Spring Marches on Quickly

Since the challenge of keeping something in bloom once the Winter Aconite started, there has been little challenge.  It has been such a warm gentle spring that things are just jumping up and into full bloom, sometimes faster than I can keep up with them.  Was away for a week last week, and the change in the yard was unbelievable.  The crocuses have bloomed and are done.  Daffodils are fully out now, some even past prime.  Tulips, Hyacinth, Squills, Grape hyacinth, all emerging. 

The Bloodroot came up, bloomed, and is done, pretty much all while I was in the hospital.  There is a single Trilium coming up next to the clump.  And Forget-me-nots are blooming there too, though I never planted them.  The Marsh Marigold has a single blossum, at least it comes up each year.  Forsythia is pretty much done, though it may have lasted longer if we didn’t have the 5 inch snow a week and a half ago.  Many Pulmanaria around the yard are blooming, as are the Pasque flowers.  Prairie Smoke is beginning, and so are the Darwin Tulips in the first berm.  Snowdrops have come and gone.  Shooting star is just getting ready to burst forth.  And I think the Japanese Lilac will be next. 

We had fresh asparagus from the garden for dinner tonight.  Not a lot, but enough to whet our appetites for more.  Also fresh chives for the baked potato, and a little mint just to smell nice.  And the frogs are singing in either our pond or the neighbors each night.  Hope we get tadpoles again this year.

It is surely good to be home.  Going to be difficult to keep up with all the changes in the next few weeks, but most things can make it on their own.  I poke around doing tiny jobs, and ask Bill to do the big things.  He’s also painting the house this spring, so he’s busy for sure.  Not sure when the garden will be plowed, but we are really still at least a month out from major planting time.  I should be able to do more by then, I hope.  

Spring Stars

The yard is really blooming now.  I keep trying to stay ahead of things, but once the spring really takes hold things just move faster than I can keep up with.  In the last few days I pruned the apple trees of the last few sucker branches, bought two new Yews and planted them along the west side of the house, moved the Lilies of the Valley that the Yews displaced out to the creek, planted 12 potatoes in the vegetable garden, fertilized a bunch of stuff, put blood meal on the lilies that something is eating every night, moved a catnip clump from the garden up near the house so Kate and Cleo can find it, cut back a bit more dead foliage, purchased leeks and broccoli starter plants, moved a bunch of plants from the basement up to the deck and the greenhouse.  I'm sure there is more, but I can't remember.

 

The stars of this week are the Darwin Tulips, the Trout Lilies, the one single Primrose that has been blooming for at least 8 or 9 years under the Willow at the beginning of the walkway to the creek.  Also the Pasque flowers that have planted themselves in unexpected places, and the beautiful Daffodils.  I'm also pleased at the progress of the Ligularia that we moved from the area around the old pond out to the first berm.  It is coming up beautifully.  Very early spring seems to be a wonderful time to transplant perennials if you can be sure of where they are.              

Well that was then...

The rains have come.  It is green.  Still cold -- except for yesterday when it was 84 degrees for a couple of hours.  Back down to 50 today, and likely going to stay there for at least a couple of days.  But the yard is greening up beautifully, and it has been perfect weather to dig, divide and replant perennials.  This is the time to do that.  Rarely have the time, but this year I'm "retired" and have all the time in the world.  Or at least all the time I'm willing to spend.  Now that the pond has been re-established, and we've gotten the area around it back to growing condition, I have time to look other places.  I dug, divided, and moved the one remaining original clump of Karl Forster grass a couple of days ago.  One clump became five.  Could take over the yard, I suppose.  

 

The green has really taken hold now.  The lawns all around the neighborhood are solid and bright.  The only things flowering are the spring bulbs and wildflowers, and you have to look hard or have planted well to find things.  But Forsythia, Daffodils, Darwin tulips, the Bloodroot, some tree flowers have taken the place of the early pioneers as stars.  Emerging in the next week will likely be the Pasque flowers, other species tulips and probably some of the hybrids,  the Choke Cherry tree that planted itself, maybe the Serviceberry. 

I've put the Canna roots out into the greenhouse.  And also the German Ivy that has been in the kitchen windowsill all winter, but which has developed an un-curable infestation of some sort of bug.  I'm hoping the Ivy can survive the cold, but he bugs can't.  Hope I'm right.  (Though I did take a few cuttings just in case I'm wrong.)  The Elephant Ears are out there too.  A big cold blast could be a disaster, but I hope it won't happen. 

The fish are well and happy in the pond now, though two of them have not survived.  I bought new basket planters for the water lilies and will try to do some further division of them soon.  Our neighbor's pond was alive with Spring Peeper frogs last night, and I am really jealous.  We've never had frogs evident in our pond, and there were many singing last night next door.  I hope the enlargement and overwintering changes will help us there. 

Oh, and this was the week of the "Red Death" display on the roads of the flower bud scales of the maple trees.  Always a mark of Spring for me.

Driest April in Many Years

We have not had measurable precipitation yet this month. I hope that isn't a sign of a long dry summer. Things are not progressing very quickly, though there is some change from day to day.
I was able find the Bloodroot sprouts yesterday, and today there are twice as many. They really blend in to the dirt and litter around them until the leaves unfurl, which has not yet happened. Today I also saw some Trout Lilies beginning to poke out. Crocuses are almost done, but here and there late ones that I don't recall planting are bursting out. One Daffodil clump is beginning to bloom, and others will likely be out within the next week. The Snowdrops and Aconite are almost done also, but there are Darwin Tulips to take their places. I planted some Pansies the other day to be sure there are no gaps in the flowering.
This year instead of planting the Cannas inside I just took them out of their winter storage and added a little water. This week I planted some of the ones that looked the strongest out in the deck planter box. It would be too early to put them out if the leaves had emerged, but they are underground and can survive a light frost I hope. Lynn next door has done it that way for many years. I kept some inside just in case my method fails.

Blooming this week...

For the record, in bloom this week are: Bloodroot, Forsythia, daffodils and narcissus, squills, hyacinth, snow glories, birch trees, pansy, Pasque flowers, pulmanaria.

Cold Wet Week

Well, we got an inch of wet slush one day this week, and its raining yet again today. Temperatures really dropped, it doesn't even get into the 40's during the day and goes almost below freezing overnight. Supposed to get really cold the next few nights, and flooding is possible. Sigh - just when it seemed that spring was really here, we are put on hold again. It is discouraging. The snowpile near the front door is not yet gone. This picture was taken on Sunday, but its Thursday now and the pile is only a little bit smaller. On Tuesday, suddenly the daffodils under the pile were exposed and they had actually grown 4 or 5 inches above the ground right into the snow pile. So, as it receeds they will grow and maybe the bloom will be relatively on time. amazing.

There are some neat plants coming up, and some hopeful signs amid the gloom. The star of this week is my old friend the shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia). I planted it many years ago and didn't expect much. But it has become dependable and gets stronger every year. It's just starting now, and will be much more dramatic once the flowers emerge. But it is still worth a look.