Spring 2009 - What's Blooming in Your Garden?

You'd asked if I had some liliums coming up from las year - I think I do!

I can't wait for our season to start so that I can reciprocate. My first bulbs are usually iris reticulata, chionodoxa in white and the species tulip turkestanica. Looking forward to it!

Donna

Lilies so early! How cool!

Donna

Some tulips just starting to open and color up

I have only tried Chionodoxa once but I got them a few years back from a less-than-reputable source and I remember the bulbs seemed really dried up when I planted - at any rate they never bloomed. I have heard they're easy?

This is what is blooming in my flower beds now. 6" of that white stuff on Thurs. of last week.

Maxine

Well Maxine I think your picture is beautiful even though you are probably tired of the snow! LOL

Steve, enjoying the show while the sleet and snow flies outside here! I know 'Ice Follies ' is very common, but it still one of my favorites each spring.

I don't have 'Sound', but could your "squirrel one" be 'Slim Whitman'? I am not on my computer with my photo's so that is maybe a bad guess. I do have 'M.Hine' and it did have an orange edge. Patti

No doubt Maxine is tired of the snow, she must have sent this down to my garden this morning. lol. This are all melted once the sun rose, but my birds they came to the feeder in drow hoping to store up energy for the 'cold front'. lol.

Patti,

I suppose they sent me the wrong thing - usually OHG is pretty accurate with its pictures and descriptions so glad to hear it is not M. Hine. I keep a list of the bulbs I plant in a spreadsheet (what a garden geek, LOL) and was trying to figure it out by process of elimination. I never ordered "Slim Whitman" but it is always a possibility.

Sorry you guys still have so much snow. Event eh southeast got snow last night but we escaped it (glad to hear you didn't get pounded with it, Kim). We got down to about 27 last night so I was more worried about the low temps damaging all of the buds but everything seems to have come through unscathed.

Steve,

I grow chionodoxa in pink (Pink Giant), which I put with my pink and white daffs - except that I miscalculated and they beat the tulips here. I grow the blue called lucilae with madonna lilies in my peony bed, and I grow the white ones under a shamrock linden. I just shoved them in the ground with some compost. The white ones really sparkle.

Donna

Here in the Northeast, I finally have crocus blooms to look at nestled in with the johnny jump-ups. A sure sign of you know what.

I'm with you Maxine. We will still have snow through March at least, maybe into April. But I come here each year to smell Steves hyacinths, daffs and tulips. I believe i really can.

Hi Steve, I have a connection flight to Ft. Worth/Dallas tomorrow. Maybe I can stop by and visit your garden. Am I invited?

Those are very pretty, Donna. I will have to try them in my beds next fall :-)

Polly, maxine, you will be out of the snow before you know it. I love it when the danger of freezes passes, but then we have to worry about tornadoes and hail here in my area. It is rarely "just right", LOL

Howdy Kim - where are you off to? Sure c'mon over and visit :-) I need to weed first, though LOL

Oh, lucky Kim! Seeing Steve's gardens.

We got a couple of inches of snow overnight, but it's the fluffy, dry, picturesque stuff that's easy to shovel.

Steve, I'll also send pics of the blue and pink chionos when they bloom.

Donna

Steve, I think yours may be Marjorie Hine after all. That orange edge is missing, maybe it will color up as it blooms. But after looking at my other possible thought which was 'Slim Whitman' I think it OHG most likely sent you the correct one as 'Slim' doesn't seem right either. My picture shows Slim's yellow to be more orangish and to have less of a ruffle.

BUT as 'Sound' is similar, and blooms earlier than 'Marj Hine', you may find that this is 'Sound' and 'Marjorie Hine' is yet to strut her stuff. I love the mystery.

But no mystery about growing Chionodoxa up here. I grow 'Giant Blue' and am trying a few others this spring. 'Pink Giant' and 'violet beauty' as well as a Chionodoxa sardensis which is called Lesser-Glory-of Snow. But the one called 'Blue Giant' or 'Giant Blue' is a lovely thing dancing among the last of the snowdrops then greeting the crocus and early daffs. Maybe they need more cold. They are getting that today in spades up here! Ugly day.

Daffseek is such a great tool. Keep the pictures coming. Patti

http://daffseek.org/query/query-detail.php?value1=Slim%20Whitman&lastpage=1&which=hist1
http://daffseek.org/query/query-detail.php?value1=Sound&lastpage=1&which=hist1

Patti...Nice photo. Knew I should have put in some 'Giant Blue'. Did plant 'Pink Giant', "Alba" and Chionodoxa forbesii. Who carries "violet beauty"?

Btw...remember those crocus in bloom the other day?

They are indisposed tonight. Tucked under up-side down earthboxes. Forecast is for day temperatures to rise above freezing Thursday so I'll dig them out then.

What they looked like Feb 26th:

Looking forward to seeing your other varieties, Donna! :-) BTW how did your Burma Ruby (I think that was it?) peony survive your cold blast after the pips emerged?

Patti, thanks for the insight. I should have made markers for the OHG stuff as they don't include those in the bags they send, and then it would have not been a mystery. But your're right, the mystery of finsing out what everything is is half the fun! I will watch the blooms and will keep note about what you've said about Marjorie Hine being later.

I will try the Chionodoxa again. I am able to get just about all of the others I try to come back so that one should not be a problem unless as you suggest it has some special cold requirement. What are those cute little yellow things you have coming up, Patti?

Interesting how eve though we're all in different climactic areas we all have some overlap - I have some purple croci(?) coming up still and other Vernus varieties. The species crocuses bloomed a week or two ago.

David_Paul, Now with all the snow, I am not so jealous of your early crocus! Hope they are OK. Violet beauty came from Brent and Becky in their late Nov sale 20 for 4.50

Steve, those are Narcissus 'Rip van Winkle' which is a bit floppy, but I think it is a nice unusual form. The picture is not from this year, nothing yet, sadly. Patti

Steve,

Burma Ruby, Coral Charm, White Cap, Lois, and Moonstone all poked their little heads out (no leaves, thank heaven!) and then of course the temps fell to about 7 degrees. So I gave them all a little compost along their sides to protect them, although I don't think they needed it. All of them just stopped coming up - smart little guys! We are getting close to 50 midweek (as I sit here it is 13 degrees) so I'm trying to figure out exactly what to do. Emergence for us is usually not until April, so I may just leave them as they are. I was careful not to bury them - I can still see their little red tips.

I'll keep you posted.

Donna

Aaahhh....Steve's bulbs, the DG harbingers of spring! Yes, I always look forward to this confirmation that spring really is on the way, and my own bulbs are just a few short weeks from bringing color to the dull.

Quail is one of my favorites too! LOVE the fragrance, and for me they're one of the latest to bloom. Very surprising to see them blooming even that far south. Steve, do try Chionodoxa again- that blue is so lovely with any other spring bulb, here they multiply by seedlings as well as offsets. The seedlings bloom the 2nd year. With the success of your other bulbs, I think they should be happy there. I have the pink ones too, also very pretty, but the blues seem to be showier. Donna, love those white ones! They do sparkle!

Patti, that bed is lovely, and I can't wait to see this years pics of it! I usually see double the number of blooms the 2nd year for tulips and crocus- won't that be spectacular!

Happy to report I do have some Daffodils blooming! They even opened before the end of February! They're Rijnveld's Early Sensation, and are truly the earliest I've seen. This is the first time I remember having Daffs in bloom before seeing any blooming around the area (it always kinda ticks me off that other people's daffs closeby are blooming before mine, LOL). I will be adding lots of those to this yard! Never would have imagined them blooming with the snow crocus, even before the large flowered crocus. Steve, have you ever tried them? I don't know if they perform well in the south. Also have some Winter aconites and snow crocus in bloom :-)

Thanks gemini_sage, That bed is covered with snow today. The snowdrops look pretty poking out of it. Glad that you have Rijnveld's Early Sensation out. For me nothing is early enough. But actually we have a late spring. My first to bloom is, if I am lucky, the first week in April, but most likey they start in the second week. 'Jack Snipe' 'Rijnveld's E.S.' and 'Rip Van W.' plus some old no names appear first. Then there was a new one last year called 'Sagitta' which I loved and it bloomed then too. It is a pale yellow and peachy thing, but looked lovely with my favorite blue Hyacinthus orientalis var. albulus. I hope it was not a first year fluke. Can't wait to see your pictures too. Patti

Beautiful pictures all. Iris reticulata are blooming !!yeah!

Anemone

More iris reticulata

BeaHive. Those are great photos. I have been adding Reticulated iris to my garden. Can't get enough of them. Do you know which one yours is? Very nice. Patti

BeaHive,

How pretty! Which iris reticulata are those? I have Harmony and JS Dilt, and I would love to get some of those!

Donna

Greetings from the beautiful Albuquerque NM, yes it's beautiful here. I'll try to take some pix and post them uppon my returning home in a couple of days. Those pictures of springs from various part of the States are wonderful. Hmmm, my reticulata Iris hasn't made its reappearance in the garden yet at home (in Alabama) I was wondering if they're ok this year. Those blue-bells like blooms. Are they the same as wild hiacynch?

Yes, I'd like to know the iris reticulata too. My best bloomer of the little guys is histrioides George. That bright blue is really pretty, though, and George might like some company.

I'm just going to take a guess at yours, and say it might be Harmony?

Love that true blue! Looks somewhat like Cantab that I planted in '07.

I believe the Iris is called Pixie from John Scheepers in CT.
They are very stunning.

Have a few Katharine Hodgkin popping up also.

My guess was wrong.


Thanks, Beehive, I'll look for that one. Very pretty.

Beautiful pictures, Beahive - especially love the color of your "Katharine Hodgkin" - what an incredible blue!

WOWSER the spring bulbous migration is spreading fast ^_^ We have had rain. I'm looking for signs of crocii. Beahive the Iris are taking my breath away. ooooo SteveFtWorth 'Golden Echo' ooooooo. DP you're cracking me up. I have chinadoxa... well I WILL have chinadoxa later.... um er WAY later (pink and blue) .... MOST importantly the lups have started their spring migration! I luv when a plan comes together. I expect some luvly anemone blanda this year and primula. I think this will be a good year for primula in the Rockies.

Steve I am not sure which one was posted, but Reticulated Iris Kathryn Hodgkin is not really blue, but kind of a strange greenish, grayish, bluish jewel with some yellow and dark spots. I have grown it for fro a few years. This was taken in 2006. But it has come back each year and I have added more. Some people hate it, not me. I had one friend that thought it looked like a snake. Patti

Found a few daffodils today. I like the little skirt on this one.

Same one different pose

I found this crocus ..but do not remember planting it.