Earlier this month I posted a photo showing Crocus chrysanthus ‘Prins Claus’ from the side. I love the beautiful purple outer petals (up close, the purple is so velvety you want to reach out and stroke it) and the creamy white interior. What truly amazes me is how such a tiny bulb – typically around 1.5 cm diameter – throws up, every spring, three or four or five flowers. The larger Crocus (below) do this as well, but not, in my experience, with quite such abandon.
After last weekend’s ice pellets and freezing rain came a full day of heavy rain – which stayed on top of the ice and caused quite a bit of flooding in the yard. Flooding isn’t unusual in the spring here, we have pretty bad overall drainage on the property despite a contractor’s promise several years ago…
Here is my weekly selection for you, six things for this garden blogger’s meme started by The Propagator.
This is what the Island Bed looks like this morning – anything wet looking (including the grass I stood on to take the photo) was covered in water all week, finally receding a bit yesterday. The floods usually don’t bother me – I plan the gardens around it although this week’s water levels were higher than ever before, very close to water-logging bulbs and perennials. The water usually mainly covers much of the driveway and a lot of the grassy areas.
The small cones from a large white spruce (Picea glauca) started to fall last week; I need to rake this small patio frequently this time of year.
This lovely little Ice Plant (Delosperma) – was given to me in mid March and has been sitting in a sunny window. Here is its first bloom — I’m not sure if the flowers are always so small or if, when planted, they will somehow be larger…it’s pretty none the less, supposed to be a hardy, drought tolerant perennial. Needs good drainage so I’ll have to plant it well away from flood prone areas!
The first real leaves on the Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) seedlings have emerged!
With today’s warm sun these tiny Tete a Tete daffodils will open fully.
Finally – two Chianodoxa’s – each a slightly different shade of blue. I planted hundreds last fall and in a few years they will have naturalized to form thick carpets of blue each April.
Fritillaria imperialis rising regally from the ground.
Although I, like almost everyone else in Southern Ontario, have been moaning about how cold it’s been in April, there are ample signs that spring is progressing and the garden is awakening as it should. Yes, it’s been wet, but we all know what April showers bring, right? And there’s been snow and freezing rain, but with a normal last frost date in mid May, what else would you expect? Yes, temperatures on most days have not reached the ‘normal’ highs but the flip side of that is cooler weather means spring bulbs last longer. My Galanthus (Snowdrops), for example, have been blooming since the end of February and will likely last til the end of April. Remarkable!
Meanwhile, other spring bulbs, tubers, corms and perennials are waking up and starting to make an impression as the colours of the garden slowly morph from greys and browns to green and all other colours of the rainbow.
Tips to remember for the fall – layering and close planting.
When I plant bulbs I often ‘layer’ them to provide a longer bloom period – smaller Crocus and Chianodoxa, for example, bloom early and, in the planting hole, sit on top of larger bulbs like Narcissus, Allium and Fritillaria, which will bloom later. Or I’ll plant bulbs tight to the base of perennials so that the perennial foliage will grow and cover the dying leaves of the bulbs. This both lets the bulb gain strength for next years’ blooms and also helps nourish the soil.
Can you see the tips of Fritillaria persica starting to emerge through this drift of Crocus Prins Claus?
A tale of two Narcissus — this one a tiny Tete a Tete getting ready to display buttons of yellow above ground cover Sedum, which is just starting to shift from its winter red hues to summer green…
…and these much taller Narcissus ‘Ice Follies’ – which won’t bloom for another month or so – pushing through large orange Crocus. Last fall, I dug a wide hole, planted Narcissus and Crocus around the edges and t=in the middle transplanted a mature clump of Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower). This year, I’ll get many month of blooms from the same spot in the garden.
I love the contrast between the bright green of newly emerging Iris leaves and the red leaves of fleshy Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum) leaves.
There’s dozens of little blue Chianodoxa bulbs at the base of these Allium ‘Purple Sensation.’ The Chianodoxa will start to bloom in a few days (weather permitting) and stay in bloom until the Allium are set to start. I’m thinking the rabbit damage to some of the Allium wasn’t life threatening and the flowers themselves survived!
Shileau inspecting two new spruce trees. A good friend buys them every fall, keeping them in their pots to decorate her city patio; then I plant them in the yard in early spring. They generally (but not always) survive, although I have to do a lot of root pruning and root untangling after removing them from their 10 or 15 gallon plastic containers.
This past week brought blustery cold winds to the County and all Southern Ontario – lots of downed trees, fallen branches, rain, snow flurries and power outages. We were fortunate to escape wind damage or flooding even with the sump pump out of action for a few hours at the height of Wednesday night’s storm. That said, bulbs continued to push up outside, and seeds started to sprout inside. Here are my Six on Saturday, with a tip of my Tilly to The Propagator for this theme.
These short red early kaufmanniana Tulips have a lovely mottled leaf. This is their third spring in my heavy clay soil – I’m hoping they’ll continue to bloom for a few more years.
Hard to imagine but within a month this little rosette of leaves will have become a three foot Allium Globemaster. First time growing them so I’m looking forward to a nice show.
I’ve had Allium Purple Sensation for many, many years. These are new bulbs I planted last fall but I also collected seeds and have started to propagate larger numbers (I hope!).
Grape tomato seedlings started two weeks ago – I’m experimenting using different growing containers.
I was surprised to notice that the tomatoes started in yogurt containers are almost twice as large as the ones grown in more traditional peat pots. Wow! Is it maybe because moisture levels are more easily managed? ie growing media in plastic doesn’t dry out as quickly as in the peat pot?
