Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Week


Carol of May Dreams Garden has hosted Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for about three years now on the 15th of every month.  March is always an exciting month for this, because we in the northern climates are likely to have our first outdoor blooms of the year.  We get really excited over this and consider it to be an "event."

I'm so excited about what's going on in my garden right now that I'm taking horticultural license and declaring this to be Garden Bloggers' Bloom Week in my garden. To limit it to one day would be a shame, because the planets have converged and the stars have twinkled at the moons and the cats have declared a moratorium on spraying the Dwarf Mugo Pine.

All kinds of everything is popping, with something new showing color every hour, it seems.  The temperatures have warmed to the 60s F the entire week and those spring bulbs love it.  The snow is finally gone, leaving some damage in its wake, but plants are amazing and resilient and even the damaged ones will bounce back in time.

What's blooming now?

Crocus vernus









This is the first year for Crocus chrysanthus 'Fuscotinctus.'  I want more!  They're smaller than my other crocus and so cute, with their striped coats.


Looks like a nice place to nap!


Lily likes them, too.


The pussy willows have been blooming for some time now.  I kept thinking I'd bring some in for forcing, back in January, and just never got around to it.

Salix discolor

The double snowdrops are always the first things to bloom here at Our Little Acre, although the witch hazel gives them a run for the money.

Galanthus nivalis 'Flore Pleno'

Last year, Kerri of Colors of the Garden, sent me quite a few of her single snowdrop bulbs and after being covered by three feet of snow, they've emerged and are blooming such sweet delicate blooms.
  
 
And I do mean sweet! As I was down on the ground taking these photos,  I caught of whiff of flowery spring.  I looked around to see if there were any other flowers blooming, but there wasn't.  I got my nose right down into the clump of the snowdrops, and sure enough, that's what was smelling so good.  I had no idea these were fragrant!


Other than the witch hazel, which has been blooming for several weeks now, these are the only blooms I've got.  Oh wait, when the snow melted, there were still some hardy cyclamen blooms on 'Something Magic,' but I have a feeling those were ones that got frozen in time.

But as I said, this is bloom week.  By Saturday, I have no doubt that I will have the following in bloom as well:
  • Iris reticulata 'Harmony'
  • Chionodoxa forbesii
  • Crocus sieberi subsp. sublimis 'Tricolor'
  • Puschkinia scilloides 'Alba'
  • Narcissus 'Rip van Winkle' 

I've got blooms inside, too. The amaryllis are between blooms, but I'll have one in bloom by the weekend, with others well on their way.  I've messed with their bloom times by getting them potted up so late that if I keep this up, I'll have summer-blooming amaryllis one of these days!

One of the Phalaeonopsis orchids is in the middle of rebloom.  I don't know the name of it, but the blooms are impressive.



The Clivia miniata is reblooming, too.  I kept it in a cool bedroom for about two months, until I saw the buds emerging.  Then I brought it downstairs to the family room and it's just beautiful. Between staring alternately at the orchid and the clivia, I'm getting very little work done!




The Streptocarpus I brought home from the Chicago Flower and Garden Show is still looking good and had several more flower buds forming.

Streptocarpus 'Savanna's Pink Satin'


The goldfish plant is still blooming...

Nematanthus gregarius


Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii) has bloomed sparsely throughout the winter:



The Oxalis that I've kept in the basement has bloomed a bit throughout the winter:



The aloes that I bought at the Fort Wayne Home and Garden Show are still blooming, too.


Everyone is a little wary of proclaiming spring to be here. We've been burned so many times before by late freezes, but every now and then we really do have an early spring.  I think maybe this might be one of those years.



12 comments:

Muhammad khabbab said...

Ah i love Crocus vernus. sadly crocus and snowdrops do not do well here in lahore pakistan and we hesitate growing them. Yes clivia does very well here and your blooms are just gorgeous.
I agree i should be a whole week as there is so much growing and blooming in garden.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Kylee, some plants must go in and out of "favor." I had a Christmas Cactus years ago. It had gotten WAY too tall to handle well, so I got rid of it. :-( I've looked for one for the past few years, and this year... there they were! So now I'm starting one from a 4" plant. :-)

Great post!

F Cameron said...

WOW! You do have a lot of early blooms and indoor beauties.

I have no blooms, but I'm hard at work in the garden. Everything is greening up and the weather has been splendid.

Jean Campbell said...

Clever idea, Bloom Week. The day after Bloom Day, I saw the first azalea blossoms. I forgot about the redbuds on Bloom Day. It takes about the whole weed for me to remember just what is blooming.

You have a lot to show, this Bloom Week. Come April, we may have to declare Bloom Month!

Darla said...

You do have quite an event going on around you. Very nice blooms.

Melanie J Watts said...

You garden looks really spring like Kylee with all those lovely bulbs in flower. My northern Garden is still under snow :)

Kara said...

Lovely photos! I always wanted to get up close and personal with early Spring flowers, but my hubby thinks I would look stupid out there laying on the ground taking photos. LOL

Lona said...

Hi Kylee. There is just something about those little blooms on the crown of thorns that I love. What a gorgeous Streptocarpus and those yellow crocus by the rock.So pretty and so good to see colors blooming. Lilly is quite enjoying the sunshine too.

Dirty Girl Gardening said...

i love the darker coloring on your crocus... very pretty.

MrBrownThumb said...

I think I'm going to have to add some snowdrops to my bulb collection. I never really paid them much attention until I heard Anna Pavord's talk and then the past couple of days they've been all over the garden blogs.

I guess I'm a lemming.

:0)

Lisa at Greenbow said...

These early spring blooms are heart warming. The greening of the garden is so promising. It just makes me want to get out there every minute I can.

Kari Lønning said...

I agree that at this time of the year one blooming update a month isn't enough. So far I've posted three times (on Posterous).

After a week of cold and rain, the sun lured me out to rake. The new warmth was all it took to pop open the crocus and send the hellebores into rapid growth. The next post will include hellebores.

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