Bright Spring Blooms

Tulips are having a rough time in my garden this spring. I'm not sure if it was the frost (and snow) we had after they started growing, or if I have something else to be concerned about. On top of that, the deer came through again this spring and chomped their way through many of the backyard tulips before they even set buds. Regardless, there's still lots of colour to enjoy!

back yard

front yard

Tulips Thrive with Bone Meal

For the first few years I was gardening, I lamented in the spring that my tulips didn't bloom well. A lot of green but sparse blooms. After hearing advice that tulips need bone meal after they bloom, I decided to get off my butt and do something about it.

The problem is that by the time my tulips are done, I can't get at all of them to dig in bone meal unless I crawl in under growing perennials. What I did discover is that it doesn't have to be a big job. I grab the bucket of bone meal and a scoop, and simply throw scoopfuls onto every place where there's tulips.

Finally I'm getting tulips back that haven't bloomed in years... which, of course, is going to make me want to plant more in the fall.

Tulips 2014

It was a bad year for tulips here and they put up a very poor showing in my garden. I am happy it was a problem all around me and not just in my garden but it is always a drag when we get a bad tulip year.

Judy thinks it did not get warm enough for them and she may be right. Some years, the buds will form and start to get full when a frost will come along and next thing you know, all those buds are dropping. It wasn't that kind of year so frost was not the problem.

Whatever it was, I guess it is not worth contemplating much since there is nothing that can be done to change it. Or fix it for next year!

I will keep my fingers crossed for a better tulip year in 2015. If memory serves me, I don't think I've had 2 bad tulip years in a row. Might be a good year to add tulips to my garden... I think tulips are going to be awesome... next year. Why is it I am always waiting for next year? lol.

Finally! A reliable daffodil in my garden.

Narcissus are a constant problem for me in my garden. I have tried, and continue to try, many varieties. Some come back for a couple of seasons, others I never show up. Most bloom the first year and then do not return.

Narcissus Tahiti was added to my garden in the fall of 2009, bloomed for the first time in 2010. Since then it has been reliably blooming and spreading every year. There are now 4 very large patches in both sun garden circles.

Tarda this year.

Reliable and fast spreading, I love tarda and my spring garden album would not be complete without photos of them. I brought them from my city garden and put a patch of them in the lower boardwalk garden here. Since then, they have spread throughout that level in the boardwalk garden. I have spread them to the top level of the boardwalk garden and last year, out into the sun gardens. There are patches everywhere that need to be divided again and so this year they move to the front yard as well.

All Alone

It seems like everything opened all at once today! Of course, it didn't happen that way.

The tulip Tarda were open yesterday and there was a viola I forgot about when I was out with the camera so didn't get a photo of (hopefully it will be there tomorrow). The tulip Chopin is already finished. But today there are buds, flowers and plants everywhere!

Starting with this awesome tulip Ballerina, growing all alone in the middle of the firepit lawn. It is in what used to be a garden bed but is now again part of the lawn. Miles mowed around it today and when the leaves are done, I will move it out of there in an attempt to save it. I think it might have been there last year too but was cut down brutally before we noticed.

I love the sunny colours of this tulip. The yellow inside is as bright as the orange. Somewhere, I think in the front, I have an actual patch of these.

Tulip Chopin

First post of the season is always so exciting! I have flowers :)

Tulip Chopin were the first to open, with pinks surrounding them at a hurried pace. They are pretty little mini's that have much larger foliage and flowers than the Tarda and this was the first year that they opened before the Tarda. No worries though, the Tarda are on their way! I took pictures of some in Judy's garden just yesterday.

It looks like the Narcissus will follow very shortly as well. They are full of buds and unfortunately, surrounded by dandelion. I had every intention of dealing with that today but rain has interfered so it is another day inside. Hopefully, sunshine is on the way.

'Thalia'

One of the best things about a garden is that just when you feel disappointment, something else pops up that makes the feeling fleeting.

The tulips may not have been their best but the narcissus more than made up for them. I normally have a lot of trouble with narcissus and there are at least 2 years that I gave up completely.

Their delicate beauty always draws me back and I eventually find myself planting them again.

I can't claim trouble this year. All the daffodil came up in large patches full of flowers. None of the other spring bulbs could compare this year - daffodil was the star of the show!

What's in a Name?

Funny how things change. When I first started gardening, I knew the name of everything I planted. In fact, I turned plants away because they were unknown. Mostly because early experiments with 'unknowns' had gone horribly wrong and were not easy to correct!

Now, names don't matter. Last year, my sister was building a deck which meant removing a garden. I went and dug what she described as red-orange-yellow mixed tulips. I am so glad I did because look what showed up! I love this nameless tulip.

Tulips 2013

It was a bad year in my garden for tulips. Although I did have a few that put on a beautiful show, most of them came up all leaves or tiny flowers. I think a lot of it had to do with moving them all last year.

My 'Zurel' patch was, as always, reliable. This patch sits in its original spot in my sun gardens. I have dug and divided them several times but the original patch remains huge.

I am going to leave the tulips alone this year. There are a couple of patches that I plan to move out from what is now shade but other than that, if they are in the sun, they are being left alone. Bonemeal in the fall and crossing my fingers for a bigger show next year. Already something to look forward to next year!

'Tarda'

Of all the mini-botanical tulips I have grown over the years, none hold a candle to 'tarda'. They are very reliable, multiply extremely quickly and always add a spot of sunshine to my spring garden.

When I lived in the city, 'tarda' were always the first blooms in my garden every spring. Always.

Here, there are a lot of things that show up before 'tarda'. I think part of it is that the 'tarda' are under trees and not in the sun gardens while the 'chopin', forsythia and early red triumph tulips are in the sunshine all day from very early on in the season.

This year, I was excited to see that the 'thalia' daffodil were blooming at the same time as the 'tarda'. I am going to move a patch of the 'tarda' (they make very nice patches) out to the sun garden beside the 'thalia'. Of course, being in the sun might make 'tarda' bloom earlier but I am going to cross my fingers and go for it.

Early Tulips Start

The early tulips are starting. This red is either 'Bastogne' or something that came in mixed red and yellow from either Judy or my sister. I will probably never know which. My tulips are all mixed up by now and are coming up everywhere. It is so awesome, I don't even care that I don't know what many of them are. Any that are particularly interesting, I can usually identify. I could probably pull out maps and figure it out as well but when the sun is shining is no time to pull out maps! That is a winter activity. Maybe winter will have me here renaming everything. Who knows? Something to look forward to anyway.

There are two patches of these so far. Both are in the sun gardens near but not next to each other, in the area that was planted last year. All three sets of tulips, Judy's mom's mixed (red and yellow), Deanna's red and yellow mix and my old 'Bastogne' were moved somewhere into that area last year. At least I think they were! But who is to say that the red in either of those mixes is not also 'Bastogne'?

No matter what they are, they sure are pretty and that is all that really matters in my garden. 

At least today that is all that really matters.

Narcissus 'Tahiti' was next

'Tahiti' is the first blooming and most reliable of my narcissus. Typically, it blooms after the 'tarda' mini botanical tulips start but this year they beat the 'tarda' out. 'Tahiti' was blooming a full three days before the 'tarda' opened.

I have other daffodil that are in bud and just coming up but these are the only ones that are blooming and this picture was taken today - almost a full week after they first opened wide.

Narcissus are moody in my garden. Sometimes they show up, other times they do not. I never know what to expect. A full, healthy, beautiful patch one year will completely disappear only to reappear a few years later as the tiny bulblets in the ground get big enough to produce a plant. That element of surprise can be wonderful or frustrating depending on the day.

Four years in, it seems I don't have to worry about that with 'Tahiti'. They are the first and only daffodil patch in my garden that consistently comes up, looks great and gets bigger. This year, the patch is large enough that I can divide it and start spreading these beauties throughout the garden. I love bulbs!


Why I will never be a Master Gardener

The first blooms of the season for me were these 'Chopin' Kaufmania botanical tulips. At least that is what is says on my receipt. When I look up 'Chopin' tulips, which I did just the other day, I find a lot of information about 'Chopin' gregii tulips. I also found Kaufmania spelled more than 6 different ways. I am not sure of the difference between gregii and Kaufmania and it turns out, I don't care!

Apparently, Kaufmania means they are a waterlily tulip, referring to the flower shape. Botanical means they are small. While the flowers are not huge, they are smaller than a typical tulip but are larger than any of my other botanicals. And they are definitely short and early.

 

I went looking for information out of interest. I found a lot of information. But here is the crux... I found the more complicated the answer became, the less interested I was in finding it out!

 

I am a gardener. All I need to know is colour, height and requirements to fit it into my garden plan. Anything more is extra information my brain is unwilling to hold. Bottom line, I absolutely love my 'Chopin' no matter what they technically are.

 

 

 

Peek-a-boo

The season has finally started for me and it started fast! I was still breaking up snow banks and spreading them into the sun today at the back deck. Just feet away in the lower boardwalk garden, the tarda are already poking through the leaf cover. Tarda are the most reliable mini-botanical tulips I have ever grown and they are always the first thing to poke through, usually the first thing to bloom. Some years, the crocus beat them to the punch. I haven't seen any crocus yet this year which might be a bad sign. Much to my delight, the Zurel are still a huge patch, despite dividing them three years in a row. And then there are all the unknown (until they bloom) tulips that seem to be everywhere! I spent the whole day out cleaning up the yard and came upon several interesting developments in my garden. The most perplexing of them was the pile of tulips bulbs I found sitting on top of the ground at the end of the boardwalk. Not quite under the dogwood but close enough to get lost if the dogwood were in leaf. Not sure how they got there. My best guess would be that a dog (yes, it would likely be that dog) dug them up or a squirrel moved them. I know that I did not just toss a handful of tulips bulbs on the ground as I walked by! I could tell that two of them were tarda so I planted them together in a spot where I thought a little patch of tarda would look good. It will only take them a year or two at most to become that little patch. The rest of them got planted in the cement pothead at the drive corner. Since they all had root and a shoot, I expect they will grow there just fine this year and once I know what they are, I can pop them in the garden somewhere. If I can resist the temptation to plant them for that long. If I can't resist, they will get plopped in a clump all together and I will cross my fingers that they are not clashing varieties.

May Day in Nova Scotia

Things aren't as bleak here as they are in Saskatchewan right now. I'm running around in shorts and Danielle is shovelling - definitely one of the big differences between our two gardens!

I have a few early spring blooms to share with you.

Mini Botanical Tulips

Puchella Easter Star

Of all the early spring bulbs, mini botanical tulips are my favorite. In zone 3, spring bulbs have a difficult time of it. They tend to try and come up when the snow is still everywhere and often do not bloom until they are well established. My puchella was planted in 2010 and this is the first bloom I have seen. It is a single bloom but gives me hope for the future.

Tarda Patch

My tarda, on the other hand are very well established and seem to be the one variety that I can count on to bloom every year, no matter what. They form huge patches very quickly here for me. As an example, I divided the boardwalk garden patches last year and they still doubled in size in that single year. I was commenting yesterday that I might need to divide them again! Not only reliable, they are real stunners. With a pale purple translucent bud that opens to a bright yellow flower with white tips. They look great with turkestanica, which has the opposite colouring. One caution though... turkestanica is much taller than tarda in my garden so it is best to plant them in patches beside each other rather than all mixed together. Puchella and tarda are the same height and could be planted together to form bright patches of multi-colours. I don't plan on trying that until the puchella are much more abundant here so maybe check back in 2050!!

Turkestanica

Little Spring Bulbs

Scientific Name: Puschkinia libanotica
Common Name: Striped Squill

They may be small and common but I just love watching them pop up everywhere. I have little patches of this squill all over the place. They are second to bloom (after my heaths), along with crocus and lungwort. Next will be the blue and pink chionodoxa and that's just starting to open.