Spring Bulbs Pictures and discussion, Part III

Annapet - I used to bring in bouquets for my group at work. I'd tell them to
pass them to another group member after a couple of days so everyone had
flowers in their office for at least a few days. I had 16 people so it was
impractical to bring everyone their own bouquet. (I lived on a tiny urban lot
at the time so really didn't have that many extra blooms I was willing to share!)
Some guys just kinda tolerated it but most loved it. After a few years, I changed
groups and they were just a lot more uptight than the first group. I stopped doing it.
I keep thinking I should try it again.

Everyone knows - plants help boost people's spirits and improve productivity.
Right?

Tam

Lord knows they've kept me from being a b**** this winter. LOL.

What a pot of beauties! So well displayed too! I have some that I could bring indoors, but no, they are outside in a pot, WAITING! They have such a delicious scent too!

Steve rub it in, I don't mind, runs off my back like a duck to water! Rain yesterday 39F, rain today 42F (nearly as warm last night!), same for days on end, but we did need the rain, I just wish it would get it over with a bit quicker, drizzle drizzle....like I am wishing my life away....this is not normal, it should be spring by now, last winter it was mostly a bit warmer than this all winter, then spring came, and it remained cold....then summer came and it remained cold.....well now tell me you have trouble growing snowdrops and that might cheer me up a bit!

Some daffs nearly bursting, well a bit fatter anyway....the imagination has to be inventive...

Mg buds on paeonies? Mine are showing through the ground, well at least they are showing...

McG is your tulip a viridiflora, there are some with white eges, that looks pink. I had some lovely ones but they didn't do well then went, there is a lot of disease in some of these.

I notice young pinkish edges like that on tulips that ultimately have white edges.

The weather here has been very mild of late- and today, water is falling out of the sky, which is rahter odd to us here; I don't know what to make of it. Seriously, it is a blessing to have a slow soaking rain. Especially since I went vagabond and planted a couple hundred crocus in the turf at the local park last fall, and their tips have not shown. I think the problem is that we do not usually get any precipitaion all winter, and those poor bulbs need it. I hope it is not too late for them. (The sprinklers are obviosly off during the winter, and the grass goes dormant)

More pictures to come this evening, I hope.
K. James

Thanks Moonglow and Wallaby - I have some peonies just starting to open up now!

Look - a summer snowflake!

A tulip amidst the hyacinths

White hyacinths

One ended up with no color in the cup - hmm I wonder how that happened?

Steve it's supposed to be like that! it has a lovely shape to it, you perhaps got one mixed in with the others. Don't know it's name, but there are plenty of hybrids, now I wish I had my old catalogue!

Red tulips

Thanks Wallaby :-) I guess things just happen like that don't they?

Steve, if you don't want that all-white one, my address is in the exchange... LOL

Kylee

You'll have to fight me first!

just look at the one called Lemon Silk, enlarge it, this autumn....

http://www.broadleighbulbs.co.uk/misc/narorder.htm

Steve! As usual you are the first one with those beautiful blue hyacinths and red tulips! Thanks for posting--your pics make me think spring is on the way!

k., Your narcissus are so pretty. Wish I had planted some. Today is so grey and gloomy and they would definitely be a brightener! Please remind me next year to get to it!

t, that's what i was going to say! steve and his gardens - - - boy oh boy.

janet you made me go outside and look again. dark already to take photos, but my peonies sure have buds.

kylee, the narc photos made me pick a fresh bouquet for hubby's aunt. she looks after my little man when i work. but i should bring some to work with me tammy-style. definitely has to plant MORE next year. got me looking at catalogs already....when does van engelen start accepting narc orders?

kenton, there is a courtyard also where i work. should i start planting there, too? it's not illegal, i hope.

more photos pleeeeeease! thanks.

Thank you all :-) It is my revenge for when everything's dried up here and your things are all going stromg, and all I can do is sit and watch!

Here is the back yard with the Yorkie today - we're supposed to get severe storms tonight so who knows what it will look like tomorrow!

Oh well it got you some fresh air mg! Look at Steve's, just opening! I can't believe it!

I have been searching the net for white cup narcissus, and look what I found! Ordering starts April for next autumn here, not far off! Lots of species of all sorts of bulbs here, a gold mine!

http://www.miniaturebulbs.co.uk/mh.htm

* clunk *... chin dropped... WOW Steve - that's glorious!!!
And what a cute little dog. Thanks for posting all those bulb
shots w/the grand finale (at this moment - it seems to be the
finale but maybe you've got more...)

Tam

woweee! and look at that cutie-patootie!

steve, in your zone do you have to dig out all the bulbs after the growing season? i find that here, the few narcs that i planted last year came back fuller and bigger. the tulips are like annuals, i guess, for a lazy gardener like me.

Great sites for daffodils, Wallaby - thanks for the links!

Thanks Tammy and Moonglow,

Moonglow. surprisingly most of them do come back - my story is similar to yours I guess. I might get 20% of tulips back but most do not flower the second season with the exception of the species. I think the bulbs split apart and I get lots of little plants with leaves and no flowers. The Single Lates are the most l.ikely to return and I had one clump come back three years in a row.

On the other hand, daffodils and hyacinths do very well for me and seem to come back continually - and I have even done well with peonies and they flower for me as well. I was thinking they'd be the toughest but they flowered last year and almost all of them this year have buds - even the ones just coming out of the ground, and as you saw above, I have one in flower now. In general though if peonies here do not open by mid-May they're done here because the heat blasts the buds, so the early bloomers are better choices.

The weird thing about our weather is we do get some pretty cold weeks in winter - but the tempartures are up and down like a yo-yo. It mght be 14 F one week and 75 or 80 the next. So, I think we get enough cold for many things to return but summer comes on pretty fast after winter is over. We average about 3" of snow a year here so we do get a couple "white" days per year, believe it or not, and we average 34" of rain, which is comparable to Chicago and actually a little more than London, so it's not exactly desert either.

Oh and Moonglow - I don't dig anything up!!

Hi Wallaby you know a great white-cupped narcissus is "Stainless" - mine have not bloomed yet but here is a link to White Flower Farm's picture:


http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/126021-product.html


This message was edited Mar 8, 2006 8:56 PM

steve, thanks for answering my query! NOT DIGGING ANYTHING UP IS GREAT NEWS! bulb dance here. lol.

some of the jonquils i planted last year are doing exactly that. more leaves. hopefully blooms next year. oh, i am so excited!

Thanks Steve, it is very pristine! I like that long, cut, frilled trumpet on the other stray. Got my eye on a few I found on another site just for info

http://www.theplantexpert.com/springbulbs/Daffodil3ShortCup.html

look at Sinopel and Edna Earl, gorgeous!

Mg some species i was reading about actually need to be frozen, so good luck!

I think the largest of the tulips coming up, the one with the pink edges is Decora, a Fosteriana. Here is the link that tells about it. http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/productview/index.php?sku=02-1212

Verifies what K James said about pink edges eventually turning into white edges. Here's another pic. Trying to figure out how this one got so close to the porch. If I get this carried away with bulbs coming up, imagine what I'll be like when they bloom!

Steve's pics are making me drool all over the keyboard. Sigh.

Steve what a lovely lovely yard, I'd like to go in and take every bulb. thank goodness you have that fierce-looking pooch guarding your garden.

thanks, janet! i could use all the luck. although i must admit, i'm a pretty lucky girl already. got my own micro-climate going....enough cold to get peonies and tulips to bloom....but not too cold to kill the brugs.

McG, we're all drooling here. where's that bucket? lol.

yeah, nery. guard dog on duty. watch out!

Pictures at last. My friend's garden amazes me now:

Front walk

The front rock garden is getting buried by bulbs in its first season...

She loves 'Tete a Tete'

One of her favorites, Peeping Tom.

Crocus hordes in her Sagina in the path.

Lawn 1

Lawn 2

nobody's obligated to look at all of these, of course. I'm a-flooding this place.

H. niger. The spots are spent Elm flowers knocked off by the rain! It scared me to begin with- like aphids.

A shot...

Her wapred humour. A tub with Galanthus.

A particularly nice Hellebore.