Cease to be amazed by the tenacity of life.
I’ve just come in from the first run-through of the pond/garden…pulling the weeds the mild winter failed to zap, raking away the mulch from the base of plants, checking out the new buds…and a good half dozen…maybe twice that…plants that I wouldn’t have given you the proverbial plug nickle for last fall are showing, not just life, but some pretty lively life.
I ordered some end of season cheapies from Wayside gardens and, frankly, when they came, I pretty much decided never to order from them again. Most of the “plants” were, like, three microscopic roots peaking out from the dried-grass packing material. Well, I figured better in than out, so I planted them, leaving the packing material around them to mark their graves, and low and behold, I think most of them are going to at least make a stab at growing! They’re still woefully puny…but they deserve all the help I can give them!
I got some other “end of season deals” that required serious root detangling that I figured would do them in…a couple of really sad Clematises, and by golly, they’ve got sprouts coming up as well!
GO WORLD!
(happy dance) Yay Spring!
Perhaps planting them when they are dormant/going dormant helps them recover more quickly from being relocated? I’ve had good luck with perennials bought on sale at the end of summer – they’re pretty sorry looking when I put them in the ground, but they (mostly) come up again in the spring. Am now waiting not-so-patiently for the local Master Gardeners’ plant sale, and looking forward to finding an early sale on bulbs to plant in the fall.
Maybe your characters have spring fever too!
I think that’s very true. What kind of bothered me, more than the apparent lack of life when these came was that they were soooooo puny. I mean, literally, some of them were only a few roots in that packing material. I assumed they were the unaccounted for plants by process of elimination. Mostly, I was bummed out by a clematis that was only a little three inch twig with almost no roots. It’s showing a hint of life, but the sale wasn’t THAT good. I’m just dubious about buying anything more from them.
Has anyone else had any experience with Wayside Gardens? They’ve been around forever. They must know what they’re doing, and they have some great plants…but…sheesh!
Over here, we’ve had three days of sun and everything immediately feels like spring is coming.
The garden flowers are still mostly snowdrops, christmas rose (hellebore), pink cyclamen and the small bright yellow winter aconites, but the crocus are starting to show their colours, and the pale-blue puschkinia that look like tiny hyacinths just started flowering as well.
The later spring bulbs like several kinds of scilla’s, muscari (‘blue grapes’), miniature daffodils and miniature iris montana haven’t started yet, but will keep up the show until May, when the perennials take over.
When I bought the house I planted a lot of bulbs that stay in the ground and slowly multiply, and it gives me a garden with the feeling of spring flowers weeks before any of the neighbours’ gardens start to do a thing. Ever since, when someone I know moves, I try to bring a big bag of mixed small bulbs as a housewarming-present: it keeps on bringing happy spring feelings a few weeks early every year.
As these are mostly woodland bulbs, they stay low and do well at the feet of winter-bare bushes, and just disappear when the garden grows crowded later in spring and summer and the bushes become fully green again, so they don’t take up a lot of space in a small garden.
They should do well in your kind of climate, they need a real winter with at least a few frosts to germinate. I’d like to send you some for your garden as well, but I don’t think ít’s allowed to send plants across borders. Besides, planting time for spring-flowering bulbs is mostly in autumn, unless you get them as potplants in the house and plant them out after.
I don’t know what happened to all our crocusseseseses. I thought we’d have them all over the place. Maybe they got too deep in all the moving over dirt. But thanks for the list! I’d love to have a bunch of the early bulbs. We’ve got a lot of iris and tulips, but they’re later.
Thanks just for the thought. I’ll get some and think of you when they come up.
I have crocus and hellebores blooming here, with the daffies just showing a but of color. Grape Hyacinths are next. Sedum, columbine, mini beared iris et al are popping up leaves. I’m taking tomorrow off to clean up a bit. Wouldn’t you know it, we have a chance of snow showers over the weekend, but them’s the breaks.
Remember this about perennials, and being patient:
The first year they sleep,
the next year they creep,
the third year they leap!
So all their progress is likely focused on building roots for a while. For instant gratification tuck a few annuals in here and there. Hope you’ve started the seeds (actually, hope you can FIND them
)..
I was going to start seeds before we headed down to SanDiego, but let OSG talk me out of it. Next time…I’m starting them in February! We’ve got a little greenhouse thingy that should keep them from freezing, even when we have the below-freezing nights…isn’t that what greenhouses are for? It’s shelves with a plastic cover. Is that enough? (Shows you what I know…
) I got it up today and did a lot of cleanup yesterday and today…so of course, it’s back in the twenties at night!
Advice on starting seeds is appreciated! I’ve got my moonflowers and morning glories soaking. I’ll put them out in the little greenhouse tomorrow unless you guys advise otherwise. I could start them indoors, but we really don’t get the sunlight. Or should I just put them in trays and bring them in at night? Sheesh…could I be any dumber?
With some of the plants I’ve had experience with, the third year is get the machete ready, or the plant will try to eat the city! Fern leaf yarrows have tried to take over the flowerbed. They are not one of the more invasive plants, either. The yarrow by my front porch never died this winter. We had a good killing frost. Some temps close to 0 F. I’ll cut the top off and there will still be 6″ of healthy stalk.
My hycanths are sticking their buds up. I hope to move them after blooming. Not the best of time, but I want the front yard tilled and I’ll lose my attempt at a free standing flowerbed. I’m still finding holes from where the trees were cut down a year ago. Heavy branches landed on water logged soil.
The ice finally went out of the pool in last week end’s rain….now the daffodils up by the house are starting to bloom…..not too horrible a winter weather wise….some of the mums in pots that I never plan on saving have come through….big enough for cuttings in a few days. I am going to try starting morning glories and moonflowers this week end…should be ready to go out mid may…..we’ll see.
Have the mums you were propagating shown anymore signs of growth, Jane?
No signs of growth, but not dead, either. Probably they want more sunlight than they get in the kitchen. I’ll try putting them out in the “greenhouse.”
I’m delighted with how all our groundcovers wintered. They not only survived, they’ve grown! Ridiculously mild winter here…hence our terrible allergies.
I’m sure part of the Cherryh Crud is allergies. Bleh!
Now I’m missing my years in Seattle – all the tulips and muscari we planted wherever we lived…
Make sure you take pics for those of us who are Northwest-deprived!
Re: the mystery of “Where did all my tulips and other bulb plants go?”, blame the rodents. We found that squirrels and chipmunks in particular would dig up the bulbs and cart them off for feasting. Sometimes the plants would wind up in the darndest places and sprout; we had one tulip that showed up halfway down a shale embankment below our house!
If it’s still below freezing at night, I’d start the seeds in pots and leave them out during the day but bring them in at night. Some things, like the columbine, might be fine, but I’m not so sure about morning glories and things that are usually annuals. Might be OK in the green house, depending on the temperature of the soil it’s sitting on. If you threw a blanket over it at night it should do better….plastic doesn’t do a good job of retaining heat, unfortunately.
I keep waiting and waiting for you to post pics of that day we restarted the waterfall!
*sigh*
Hopes dashed yet again today!
Sheesh, OSG, I’m sorry. I had a bummer of an evening when I attacked those pix you sent me as well as those from the trip. I began adjusting everything because it was washed out, then remembered I hadn’t run a display correction in PSP, and so was darkening everything way too much, so I’ve got to go back in and redo several hours’ work.
I’ll get at it ASAP