Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Ready, Set...Wait




The wisteria is ramping up, halfway to its big show, 2 dutch iris have color showing tonight, buds are swelling on the bearded iris, the biokova is blooming, and I see tiny, tiny baby plums on the Santa Rosa. It must be time to plant! Spring is here! I've seen tomato plants at the nursery, summer annuals too. But wait just a minute. This is one of those times of year that requires a gardener to dig around not in the ground but in the depths of whatever patience a gardener in spring might have remaining and just..stop. Those tomato plants and annuals are tempting, but another week or two or three might be a better time for planting them. Some nights are still dipping into the 40s and that makes summer planting a gamble. At least I haven't seen peppers and eggplant starts yet...those two will likely never recover if planted too early, too cold. So the gardener might indulge in a GADS attack (as my friend Carol would say)... doing a bit of pruning, maybe prepping a new garden bed, certainly weeding out all those spring weeds before they think they're allowed to move in permanently. Of course, the really impatient gardener might have put up her Wall Of Water a week ago and gone ahead and snuck a tomato plant in today. A gardener's got to do what a gardener's got to do.

Monday, March 15, 2010

GBBD March 2010

In the front door bed cyclamen, primrose and snapdragons bloom. The cyclamen are from Christmases past...I always tuck them in the ground and they rebloom in following years, but never again in time for Christmas.The freesias in this pot bloom before any of the ones in the ground. Maybe this year I'll remember to plant them somewhere and put something I like the color of better in the pot.
Tulbaghia fragrans often blooms earlier...and it tried to but got knocked back by frost. It has recovered and is now blooming here and there nicely.Anisodontea Elegant Lady has just begun to bloom, also in the front door bed.

Loropetelum chinense Sizzling Pink blooms in front of Camellia Chandleri Elegans.The succulents are still biding their time under the patio cover but this one decided to celebrate the warmer weather.
I need to do some research and figure out which little daffodil this is...I'm sure the tag is here somewhere.

The Bradford pear in the front yard is just coming into bloom...with it's characteristic stinky fragrance.This little bed has muscari, iris bucharica and, behind the pot, lavandula pinnata bucchii.

The rest of the list in bloom today is as follows:
Allysum
Wax begonias
Anisodontea Hibiscus Bits
Anisodontea Elegant
LadyTulbaghia fragrans
Cyclamen
Primrose
Pansies
Narcissus Avalanche
Leucojum
Rosa Flower Girl
Camellia Jordan's Pride
Camellia Chandleri Elegans
Chionodoxa Pink Giant
Loropetelum chinense Sizzling Pink
Iberis
Solanum Jasminoides
Dwarf Carnation Evermore
Garden peas
Viburnum Spring Bouquet
Lavandula pinnata bucchii
Iris bucharica
Muscari
Rosemary Tuscan Blue

A hint of what is coming soon is all I see today on the wisteria...but it won't be long now!



Check out other bloom lists by visiting our esteemed leader Carol, at May Dreams Gardens. See what's blooming today around the world!