Crocuses and snowdrops are blooming in my northern garden. In February! In any other year, it would be preposterous. Yes, it's been an unusually mild winter, but none of my other crocuses, including all of those on the Crocus Bank, have poked up even one pointy leaf. As you probably surmised from the title, these [...]
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Spring, Spring, Where Are You? Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2011
April 17, 2011 – Posted in: What's up/bloomingThis slow, cold, cloudy spring is sorely trying my patience. It's taking forever for anything to bloom. But then, looking over past GBBD posts, it's really not that far behind other springs. It's just that last year, spring came earlier than usual. Somehow that became the new normal, just like that. How soon we forget. [...]
First blooms of the year: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2011
March 16, 2011 – Posted in: What's up/bloomingAbove is the view from my bathroom window, only reversed, as I took this picture outside and the window is out of sight at the back of the image. Even though it is the north side of the house, water from below thaws the soil and gives these plants an early start. It took me [...]
Crocuses: A Book Review
January 16, 2011 – Posted in: Book reviewsLate last week I received a review copy of Crocuses: A Complete Guide to the Genus by Janis Ruksans. This is the kind of gardening book that makes my garden-geeky heart beat faster. It focuses on one genus, and endeavors to tell you everything you could possibly want to know: growing in an open garden, [...]
Snowdrops, Winter Aconites, Crocus: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2010
March 15, 2010 – Posted in: Snowdrops, What's up/bloomingAnother March, another mud season in full swing. The snowdrops that had barely opened five days ago are now in full flower: The snowdrops that were buried under snow on March 7th are now in full bud, as you can see on the left. This is the path in the Secret Garden that I brag [...]
Choose locations to plant fall bulbs now
March 10, 2010 – Posted in: Garden chores, Plant info, Snowdrops, What's up/bloomingIn January, the snowdrops in the Secret Garden looked like this: This Sunday just passed--March 7th--those same snowdrops looked like this: Such are the vagaries of an upstate New York winter. Since then, the temperatures have been mild and the sunshine brilliant, and the snow is receding. This, my fellow cold climate gardeners, is the [...]
How to Plant a Lot of Crocuses
October 22, 2009 – Posted in: How-toFor years now, we've enjoyed the crocus display along one side of our driveway. This spring I decided it should be even bigger, and over the last two days I planted a hundred more, bringing the total to over nine hundred. The "soil" is compacted clay, making the corms somewhat difficult to plant, but, happily, [...]
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day April 2009
April 15, 2009 – Posted in: What's up/bloomingLooking over last year's April Bloom Day post, I see the same things blooming at pretty much the same time. The smaller-and-earlier species crocus are on the wane, but the later-and-larger Dutch crocus are definitely making a color statement. I'm thinking about getting more of these and extending the crocus bank further towards the road [...]
Bees return to the Crocus Bank
April 1, 2009 – Posted in: What's up/bloomingAbout fifteen years ago I planted a bit more than 800 bulbs into the north-facing bank of our driveway. Um, no, not all in one day. Not all in the same year, actually. You can read more about it here. It's a madness I've never regretted, because the vision in my head that spurred me [...]
Mud Season Color: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2009
March 15, 2009 – Posted in: Mud Season, What's up/bloomingAs soon as the snow melts, before anything even blooms, there is color.If you are aware that some plants can grow underneath the snow, this is not a complete surprise, though I always marvel when it is an attractive garden plant that pulls this trick, and not just the tap-rooted and creeping weeds.The first flowers [...]
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