Tiny Daffodils

My backyard was full of N. 'Little Gem' before Tulip turkstanica started to bloom:

'Little Gem':

'Pipit' is about 12 inches tall.

Pitimpinai--

Can you tell us what the blue flower is? Is it an iris? Or do you have different kinds of blues in there? And the snowdrop...is it a 'giant'?

Your yard must be a beautiful and interesting site to see with all the tiny blooms sprinkled around in it. It must have been a true labor of love to plant all of those! But well worth it. You must be pleased with the results.

Did I tell you I was up in Chicago Tuesday and saw all the tulips on the Magnificent Mile? What a sight to see! I was amazed at the number of them-- maybe a million--and so well grown for the range they planted--tall, short, all varieties and colors and beautiful.
combinations. Lots of fun. t.

tabasco,

The blue ones in the backyard? They are Iris reticulata 'Harmony'. The pale blue on the right is Puschkinia libanotica. The blue one on the front lawn is Scilla sibirica 'Spring Beauty'. I suspect that it is actually the regular sibirica, not SB, because it is much smaller than my SB from a different bulb supplier.

The Galanthus is the double one, Galanthus nivalis 'Flore Pleno'. Very pretty. I might order more this year. I don't know yet where to plant them. Tee hee hee.

Planting the miniatures in the backyard was actually much easier than in the front lawn. I had just covered the backlawn with paper & cardboards and a thick layer of mulch. When the bulbs arrived, I just displaced the mulch, spread several bags of pea gravels & crushed limestone on the wet paper, layered compost on the gravel, spread the bulbs, covered them with more compost & topsoil then rake the mulch back over the area. Voila! An instant miniature bulb bed. It was the easiest bulb planting method for me ever. LOL. I love watching my garden from my kitchen window.

Oh, yeah? It is really a sight for sore eyes, isn't it? I walk by it everyday to & from work. The choice this year is even more beautiful than last. Chicago has come a long way these past 20 years in terms of beautifying the city.

Next time, when you are in town, give me a buzz. We'll talk bulbs and plants. :-D I might foist some plants on you to carry home. :-)

p.

Interesting about your planting method. So, you spread out the cardboard to kill the grass? And what is the purpose of the pea gravel and crushed limestone? Drainage? Sounds a lot easier than digging a million little holes.

I would like to plant tiny bulbs in my back yard in places where trees came down last year instead of sodding it. That is if I can find little bulbs that are reasonably critter resistant and good naturalizers. I would love to have your kitchen window view. Thanks for the details.

Yes, Chicago was looking especially lovely. Since we lived out in California for many years (until 2004) I hadn't been there in quite a while (even though my DH grew up there) so it was fun to check out Michigan Avenue again. A nice experience and we said we should come back again to spend some time, so the Tourist Authority's Tulips are working!

We were watching the Cubs game today on TV. Looked cold.

When I get up there again, I will call you. Happy gardening. t.

I planted Tete a Tete and Baby Moon last year. Those wonderful Tet's are up and almost finished but the Baby Moon has not had the first bloom - and the foliage is quite different - almost looks like chives. I know its not chives (!) because I planted several dozen in pots.
I like the open face of Baby M in the pics but still waiting to see it in person...

My favorite combo this year was an orange polyanthus primrose with a yellow eye, with the yellow Tets, blue chionodoxa and a dwarf yellow chamecyparus. It just came out perfect - I couldn't have planned it. I'll look to see if I have a pic.

Pitimpinai - I am shocked that people pick your flowers! Those @#$%. You must live downtown. I bet its the same person too. The Miracle Mile is awesome in any season - I'm heading into town in May and look forward to the show. I used to walk it almost every day when I lived there. The former Mayor of our town actually sent a delegation of people to Chicago to study how the beautification of the downtown area created the desire to shop and live there. Ahem - I think they could have saved the bucks and talked on the phone but whatever.

tabasco, yes. Cardboard to kill the grass. Pea gravel & crushed limestone for drainage. That lawn came with the house and had not been cultivated at all. It is heavy clay. I am hoping that the grass will breakdown and earthworms will do the aeration for me. But in the meantime I hope the compost and mulch will keep the bulbs going. Earthworms seem to love the breaking down paper. Last week, I dug up the mulch and squeeze in some more Crocus and found a LOT of earthworms. Love those little wigglers. :-)

alyrics, I live in the city but not downtown. The yard is small and I stuffed the front with plants. I even took over the parkway. The tiny lawn and the grass strip in this photo is full of bulbs right now. I am slowly covering up the grass with paper and mulch. The grass will be gone by July. Last fall I stuffed the lawn with bulbs, so it's looking pretty raggedy right now.

I'm having great success with the cardboard method too! It sure beats stripping sod, and I always hated peeling off that top layer of the best soil with the grass roots. With small bulbs in particular, I can see that being a great method.

Love your front yard Nai. No need to have grass that I can see.

I did the cardboard over a bed that had English Ivy and Lamiastrum that had overtaken it. I tried for 2 years to weed it and it was impossible so I took out the plants that I wanted to save and covered it with 4-5 layers of cardboard last fall, then a few inches of topsoil. I dug in a couple weeks ago to see if I could plant in it and under the cardboard is a thriving colony of white ivy. I sure hope I put enough cardboard on top to kill it this summer. I'd hate for the cardboard to break down and just feed the ivy.

Oddlots had landscaping fabric for $4. 3'x50'. I have a bed for daylilies where I had just dug holes in the lawn and put them in. It's not permanent but at the moment I don't have another plan.. so I thought we could trim the grass very very short and then cover it with lanscape fabric and stake it down. Would that work like cardboard? I think DH just got rid of some lovely huge pieces of cardboard :(

Jazz, I am sorry I hijacked your thread. :-)

I don't think you'll be happy with landscape fabric in the long run. I did that on my beds and lived to regret it. Landscape fabric will not prevent weed seeds to germinate and grow ON TOP of it. Your Dailily will grow and the roots will grow under and over the fabric. Also, when you have had enough and want to grow something around your dailily, you'll have trouble removing the landscape fabric. To me. it's a pain to work around.

I have been using cardboard, paper, junk mail to cover my lawn for nearly 20 years now. They break down eventually and I end up with very nice loamy, wormy soil for my plants. If you have no access to cardboard, use junk mail, catalogs, magazines, newspaper, cereal boxes etc. Wet them down, then put any organic materials over the paper. Keep nice beautiful mulch for the top layer.

On the front lawn I am using grass clippings under the compost, because that's what I have. I am planning to use clippings from daffodils when I deadhead them. I need to get more mulch to cover the entire area. I'll do that after all the bulbs have turned yellow this summer.

Alyrics, thanks. Are you coming to Chicago for the garden show in a couple weeks? A friend and I are planning to go there on Monday May 15th. Would you like to join us? I read that English ivy is extremely difficult to get rid of. You might need several layers of cardboard or newpapers. From my experience, several sheets of wet newspaper actually break down much slower than cardboard therefore effective in smothering weeds underneath. Hope that works for English Ivy.

Yes, gemini. Layering organic materials on paper is a much easier way to build an new plant bed than stripping the lawn or digging. I am so cheap I hate to strip away the soil and grass then go buy soil to replace it. That's why I use the covering up method.

Happy gardening. :-)

Pitim... I read that and thought.. "oh was this my thread?" I had to go back to the beginning and look! lol No biggie..

I am not planning on leaving the landscape fabric forever.. I just want something that will kill off the grass so I don't have to dig it up. The bed is sloped so I was concerned that paper or cardboard would slide off..hence the fabric idea.

Good information here! Thanks for all the details, P. I will have to get busy.

gem, by the way, my little miniature daffodils came up around the primroses and it was a delightful little display!

And Alyrics, you will love the narcissus 'baby moon' for late spring daffs. They are the latest of almost all, I think, and it's nice that the leaves are so 'chivey' because they don't appear so prominently messy that way as they brown out. I have them blooming with giant allium now and gold hostas. The end of my daff season. Boo hoo.

Hi Nai
I'd love to join you at the Urban Garden Show - I'm assuming thats the one you're talking about - but won't get there till later in the week. Thanks a million for the hospitality though. I might go out to the Botanic Garden or something like that - I'm not staying downtown.

I started saving boxes again in case I have to lay down more cardboard. But that is curious that you say newspaper is more useful for blocking weeds. I did a lasagna bed 2 ytrs ago - what a dream to garden in that bed, I could use my hands to move the soil it is so perfect. I used all newspaper in there - worked great.

HI tabasco - was down in Columbus this weekend - can't believe the difference in how far along another zone is - drives me crazy this time of yr. Thanks for the good word on Baby Moon, I didn't know what to think - maybe the bulbs were bad? I will definitely look forward to seeing them. With our long wet springs and surprise frosts my big daffs often get knocked over - I really started liking Tete a Tete because of that - they are straight and strong even in the weather.

Yes, alyrics, I am often amazed to observe the 'hardiness zones' first hand just in Ohio, or even from one side of Cincinnati to another. For the past year I have been driving to Columbus every week, and even between here and there, there is about a two week difference in bloom time, I think. Likewise when we drove up to Chicago last week. My DH (who grew up in Chicago) was amazed that is was so 'wintry' this late in spring. I suppose that is one reason why they have such a beautiful tulip display. The cool weather keeps them in bloom longer and they aren't subject to the heat blasts that so often happens here.

I agree tete's are great daffs to grow and pretty hard to kill off. I grow mostly early daffodils, including tete's, 'little gems', 'jack snipes' and other miniatures and a few trumpets. Here's why:

I like the earlies because I long for the spring garden season to start and so I appreciate their early bloom so much.

I want to be first on my block with flower bloom in spring. (Competitive Gardening?)

I want their bloom to finish so the browning of the daff foliage gets done and overwith before the mid-June garden bloom starts. LOL (So much for longing for their bloom!)

I am going to start saving cardboard and newspapers and get going on the lasagna bed plan for my 'woodland' garden development. Hadn't thought of doing that with the bulbs before I read this thread. Thanks.

I like the early ones, the mid season bloomers and the late bloomers. LOL. I want them all and want them to start blooming in January. I want something in bloom from January to December. :-) I don't care if the leaves look raggedly. I stuffed so many things in my garden that something new will draw the attention away from the leaves. At least I can hope, can't I? :-P
Here's another of my mini Daff. I believe it is 'Segovia'. See how stuffed the bed is? I just took this picture yesterday. 'Segovia' began to look rather tired already.

And the bed of minis taken a few weeks ago:

OK Piti.. now you have to tell me what all in is that bed! I can see grape hyacinths (I think) possibly purple and white ones also? Daffs of course. What are the burgandy plants? something that is just coming up like a peony? and those white flowers on the lower right of the picture?

I finally got out there to take a pic of the tulips this morning. These were supposed to a dwarf, all white, species tulip - but unlike me, I didn't keep the info. Anybody know what they are/ Note the foliage - very thin and grassy-like.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/alyrics/5-2-06/Spring%202006/May206speciestulipanemoneblanda.jpg

Here is Epimedium 'Lilafee' - a dwarf that only gets about 6-8" high with dark foliage

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/alyrics/813e0c6b.jpg

Hey Alyrics.. The first link says the photo is no longer there :(

HI Jazz - I got it when I tried it just now but here it is in person

Epimedium 'Lilafee'. Its taken 2 years to get this little one going but I think the location might have been too damp.

Love those clusiana tulips! I have 'Lady Jane,' and it didn't perform well this spring, but I'll keep trying, because I love them so.

Oh, how lovely! I love these miniatures as much as those great big ones. It's especially beautiful with Sweet Woodruff. I will have to try an Epimedium.
Here's my 'Lady Jane'. Unfortunately the Phlox subulata was beaten by heavy rain.

Oh. The miniatures in the pic above:
The white ons that are around the bed sort of clockwise is Tulip turkstanica.
The lilac ones near the upper left is Chionodoxa forbesii.
The deeper blue ones scattered all over are Scilla sibirica.
The burgundy ones are tulip violacea.
The light blue ones are Puschkinia libanotica.
The mini Daffs are 'Little Gem'.

Ipheion uniflorum did show up with the rest but just came up a few days ago. I read that Ipheion can be invasive, but I seem to have trouble with them. I planted several hundred a few years ago. Not a single one showed up. Last fall I planted 200 with the other mini. Only a handful is in bloom now:

Arggg. Wrong pic. Here's a better one:

Well, here is another tiny daff from Brent and Becky's. I planted them late, and they came up later than the others, but they are definitely teeny tiny! I'll look up the name and edit the post, but if I don't post the pic now, I'll never get to it! I have fairly small hands, even they make me look like a giant in this pic, LOL!

Edit to add...think it is "Baby Moon"

Laura

This message was edited May 3, 2006 8:40 PM

Thanks Piti!! Very cool, I am goingto have to look up a few of those.. esp the little tulips! how sweet!