What A Difference A Day Makes

This saying has never been so true as today with above eighty degree temperatures from temps in the forties and fifties.  Spring is exploding all over the place, grass growing, buds swelling, daffodils and tulips opening and the promise of things to come is everywhere.

Hyacinth City of Harlem

Hyacinth Pink Pearl

Hyacinth L'Innocence

It is almost too warm for all of these early spring bloomers.  The temperatures are expected to drop to more normal spring weather after some heavy thunderstorms.

Early Sensation is a large cupped daffodil that blooms earlier than all the others.

Daffodil Marieke

Myrtle Blue Dart

Blooming close to foundation where it is warmer

Daffodil Itzim

Daffodil Tete-A-Tete

This is a mystery plant, I did not plant this but I am on a hundred year plus property so this may be a plant of the past.  Before it opened, it looked like some sort of hyacinth or scilla.

Tulip Early Harvest

My new plant for the spring garden
Rockfoil Neon Rose

Seeds

I had to do a little thinning and transplanting to give my seeds some room.  I am not sure if I received some inferior impatiens seed (Wild Thing) or if it was something that I did.  Whatever happened, germination was only about a third of what it was supposed to be.  All of the other seeds produced 100% germination.

Impatiens Wild Thing

Petunia Silver Tidal Wave

Zinnia Zahara Highlight

Zinnia Zahara Double Orange

La Bella Snapdragons on the left and Amaranthus on the right

I didn't get very fancy this year with the veggie garden, radishes, onion sets, slow bolting spinach, two types of lettuce and italian and curley parsley.  All of the cold crop vegetables can be planted now for optimum harvest.

The radishes are up but the lettuce and spinach are so small they are not photo worthy yet.

I ordered two new tomato cages from Gardeners Supply for my Beefsteak tomatoes.  These cages are supposed to handle the heaviest - I've heard this before!

Another important seed activity will be my lawn.  I don't have much of it, but what I have in the back garden doesn't look so good - spots of snow mold.  Many of the patches are small and I will leave them to fill in on their own, but the larger ones need some help, pulling out the dead grass, some topsoil, starter fertilizer, a little seed and some peat moss to hide from the birds.  We are supposed to get rain and warmer temperatures for the next several days so this should help with germination.

Snow mold is a problem when lawns go into dormancy having been fertilized late with lush growth and of course heavy snow does not help.

A landscaper told me that I didn't even need to get this fancy, just rough up the dead grass and drop in some seed.  I have done both this year so it will be interesting to see which is the most successful.

My bareroot roses arrived from California, soaked them overnight and put them in last weekend.  I have had very good luck with product from Garden Valley Ranch.  I am expecting some perennials from another California company Digging Dog Nursery, Brunnera, Hellebores and Phlomis.

Of course, I can't end this post without some eye candy to look at around the garden, not much yet but better than a winter landscape.

My only Hellebore for now, some on order.  I had so many at my last home so I am anxious to add some each year.

Striped Scilla

Early Sensation

Blooming a full two weeks later than those on the south side of house

Beginnings

I know, it looks like major damage, but I had to do it now or forget about it for another year.  This is my Rhus Aromatica that can grow three feet tall by eight feet wide, winding its way along a border.  I am not sure I would have planted this if not recommended by a garden designer.  It has had scale and takes a great deal of pruning throughout the season to keep it within bounds.  I should have known it was not a plant for my garden when I saw it at several local shopping centers.

Rhus Aromatica Gro Low

I have rejuvenated it by pruning out all of the sucker branches and bringing it down to about a foot above ground level.  The dormant oil for the scale has already been applied so I am hoping to salvage this border planting before I give up.

Rhus Aromatica Gro Low Pruned

It crawls and winds along the border.

Don't be afraid to rejuvenate or renew shrubbery, looks drastic but soon leafs out to become a better plant.  Rejuvenating is to remove everything down to four to six inches above ground, renewal is to take out the largest stems every two to three years to stimulate new growth.  I think I did something in between going down to about ten inches and removing a lot of the smaller branches.

I did purchase a product this year by Bayer that lists the ability to eradicate scale insects.  I will put this on in May when these insects emerge from their covering.  If I didn't get them with the dormant spray, hopefully this will do the trick.

I have also noticed scale on my Limelight Hydrangea, wondered why there were several eaten leaves last year, so I will dormant spray this also.

The first crocus, the only crocus, I gave up planting them several years ago when they were eaten as fast as I put them in the ground!

Pink Meidiland Rose has buds.

I have already spread my Espoma Organic Fertilizer 5-3-3.  Try to stay away from the high nitrogen fertilizers because of their tendency to produce more leaf growth than flowers.  The acid loving plants have also been fed with Espoma 4-3-4, going to cease using the high nitrogen Miracid and see if this makes a difference with the flowering ability of Endless Summer Hydrangea.

Early Sensation is a great first bloomer of all the daffodils.

Dicentra Spectablis peeking through

First year I have seen this color combo in a pansy, loved them as violas

Daylilies poking through

The hyacinths can't wait!

We have all been a bit down in these colder climates, and I think as gardeners we live for the anticipation of life and growth.  I feel better, it's beginning!

Visit Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday!

New Discoveries

An Art Institute excursion into the city led to the exciting discovery of two new museums on the University of Chicago Campus in Hyde Park.  Yes, this is the location of our President's home, street blocked off and only a corner of the house is visible because of the many tall evergreens bordering the property.

We first visited The Smart Museum named after the family who published Esquire magazine.  It contains artwork spanning five thousand years.  Admission is free and it survives on donations and the generosity of several foundations.

The largest ink painting ever created by Bingyi covers the wall behind the stainless steel sculpture in the entrance of The Smart Museum.  The sculpture is by Zahn Wang from China.

Our tour begins in the Contemporary Room with some works that make us ponder the meaning.

There were several of these enclosed dome collections of scientific materials sort of like visible time capsules.

Fiber Art Hangings

Dining Room Set (with post lights) designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Four Arts Ball (1929)

Guy Pene Du Bois

There is artwork for every taste in this museum, contemporary, sculpture, furniture, baroque, religious, etc.  The most stunning exhibition was The Tragic Muse of which I was not allowed to photograph, so please excuse the photos from the brochure.

The Tragic Actor (Rouviere as Hamlet) 1866 by Edouard Manet

This is a very large oil estimating about nine feet tall by five feet wide.

The Child's Grave (1857)

By Joshua Hargrave Sams Mann

The colors in this collection were magnificent so life like and well preserved through the centuries, many dating back to the 1500's.

After the Smart Museum we stopped for lunch at Cedars Mediterranean restaurant which began with pita bread and two different types of hummus, a ground garbanzo bean meatball and then a wonderful salad, rice, two vegetarian dishes, ground lamb with spices and lemon chicken.  The dessert was a tasty rice pudding and baklava.

Now we were on to the Oriental Museum which is part of the University of Chicago's Archeology Department.  It was founded in 1919 by James Henry Brested (supposedly the model for Indiana Jones) and partially funded by John D. Rockfeller housed in a beautiful art deco building completed in 1930.  They have several digging sites throughout the middle east and continually send artifacts back to the university to be studied and processed.

The Striding Lions

On color glazed brick flanking the sides of the road leading out from the City of Babylon

One of a pair of carved stone bull heads. missing the horns, weighing ten tons, repaired after being shipped back to Chicago

The Man/Bull sat at the top of columns holding up the ceiling of a building in Iran - made of limestone

Sandals from 1600 BC, and we thought we invented flip flops!

A child's pull toy from 2300 BC

A thirty-two year old woman that they have done a CAT scan on (results were that she appeared healthy with two broken bones, no cause of death detected)

King Tut (there are small feet to the side which were thought to be part of the statue of his wife - you can see where her whole form had been broken off)

Part of two long walls leading into the King's palace, color has been worn away through the years


I had never been to this museum and certainly was not able to digest even a small portion of what it contains.  Because the building and its decor takes you back to the art deco period, one feels like they are on the set of an Indiana Jones movie!

Lights On!

Grow lights I mean, they must stay on for at least another six weeks.  I have them on a sixteen hour timer in my utility room and this is when the real work begins.  After sprouting, it is very important that those spindley little plants do not dry out.  I keep a plastic dome on each planting tray until they sprout and begin to grow.

Zinnia Highlight Seedlings

Zinnia Highlight

Zinnia Zahara Double Fire

Zinnia Zahara Double Fire

Amaranthus Seedlings (red and green)

I will have to thin these out by cutting off the extras.

Amaranthus Red

Amaranthus  Green

Snapdragon La Bella Seedlings

So small and delicate, it is diffiicult to believe that they will become 18 inch tall plantings.

Snapdragon La Bella

The seedlings require more water now and need to be checked on daily because of the heat of the lights.

Petunia Silver Tidal Wave Seedlings

Silver Tidal Wave Petunia

I will begin giving them a light dilution of fertilizer next week just to boost their strength and in about four or five weeks will begin a hardening off process that may last at least two weeks.

I had forgotten how much care these young seedlings take, like taking care of those little babies in the beginning rewarding but very time intensive.