How long 'til daffodils?

Getting better mid-week here.

Hi! I was driving down Route 6a today, mid-Cape Cod where I live, and I saw lawns bursting with crocuses (croci?)--mostly in front of really old houses. I want some in my lawn! Will it take years and years? Do they naturalize really easily?

Spread them and plant them in November and you'll have the same look next April. Don't mow until the foliage dies back by itself.

Here in Saugus by the coast my daffs are about 8" high and lots of buds. i have had croci blooming for about three weeks. They came out when it was warmer but this weird cold spell we have been having has prolonged their blooming season. I have 23 year old daff clumps along my driveway bed that started out as a bag of 50 from Kmart. I put them in when I moved here. I have some pink and white Salomes and the little three flowered yellow kind and bunches of tete a tetes that I keep buying each spring from Homey d's for my window boxes and the half baskets I have hanging on my fence. I have two new 8 packs out there now waiting for a little more warmth. I have a beautiful white called 'capistrano' that i got from a daffodil guy from western mass at his booth at a plant sale. I have some Brent and Becky ones out in my new stone beds planted two years ago. I have 'jetfire' and lots of nameless ones from the big bags. I like doubles and bicolors too. I try to put in at least a dozen every year. what about grape hyacinth? anybody got any coming up yet?
I put this one in last fall and I can't wait to see what will come of them. This is the picture from the bag. I love it when people are amazed by a bouquet of my daffs and they don't know what half of them are!

This message was edited Apr 10, 2007 10:45 PM

This message was edited Apr 10, 2007 10:46 PM

my crocus are finally opened up... they have been popped up out of the ground now for over a week.. but it's been so cold they haven't opened until yesterday... i noticed a bunch of my dafs, tulips and allium popping up now

CapeCodGardener
Hi! I was driving down Route 6a today, mid-Cape Cod where I live, and I saw lawns bursting with crocuses (croci?)--mostly in front of really old houses. I want some in my lawn! Will it take years and years? Do they naturalize really easily?

I just planted about 100 bulbs in my lawn last year.... will have to wait and see how long it takes to fill up

:)

The squirrels help naturalize them here. They move them all over the place and then forget where they put them.
Martha

hmmmm......I'm still waiting.....Many of the daffs are just emerging. The croci have been up for a couple of weeks - but no blooms yet. I have tulips emerging and scilla blooming.

Our crocuses are on the way out now but the grape hyacinth have begun while the Tete a tete daffodils are in wonderful bloom. The daffodils normally in bloom, at this time, are in a hold pattern. The only other ones that are in bloom are in brick planter boxes attached to the house.

Onewish: From what I recall, it takes more like 500 to 1000 bulbs to give that naturalized look. I, too, tried with 100 crocuses and the darker ones don't show up as well as the lighter ones do.

I find the little bulbs great for my rocky hillside. I think they are out earlier than others because the stones soak up the heat from the sun and warm the beds. They further they are away from the stones the slower they are to come out. But I have to have daffs soon!!
Martha

One, lone Rip van Winkle daffodil bloomed yesterday along my front walk - there are buds but no toher volunteers.

The only ones who got to see our daffodils today were the guys from the irrigation system who just finished turning on our system for the year. Normally they dress in shorts for the job but today it was more like wetsuits!

Just saw the report from The Weather Channel - my goodness we are in for a wild week! Some areas on the east coast will see near-hurricane strength winds on Sunday. A foot of snow is predicted for Denver - and more snow for parts of the midwest and northeast. Is someone playing a joke on me? It is April, right? I have eight roses coming in three weeks and nothing has been done in the garden.

The roses can stay soaking for a few days and the soil is warm enough to work so if you have any chance to nourish the soil, where the roses will go, do it so you'll be ready to plant. I did it in January but when the roses arrived in March the earth was frozen.

Had my first daff bloom yesterday. Didn't get a good photo of it.

I onlyhve my homey D's daffs in bloom right now. but they are going in a window box this weekend. They will be the first thing I see when I go out my kitchen door every day.
can't wait!
Martha

When did Martha become a rapper?

Dave, haven't you figured out yet that Martha can do anything and is full of surprises?

My daffs are tall and budded. but I don't think they'll open until it warms up some. they're probably as annoyed with the weather as I am.

looks like the storm headed for the east coast is going to slide by us. sorry for you guys, but I'm glad we're not getting hit again. just some scattered flurries, maybe.

Well there was a rumor here they might cancel the Boston Marathon on Monday due to bad weather. I am not sure if that means snow or a noreaster. They would certainly run in the latter, though the times might be slower because they run into a headwind. this means that it is still cold here and my daffs are delayed. A bad thing because I have waited so long for them, but a good thing because I will have them a little longer when they do come out. I think I lost my three little azalea bushes though. too windy.
lol dave.
Martha

Martha - I'm dealing in delayed gratification, too, while waiting for the daffodils to bloom.

I have one small consolation. I have a corneliancherry, Cornus mas, which is a dogwood relative. It has little flower clumps that are just the reproductive flower parts. no showy bracts like the more commonly known dogwood. however, these flowers are bright, daffodil yellow. and the shrub {it's about 8 ft tall} has looked like a bright yellow torch. It is hardy as all get out and comes out very early, is as easy to force as forsythia and keeps my spirits up when nothing much else is blooming. I can see it from my window now.
Martha

Nothing is rearing its lovely head on my property--as yet--though leaves of both daffs and tulips are about 5-7 in high, so I have hopes that the 100 + bulbs I planted in the ground last October will arise soon! What IS sad is that the bulbs (hyacinths and tulips) that I planted in 20-inch containers last Fall, came up early in the warm temps of Jan-Feb--and now the shoots seem to have rotted. At least, the leaves turned yellow and eventually came completely out of the soil with a gentle tug. Guess I can't expect THOSE to bloom! And some leaves that still seem more or less still rooted are sort of burned-looking. Memo to self: plants in containers are much more vulnerable to temp extremes. Sigh. I have so much to learn about NE winters and gardening.

Come to think of it, the bulbs that I planted in the ground are more-or-less in front of rock walls. Light-bulb going off in brain! The stones are warming the soil! Ah-ha!

CapeCod - don't completely count the potted bulbs out yet. I have the same rotting leaves on some of my daffs in the ground that sprouted early this year - but I dug down and found out that at least the one I looked at has another set of leaves coming up. They looked kind of weak - but they were there. Even if they don't bloom this year - they should nourish the bulb.

My poppies are coming up all over! Waaaaay too many of them. Anyone want baby poppies? I think that they will be red or dark orange - unless they are from the mystery poppies I rescued from the deconstruction site last summer . . . then they are "mystery" color.

As I recall they don't transplant well. It will make for a bountiful look - take photos for us, please!!

pirl - these are ALL transplanted. I dug up the flower beds for the new walk last summer and had to take out all my bulbs and poppies. Looks like anywhere a bit of the poppy rott/bulb thing landed - it sprouted. It's worth a shot anyway as they are about the size of a fist right now if anyone is game. I'm afraid they will eventually crowd out the bulbs if I let them go native. I still need one more thing to plant in those beds to fill in when the poppies die down. Suggestions? (The flowers have to be a red, yellow, orange or gold to fit in my theme.)

Thank you, YankeeCat, for your reassuring words about my "rotted leaves." I will not write the bulbs off yet.
I'm SO not a landscape gardener, but would daylilies be appropriate in your new beds?

They come up too early and also spread like crazy here. I always put in Bright Lights Swiss Chard for the fall and early winter and usually an annual. I need a frothy, small rooted late blooming perennial. I was thinking about putting in fancy colored kale this fall that should hold almost all winter.

What kind of poppies are they?

I will find the pictures from last year - now where did I bury them? *scratching head* But I can't promise they will be like my pictures because I dug up poppies last summer and transplanted them.

I was just curious if they're perennial poppies or annuals. When I grew the annuals they spread seed far and wide.

Oh - they are perennials. I know that they are orientals because my neighbor thought I should try making opium from them. (He's 90 - he is allowed.)

Funny! Oh, I'm glad they're not the annuals. Both are beautiful but it's so hard to get the annuals to stay where you want them. The Orientals are much better behaved.

I have chiondoxa (or are they ipheon?) starting to open in my lawn!

I think I have them too. I never remember the names of the minor bulbs.

These? I'm not sure of the name either.

Here's what I have in bloom now. Looks different. Someday I should learn this stuff! At least I know my boys.

Victor, yours looks like scilla, Pirl, I just confirmed today that mine (& yours) are chinondoxia.

Victor, scilla are wonderful - I am still waiting on the daffodils, but the scilla are blooming. Even better, I potted up almost 50 baby scilla, that I can plant elsewhere.

Thanks Dave. Can I make putty out of them??

GROAN!