I'm from. Had no idea they had relatives like this. The Cobra Lily picture I saw, looked like it could have you for lunch. Sure it's not one of those carnivorous plants?

Dracunculus are up. They have been for a month.

Hey my dracunculus is at the same stage!

Nice Katharine Hodgkin missg!

beaker, is Arisaema added to you list too? Many come from China and Himalayas

Hey Kenton,
How old is your dracunculus? It's hard to tell from the picture, how big the sprout is...

Planted it in fall of 2004. The sprout is bigger (wider) than younger ones. I understand that they grow largest in a rich, well-drained soil if left undisturbed. I bought a few more last year hoping for some naturalization.

Wallaby - I think I'll pass on the Arisaema for this year. I shouldn't have gotten into the Alstroemeria (LOL). As it is, I believe my container garden will be taking up a good portion of my driveway (all tender bulbs and vines). Then I started digging a new lily bed last fall and I need to finish that. Plus I'll be planting about six new Clematis this year. I am so antsy for spring and we have about eight more weeks of really iffy weather before us (and it could be longer). It's tempting to plant early when the weather starts to get nice, but I try to hold off on any annuals until around May 30th. You just never know in Minnesota. I hope to have my new lily bed done and planted by mid to late April. I would also like to pull out two Current bushes and replace with roses. I don't make jelly anymore and the birds just make a mess with them anyway. Soooo much work, so little time.

"...A Gardener's Life for me!"

Ditto! Join the real world of a gardening maniac! AND you may think it will get 'easier', or 'better', because you can't possibly find more things to grow!

Shall we give away the secret, or just let fate takes its happy trail?

You mean the fact that a garden is always a work in progress? Wouldn't want to discourage the newbies. Actually, I think that's what I like about it the most. As my tastes changes, so does my garden.

Hey - when something dies, its just room for something new!

it looks like I've got iris reticulata starting to come up and I can see
the little flower bulb in the daff folliage... ah, spring will come.

And I'll probably going to the Phila Flower Show. That always jazzes
me up for spring.

Tam

Oh well while we are waiting for the warm weather, if it ever returns! Tam don't get too excited, I thought spring was coming, we had 3 reasonable days, and daff buds. Then the lousy cold, sleety, north wind freeze you rigid stuff set in at least until the end of the month!

Look what else I bought! A crinum powellii, big bulb, for only £1.99. Well who would pass it up at that?

What a steal.

We had a 12°F/-11°C night that burned a few things. It can't possibly go further into winter- this has got to be the last sputter of that cold. Brr! My amending projects are freezing!
K. James

We're suppose to get snow this weekend, but I haven't heard how much. It tried to sputter some flakes this afternoon, but it was pretty warm; 35F. I was running around without a jacket. We still have March to go and we can get really hit with snow then. Nice thing about March, it melts fast. I just hope it's not a late spring.

We had a nice long summer last year. I usually put my beds to sleep that 2nd week in October and I didn't have the heart to pull out all the still blooming annuals. Much different from the year before when I was out planting lily bulbs wearing my winter coat and mittens. Yes, I now have a pair or garden mittens. I put oxi into the wash water, but they still look pretty grungy to me.

Where are you going to put that Crinium, Wallaby? Don't they get really big? I'd like to see the size of your "shed".

Gorgeous Crinium! I bought two really really sad little bulbs on sale at the end of the season last year.
They put up a few leaves and that was it. I may plant them outside in a really warm spot to see if they'll do
better in mother earth than they did in the pot in the greenhouse.

I don't have just a shed to keep my stuff in. I have 3 (8 x 6') greenhouses, unheated but a lot of tenderish plants get through no probs. Also use my neighbours 12' x 8', AND the spare bedroom, kitchen/dining room, the 'waiting' bulbs go in the small under stairs pantry. i have it WELL organised! Now all I need is the 25' x 12' conservatory on the south side of the house!

I got 2 reduced price deep terracotta pots also, at £1.70 each, they will be great for the crinum for a start, and the Hymenocallis Sulphur Queen I bought .

My Hymenocall S Q

I have 2 surfaces at the back of the shed (that was a struggle to get!), mans territory and all sheds are! I have some protea there, lots waiting still they can take 3 years or more, but I am patient! In this pic there is 4 Dietes grandiflora at the left, the 2 big ones in middle are Psidium cattleyanum, behind you can see some tall grassy stuff, that is Ixia viridiflora from seed also, nearly all of those grew and I think I have 10, they start to regrow in autumn and overwinter green, can't wait for those! I have stuff everywhere, not to mention the at least 100 new varieties of seed I have bought this year (aarrgghhhh), got lots from an ebay seller in Chile who grows native Chilean bulbs! I still have to get around to growing all the agaves I want from seed, the species gladioli from silverhill in SA, perhaps next year????

My agave parryi ssp. huachucensis grown from seed August 2004, taken 29th october 05

Some of my crinum unknown species from Dash of Mainly Amaryllids in Australia, seed from Feb sprouting 2005, resprouting 5th Dec 05 after dormancy, in spare bedroom

This is a good purple crinum x amabile seedling i got from an ebay seller in Florida, he didn't send overseas but I begged and he sent me some nice small ones C submersum, Dwarf, Ellen Bosenquet, Summer Nocturne, St Christopher. i took this pic after 2 weeks of frost to -5C, 5th Dec. the ends of the greenhouse are blown out but they still were green. Most have gone back a bit more by now, but OK underneath.

Just one more for now, one to brighten things up! Would you believe the sun shone beautifully on Saturday ALL day, it was only low 40's but felt gorgeous, and all the crocus were wide open, those that are open of course!
An early C Flower Record, it is much darker purple than shows, and believe it or not it is that glossy the sun reflected like a mirror!

Love that purple.

crocus tricolor was fully open in the sun too on Sat., well they all were! So i got snaps

This message was edited Feb 23, 2006 7:07 PM

C Snowbunting