These snow-capped beauties are called February Gold. They missed the month they are named after by a couple weeks, but they were still the first daffodils to bloom.
Yes, according to the calendar, it is officially spring, despite the inch of snow blanketing the world this morning, and the sleet-storm raging outside as I type. It has been mostly in the 40s and 50s, definitely late March weather, but a few days ago it almost hit 80! Seasons change rather erratically around here, and since I’ve never lived anywhere else (yes, I’m boring) I don’t know if that’s true everywhere else, too. These snow-capped beauties are called February Gold. They missed the month they are named after by a couple weeks, but they were still the first daffodils to bloom. And here, finally, is my one, lonely winter aconite. Isn’t it such a cheery flower, like a buttercup with a spiky green lion’s mane? I don’t know what happened to the rest, although I am forced to suspect those doggone voles! (grumble grumble) I guess I will try again in the fall, planting a little deeper, this time! I have planted a few seeds inside – stock, lettuce, and an attempt at sweet peas and larkspur. They aren't supposed to transplant well, but I have sowed them in peat pots, which will eliminate the need for removing them from the pots and disturbing the roots, which is what they really hate. I decided to try, just in case those I sow outside don’t do well again, like last year. The sweet peas went in the ground a few weeks ago, but the larkspur and other early seeds will have to wait until next week – this week is supposed to be a wash out. But SOON we’ll be surrounded by color and light again! Maybe that’s another reason I love gardening so much – it is an exercise in hope.
0 Comments
These late winter beauties are called iris reticulata "Harmony" and are filling my heart with the "warm and fuzzies"! I’m easily cheered by flowers and color. Yes, we’ve had quite a few unseasonably warm days, intermixed with chills to remind us it’s not quite spring yet. But when the birds are twittering like crazy, the sun is shining, and my earliest bulbs begin to blossom, I am easily fooled! Below is a poem my 16-year-old wrote as an assignment – to imitate the rhythm and rhyme scheme of Ode to the West Wind, by Percy Bysshe Shelley. You can tell it was written in the depths of winter, but the hope at the end makes it appropriate for this season. Enjoy! Winter By Teresa Williams O how viciously you tighten your grasp. You steal from me my senses and my life. The dull and edgeless ache my heart does clasp. Black and gray and brown and soaked with strife; Sickness and doom impede upon my soul. Earth’s bitter tears hang thick and cut like a knife. As I wander through a much-loved knoll, My heart is straining for color and for rays, For any sign this bitterness fails control. My mind is frayed, my mood reflects the grays And, like a ghost of who I used to be, I float and flit within the colorless haze Until… Out of my coma with birdsong I wake to see On flitting wings and pastel-colored hues My joy, my life, my living return to me. My crocus are blooming! They officially opened in the last couple days of February, when the snow melted and we began a string of unseasonally warm days. How lovely they are! They are called Blue Pearl snow crocus, and are very early blooming. I’m so happy! I am awaiting my winter aconite, a lovely yellow flower that I would think should have bloomed by now – unless the nasty voles got them! Last winter was the first season for my winter blooming bulbs, and they bloomed nicely. I will be very upset if those cute fuzzy little vermin ate them. They have destroyed several other favorite plants of mine in the past. And just in the past two weeks, as soon as the weather warmed up a little, the hungry critters discovered my beautiful purple heuchera and started snipping off the leaves and carrying them off! I had to put netting over it to protect it. Grrr! Today I went out and planted some sweet peas, in the hopes that this year, finally, I will have them in the ground early enough to grow. But I am worried they will be eaten by voles or bunnies as soon as they emerge, just as they were last year. Hopefully I’ll have them out early enough before the bunnies get too active, and in a spot the voles won’t notice them. But just in case, I saved a few seeds to grow in peat pots and try to transplant in April, although they don’t especially appreciate transplanting. Sigh. Gardening would be such a pleasure if it weren’t for the uncontrollable factors of animal pests and bad weather. Oh, and harmful bugs. And diseases. And noxious weeds. Well, OK, gardening has lots of factors out of our control, and our hard work can be eaten or destroyed within days. Yet, hope springs eternal, and every year, we gardeners, gluttons for punishment, eternally hopeful, head out to our gardens, tools in hand, ready again to do battle with the forces of nature to bring forth beauty and healthy food. Growing Goodness. And to be greeted by the cheery upturned faces of tiny crocus in February is like a pep talk before the battle begins. |
AuthorWelcome to Growing Goodness! This website is dedicated to growing good things, both plants and children. It's a gardening blog with maternal overtones, as I discuss the goodness and value of plants, both wild and domestic. In the process I hope to help you pass a love of nature on to your children. Happy Gardening! Archives
August 2011
Categories
All
|