I can just remember it's color was fantastic. ;) How much snow did you end up with?
My first sprout!...it seems too early?
Just enough to cover the ground, the rest was rain. How about you?
And the outside of the petal 'Awesome' red hue is what makes it just glow in the garden.
We just got a bunch of rain. It's supposed to get colder here as the week goes on and then warm up (a relative phrase) towards the end of the week.
I can't wait for peony, lily and hosta season to begin!!
I hope it will be here soon for all of our great northern sakes. Sheesh, I'm running out of winter spirit.
Yeah, you can only sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer so many times..... ;) LOL
Mag, we here in Illinois must have gotten 8 inches of rain, so I cringed when they were projected snow for Wisconsin. I'm glad you escaped!
Diann, just as everything starts to pop the cold shuts it down. I have buds on my lilacs and viburnum carlesi, but the species tulips seem timit and my peony pips are just that - pips!
It's such fun to read about Steve's experiments with the supposedly impossible. I've been having fun finding microclimates for supposedly zone 6 plants. I know I've found one when I have the same plant in different parts of the yard that have significant differences in height. Fooling mother nature is half the fun.
Donna
Yeah, you can only sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer so many times...
If you want Christmas music "not for Christmas time" (at least in my opinion), check out the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Been there done that. Saw TSO in concert in Moline a couple years ago. It was great. :)
Yes Donna, I agree :-) I think soil, moisture, and lots of other factors affect viability besides temperature extremes for a given area. Experimenting is half the fun - the other half is when you get rewarded for your efforts!
We just got rid of our snow in the iris bed yesterday, and look what was there. I'm pretty sure it's Triumphator. Hopefully the bulb won't be affected. They were under 3-4 foot of snow most of the year. At no time was the snow gone. I have no idea when they sprouted.
Polly, snow is an excellent insulator, so I'm pretty sure those bulbs are just fine. The sprouts don't look damaged, just needed some sun. Do you expect more snow?
Maybe some, but we will certainly have much more freezing. I expect we will have temps as low as 10. I just mulched them. I obviously forgot I planted them there, as I planted the foxgloves on top of them.
I've never had a lily come up this early.
Hi Neal, I have Lilies popping through every where along with Irises and alliums and a bunch of other things, and we have hit the low teen temps these last few days :( But we go thru this every year, but I think this year has been the worse. I am sooo ready for warm weather. These freezing temps doesn't seem to have hurt anything so far. I hope all my babies survive!
Will have a bunch of Lily bulbs coming next week, I am soo ready to start potting things up and playing in the gh :o)
Hi everyone, hi Donna, Steve. I can't believe I just found this thread yesterday, I spent the day read everyone's comments, and decided it's time to join in. Steve. Hostas do well here in our climate. Most of my lilies are up and running too. I agreed with the challenge of growing Lilacs in our zone. I was lucky to have one that performed marginally last year. Zone 7 is the cut-off for those cool perennial lovely. Though, some fine gardeners here occassionally have a mature specimen that rival all odds. I like experiment with plants that are said difficult to strive in our zone.
Donna, I've a several Viburnums in the garden and they're setting buds. We all are anticipating spring.
Hi all! Thanks again for the confirmations, Diann and Kim. I find I am getting more and more into Hostas and it is exciting to see them sprout and what they'll look like this year. Unfortunately, after two weeks of warm temperatures, has been consistently in 30's and 40's (low) for a week so everything has just kind of "stagnated". Supposed to warm up this Sunday. And, Kim, whatever we get, you generally get LOL. Still, four straight days of rain is welcome after a prolonged dry early spring. I am going to check back into the three or four Southern-friendly lilacs that are out there as I would love to have one.
Steve
Looks like lots of multiplication going on!!
^_^
That's one of the magic of liliums!!! Steve, they multiply very fast. I planted a couple bulbs of Stargazer last year. This year they already spread 2 folds!!!
Oh how I long to see such beautiful green sprouts in my gardens... But it will be a month or so before that will happen, I hope. :) Keep the pictures coming Steve!!
I know this is a dumb question, but I strongly suspect that I need to divide the Asiatic lilies - do I do this just as they are emerging from the ground?
Best to divide in the fall, dividing now you will be likely to break the shoots, which means no blooms, no leaves and a setback on growth. In the fall they are going to go dormant anyway.
Ditto, from my experience. Fall 2007 I dug up and devided, moved my lilies. Last year they performed beautifully. I'd wait until the fall too to do anything with mine. That said. I've some seedling that I planted in pot. I did devide them last week and moved them to individual pots. They were in fluffy potting mix, thus separating them was quite easy.
Here are some more lilies - you can see buds!
More
More Asiatics and LA's coming up amongst the other stuff
I've got them here too! yay!
I put these out a couple years ago before I really got into labeling & all, but they are a bright orange lily - oriental something & another kind.
As you can see one is damaged already by Mr. Squirrel. UGH!!! They mess up everything. Last year they dug & stole my tulips so I don't have those now.
Kristy
This message was edited Mar 21, 2009 4:41 PM
Steve, I assume that the multiple ones are asiatics?
Do your orientals and trumpets and asia/pets multiply like that?
Finished cleaning out the last lily bed of dead stalks, but didn't see a blooming thing coming up. Think we still have frost, although when I trimmed my raspberry bushes this morning they were starting to bud out.
Maxine
All these you see crowded among the tulips and peony are "Algarve," my favorite LA
HI Maxine!!! Wondered where you'd been!!!! ^_^
Yes, the LA's and Asiatics are the prolific multipliers - for me the OT's multiply but not nearly as fast. What about for you?
Some more Asiatics in the background getting pretty tall.
It is exciting Kristy isn't it??? :-) Looks like you have lots of multiplication going on too!
it is exciting! I can't wait to see them.
My question to you guys is... how do you tell which is which until they bloom?
Like one has just a couple leaves and the other is like a really firm clump of leaves. Does that make sense?
Hi Kristy, maybe Steve and others can help you there. Steve, now that's what I would call sight of spring!!! I love that setting.
Asiatics and LA's multiply the most for me. Don't think I have every had a trumpet or oriental multiply for me.
will be looking things over pretty close this spring to see if I am right.
Maxine
Maxine, Stargazer is Oriental isn't it? It multiplies the second year around. The first year they bloomed, the second year they make babies for me. :-)
Kristy,
The Asiatics tend to emerge kind of splayed out like a pineapple, while the orientals and trumpets come out more like a torpedo. Other than general difference like that, you can't tell colors/varieties within a specific family of lilies.
no, Steve that's what I was wondering. Thanks.
I have several of the pineapple like ones but more of the torpedo ones so just wanted to know what was what until they bloom. lol
Thanks again!
Wow Steve! Look at the size of your peonies!! How's Abalone Pearl?
Donna
Steve, your neighbors must absolutely love the color riot going on in you gardens!! Everything is so lush and full and beautiful!
Glad to help, Kristy.
Thanks Diann and Donna! I like the dense look of flowers but can get really junglely when everything gets going, LOL. Oh and then there's my continual practice of planting things on top ofeach other because I don't mark most things OR because I don't have good vision as to how it'll all look when everything is full-sized a few years down the road, heheheh.
Well Abalone Pearl is coming along - it bloomed around April 1 last year so it is right on time if not maybe slightly earlier this year.
My Festiva Maximas that I planted in 06 are finally really growing aggressively and one has 8 flower buds that I can see so far so I am having a good peony year I think. Here is Abalone Pearl from the top and it should be blooming within the week I would think.
I should add parenthetically, that there are a few asiatics that initially come up torpedo like, but as far as I know, they are only certain species and not the complex hybrids common today. This Lilium davidii var. wilmottiae (a species) pictured below is an example. Still, asiatics tend to have more narrow leaves than either trumpets or orientals. The tips on asiatic sprouts tend to be more loose(also dramatized in the photo), rather than the other two that end in a tight point. I don't have a pic of a "tight point" of a trumpet or oriental; perhaps some can help me out with that. When you see them side by side, it is very easy to tell apart.
Here you go Leftwood - these are either trumpets or possibly OT's; I think trumpets
