Thinking Spring

I know, we can barely think of summer being over, with fall hot on it's heels, but this is the time of year we have to think of our spring garden.  I order my bulbs online from http://www.johnscheepers.com/ or http://www.vanengelen.com/ depending upon the quantity.  Scheepers deals in smaller quantities.

A couple of great daffodils that performed above and beyond last year in my garden were Itzim and Rinjveld Early Sensation both early bloomers and long lived.  Remember to think of tulips as annuals but I have had luck with many of the emperor tulips coming back (not quite as large).  If you want a specimen garden, I would order new tulips each year.  I do this with the Monte Carlo tulips because I want to make sure they bloom around my tree in front of the house.

Itzim Daffodil

Rinjveld's Early Sensation

Early Sensation on South Side

Orange Emperor Tulip

Sweetheart and Orange Emperor

Hyacinths many times will not bloom in the tight bud form as when first planted, but will split into several stalks of florets.  So, again if you want specimen plantings, put in new ones.  Muscari comes in many different varieties, one of the best being Blue Spike.  I have several varieties and colors, Valerie Finnis very nice up close, but you want some impact when they are at a distance.

Muscari

City of Harlem and Pink Pearl

City of Harlem Hyacinth and Sagitta Daffodil

Monte Carlo Tulip

I am also going to order some lilies as they were great during this very hot summer.  These companies also sell amaryllis and paperwhites for holiday planting (inside of course).

What's Blooming?

There are several things blooming in a quiet way before the full blast of the spring perennials take over.  The Blue Dart Vinca is just beautiful this year.  It must have been the snow cover.  Those Orange Emperor Tulips will not give up making a final showing in the cooler and a little shadier part of the garden.

My strange fern is up and it looks like it could be from the dinosaur age.  I identified it at a local garden center but did not write down the name.  Bleeding Hearts are in full bloom on the north side of my garden and Viburnum Carlesi Compactum is full of blooms with a most heady fragrance by my front walk.  The Amelanchier Regent was beautiful about a week ago as per the picture  Anemone Sylvistris is blooming on the south side of the garden

The vegetable garden looks very colorful this year as I made it a point to grow some unusually named lettuces in some colors that just pop.  The carrots are sprouting between the lettuce, as most of my lettuce usually is done by July, seed onions are coming up between the sets.  It's an experiment called layering, so we'll see if it works.

It's The Last Hurrah!

With temperatures in the mid 80's for the past two days the Spring garden is as a peak.  I have had to water the flopping tulips and hyacinths and the Star Magnolia has dropped most of it's flowers.

I have spent more time this year noticing the sequence and cycle of the plantings because of writing the blog and taking photos.  It is interesting to take a group of photos one day only to see how much they have changed the following day.

Many of the earlier daffodils have dried up and I will have to snap off that little bulb so they don't put energy into making seed.  Even though I have coverage from daylilies and other tall plants, I become very impatient waiting for all of the bulb foliage to die back.

Spring Observations

Some posts ago I spoke about a scale disease I had on my Euyonmous Wintercreeper and Rhus Aromatica.  I had used an oil spray several years ago with my Hudson Sprayer on some flowering crab apples.  It was a pain to use, had to be above 50 degrees, no flowers visible and not above a certain temperature..  I did find a hand held spray bottle All Seasons Oil Spray made by Bonide.  It is easy to use on shrubs and small trees can be used above 40 degrees but not above 90 degrees. 

Take a look at Itzim Daffodil still blooming almost three weeks, not affected by the heavy rains or frost, certainly outlasted Jetfire and Tete-A-Tete.  It did say in the description "long blooming."  I will certainly dedicate more space to this one next year.

I have posted a mystery daffodil.  I cannot find it on my purchase orders from Van Engelen or Scheepers.  If you know what it is I would appreciate the name.  The trumpet is whiteish with a little yellow frill. 

Those Hyacinths (City of Harlem) and Daffodils (Sagitta) are into the flops, but I keep propping them up by putting one behind the other.  I ordered a mixed grouping of Hyacinths and got Pink Pearl and City of Harlem and I had some Gypsy from last year. 

I also lamented about my rhododendrons some posts ago that my husband wanted to fill in with a cement front porch.  We had replaced them all and I had asked for a reprieve by turning off the sprinkler in that area.  Well I guess they told him where they belonged!

The mixed Emperor Tulips are beginning to bloom peeking out of my Green Velvet Boxwoods bordering the patio.  Orange Emperor and Sweetheart Emperor are a good combination this year.  Tulips in zone 5 need to be treated as annuals.  If they come back it is a bonus, and the Emperors are more likely to return.

Just look at that Chanticleer Pear!  It is much tougher than the Bradford because it's branches grow upright and are not suseptible to the winds or ice.

Instamatic Spring

Many of us will remember that was the name of a camera not "Spring."  However, in many areas, it seems to have come on instantly following frost and snow.  We are happy, our mood is on the upswing and we are giddy at the sight of all of the beautiful flowers.  Our gardens have exploded with color, so fast in many cases, that we go to bed in the evening and plants we didn't even notice the day before are blooming.

My daughter-in-law asked me yesterday how she could have all of her tulips blooming behind the daffodils for Easter.  They are all early tulips, Monte Carlo and Emperor but normally not quite ready to bloom with the early daffodils.  However, with all of the heat we have had it might work - how?  Water, water, water, not something you think about this time of year.  But, if you have high temperatures, your early spring flowers are going to need water.  We are getting some rain today so I won't have to water again this morning.

I looked like a crazy gardener out yesterday morning with my hose.  You would have thought it was the middle of summer, but to me it was with 84 degrees Thursday and 82 degrees yesterday.  We are supposed to get rain and cooler temperatures, but with the heat give your little blooms a drink and they will stay around a little bit longer