Monday, April 30, 2007
Helleborus niger- no longer as white as the driven snow
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Frostless Days and Frostless Nights*: Peony noses and shoots (2)
Paeonia mascula shoots from 3 days ago.
And a Tree Peony, Paeonia rockii. This too has not flowered here yet, but was only planted out into a bed a year and a half ago. I'm just happy they survive.
* with apologies to Freddy Fender, after the (HMCS) Restigouche refit theme song from 1976, "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". O Yeah, a real highlight year that was... fortunately Frostless doesn't equate to Wasted.
Labels:
Freddy Fender,
noses,
Paeonia mairei,
Paeonia mascula,
Paeonia rockii
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Seedling Surprise
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Peony noses and shoots (1)
With the advent of a few days of warmth and sun things are shooting up all over. Here are a look at some of the early signs of growth in several peony species.
Paeonia tomentosa, more advanced than the last photo. One can see the hairiness from which it gets its name.
Paeonia steveniana, from the Caucasus mountains. Closely related to P. tomentosa.
Paeonia emodi, a rare beauty from the Himalayans. This is often the first to open its leaves here, which frequently results in frostbite. Maybe it'll flower at last, this year...
Paeonia caucasica, from the Caucasus mountains. Closely related to P. mascula.
Monday, April 23, 2007
In search of shade
Wow, a day of summer. After a wearing 3 hours on the road bike I was looking forward to collapsing in the shade into my garden lounge* to cool off a bit.
Oops. The shade is still a bit thin these days.
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* It's not that I've been "warming the bell" on the seasons by getting the lounge out of storage already. I just never put it away last fall...
Oops. The shade is still a bit thin these days.
* It's not that I've been "warming the bell" on the seasons by getting the lounge out of storage already. I just never put it away last fall...
Friday, April 20, 2007
More Crocuses
Wow, sunlight bright enough to make shadows, and bare legs on the bike type of weather...
Over the last few days some more "traditional" colours of crocus have come into flower. The photo is of one of the sand beds (despite the shape, not a grave! except for a few finicky plants that didn't make it).
The long green spikey leaves towards the back are a couple of Yucca filamentosa, for which the sand bed was created.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
So just exactly how long does 14" of snow last anyways?
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Life under snow
The plants are a lot more patient than I am!!!
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Another Sign of Spring: the inevitable late snow storm
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Miscellaneous Spring Garden Stuff, continued
An excellent surprise still, the third year running: foliage buds of the Blue Himalayan Poppy, Mecanopsis betonicifolia or M. grandis or a hybrid of those. Plants which flowerd last year are not showing, they grow "pups" or sidebuds and then frequently die but the youngsters take over the show. No sign of self-seeding yet.
A peony root searching for "more cold please". Not all of them do this, sometimes it's just how the mulch breaks down or the frost heaves or erosion occurs. I'll probably cover this a bit later in the spring. This is Paeonia kesrouanensis. I know this because there is a label on a stick just beside it-- not from looking at the buds!
Arum italicum pictum, Italian Arum. Non-flowering-size plants. I didn't realize they showed up so early! A bit of frostbite on one of the painted leafs. The pictum form is supposed to have the white-patterned leaf, but these are grown from seed and I'm not sure whether to expect all of them to develop a pattern as they mature.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Miscellaneous Spring Garden Stuff
A few more crocuses open and in bud; these are in a sand bed and multiplying there quite excellently. Formerly I had tried crocus corms (bulbs) in all sorts of "good" locations, but found that they mostly died out over a few years or at best languished without increasing -- except under shrubs. Eventually decided this was due to too much clay in the local idea of what made a good "topsoil", parked a large number of corms in a sand bed I was building, and haven't looked back.
The sand bed is about 4-6 inches of sand over clay-rich soil over a thick layer of leaf compost (well, at least it was thick back then)
Hiding below a deep litter of dried maple and beech leafs are a number of Helleborus orientalis -- Christmas Rose. Today I noticed a few bits of white peaking out and since the snow is temporarily gone I assumed flowers. And was right. One open, a few others in bud. Christmas Rose, not quite around here: that common name comes from its flowering habit in warmer climates (it's native to countries along the north of the Mediterranean Sea, and some ways north of there). These are actually flowering somewhat earlier than any wood in my woods or elsewhere around the yard, as they are up against the foundation of my house, specifically the "fire room" where the wood stove crackles the winter away, so the soil around them is warmer than in most places here.
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