Last post for this blog

I've had to move from my country home in Missouri to a city home in Illinois.  I'll have some gardening ability here, but it will mostly be landscape beds, so I don't plan to blog about it.

I tried to plant carrot, chive, and lettuce seed in pots here, but the squirrels immediately dug up the carrot pots and waited for the lettuce to germinate before digging in those and the chive pots.  I did put some dill and cilantro in a flower bed, and so far, they've not bothered those areas.

I managed to dig up and transplant a number of flowering plants which, thankfully, seem to be thriving, except for the coral bells and coneflowers, which the rabbits are eating.  I've ordered some repellant spray.  

I planted five new varieties of tulips last fall before I knew I would have to leave, and it being the wrong time to transplant tulips, I don't know if the ones I dug and brought with me will survive.  It was worth a try, though, as I'll never see them in Missouri again anyway.  (In fact, I postponed my move until after the tulips bloomed so I could see them at least once.)

This last post, then, will be essentially a photo dump of what I took and what I left behind.  I thought I'd be able to load plants onto the truck with my belongings, so I dug up lots before I found out that wasn't going to be possible, as the truck would be in transit for a week.

'Sylvestris' (species)

'Slava' 

'Quebec'

'Quebec'

So, instead of taking personal belongings in my car, I loaded it down with plants.

One must decide what's important!

Prior to the digging and moving, early spring plants in the tulip and daffodil bed were in full glory. 

First to blossom is always the crocus.

'Ruby Giant'

Following soon are the mountain lilies (Ixiolorion).

And the daffodils.

'Orangery'

'Pink Charm'

'Cassata' (and creeping phlox)

Pasque flower and rock cress are among the earliest bloomers.

Then come the tulips.

'Shogun', a species variety

Not all tulips are perennial.  In fact, most aren't. The lily flowering and species tulips are, as well as the Darwin hybrids.   Fortunately, one of my favorites, 'Slawa', is a lily flowering type.  

'Slawa'

The new ones for me this year were all lily flowering types, because I finally learned what would last best.  And then couldn't stay to enjoy them in subsequent years.

'Request'

'Quebec'

'Sonnet'

'Quebec' and 'Thalia' daffodils

'Mariette' (lily flowering) and 'Peppermint Stick' (species)

'Ballade'

'Ballade'

I did get some beautiful bouquets before I left.

I shall miss my garden.

If you're gardening, keep at it, and enjoy every minute.

 

Spring has finally arrived

 

In my last post, I was crowing about the Darwin tulips that recovered after the big freeze.  Sadly, they were beaten nearly to death a few days later by a hail storm.

That's a quarter on the ground to show the size of the hailstones.  The force with which they came down is evidenced in this picture of bare garden ground...

Luckily, due to the delayed warm weather, I hadn't gotten any tender seedlings in the ground.  Until today, they were all either in the cellar in my growth chamber:

Or outdoors in my makeshift cold frame which I placed a hard cover over during the hail storm...

A few days ago I planted a long row of peas, and today I planted some seedling flowers, as well as seedling kohlrabi and wasabi.

The straw paths are not nearly as pretty as mulch paths, but they also don't wash away during hard rains or dribble out into the planting areas like the mulch does.  And if it does get into the planting areas, it only serves to add organic matter that doesn't interfere with planting.

Little by little I've been hoeing out weeds and turning the soil, which is rich and lovely after 10 years of gardening.

My son and daughter-in-law gave me this great gift for Christmas, and today was the first day I used it.  I had looked at these before and thought it might be a pain to move them around, so I've always just used knee pads.  This is not at all a pain to move around, and it makes getting up off my knees a snap by offering leverage.  Also, knee pads always slip around and soon start irritating from crunching the straps in the folds of the backs of my knees.  The ends of this gadget fold down to make it easy to store, and it can turn over and be a bench, as well.  It's going on my favorite tools page (link in the menu at the top).

But, what's in bloom?  Spring bulbs, creeping phlox, and these lovely pasque flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris).

'Purple Dream' tulip

'Arkle' yellow daffodil, 'Purple Dream' tulip and orange 'Shogun' tulips

White 'Mount Hood' and pink(ish)/white 'Pink Charm' daffodils

'Pink Charm'  (They start out dark orange red and fade to pink.)

'Pink Charm', yellow 'Arkle', and purple scilla (Chionodoxa luciliae)

'Cassata'

'Altruist'

clockwise from top left:

'Mount Hood', 'Cassata', 'Orangery', 'Pink Charm'

After the big freeze

We're now into a string of rainy days, and the ground is too wet to plant.  But, I'm happy I didn't lose anything during last week's string of well-below freezing temperatures.  I managed to get most everything covered with either garden fleece sheeting or last fall's bald cypress needles (not much difference in performance).  I failed to get the Darwin hybrid tulips covered, and when I saw them drooping and water-soaked, I assumed they'd frozen.  When you see leaves that look water-soaked (or greasy) and dark, it generally means the cells have frozen and burst, and while the plant may survive, those leaves don't recover from that state.

So imagine my surprise and joy when I saw them today:

They look almost as good as they did before the freezing began.  Even the iris beside them showed some freeze damage, which is a good indication of just how cold it was.  The iris aren't usually affected by harsh winter weather.

The crocus that were in full flower had a bit of a rough time, but they survived, with new buds opening to somewhat hide the blooms that were freeze damaged.  I had a light covering of bald cypress needles over them to offer some protection.  They might have fared better with fleece covering, but I'd already enjoyed several days of their beauty before the freeze, and I didn't have enough fleece for everything.

'Ruby Giant'

The plants fully under fleece came out beautifully.  

Oriental poppy

Tucked in under an oriental poppy, toadflax looks so sweet.  The flower stalks will get tall enough to reach over the poppies if they get enough sun, and don't get shaded out by the faster growing poppies.  Their placement was not intentional.  When I planted the poppies, I thought the toadflax had died.  Surprise!

The rhubarb looked a bit pale because they'd been under fleece for several days even before the freeze.  The large leaves don't do well at all when the temperatures dip, so I'm always curious as to why they come up so early.  They'll look nice and lush as soon as they can get enough sunlight.

Scilla (Chionodoxa forbesii) - aka Glory of the Snow - are popping out and are a little ahead of the hyacinths for blooming.

Chionodoxa forbesii

And the pasque flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris) are right there with them.

I had to bring in the seedlings from my cold frame for a couple of nights, but they're back out now, and today it's cloudy, so I've taken off the fleece cover that protects tender seedlings from too much sun.  

Over half are annual poppies.  Everything I read says not to start poppies indoors because they don't transplant well.  I've never had any trouble with that, and in fact, I've never had good results planting the seeds directly outdoors.  It's a chore transplanting so many, but it's so satisfying when there's lots of them.

The rose cutting from my 'South Africa' bush actually produced a bloom.  So cool.  (At least I have it labeled as 'South Africa', but it does look a lot like 'Razzle Dazzle'.  I'm going to assume I labeled it correctly - with no reason whatsoever to assume that and plenty of past experience to think otherwise - and assume it's as orange in color as it is because it hasn't been out in the sun.  The blossoms on the parent bush are a deep, dark gold.

I got some potatoes in the ground yesterday morning before the rain started.  This year I didn't purchase any red potatoes.  I got 'All Blue' - a purple variety - just to see what it was like, and 'Yukon Gold', which has become my favorite.  They produce well and cook up so creamy and delicious.

A little honey bee scout was out this morning.  I hope he decides this is a good place to support a hive.

Fingers crossed that spring has finally arrived.