Tag Archives: crocus

Mar9

March Flairs

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I do have some flowers!

Our snowdrops have been blooming since January. I’m very pleased with how just a few bulbs planted years ago keep spreading. We had -4C temps recently, and I was sad to see all the ‘drops were flat on the ground. Tough little plants, they perked back up in two days and a week later still look this good!

The daffodils and narcissus did the same flattening and same perking up, but they aren’t blooming yet.

My crocus. Eventually I plan to have that whole awkward patch of grass filled with them. I’m a little worried about how much moss is in there, though! Any tips on removing or killing moss without killing bulbs?

My gerbera daisies. I keep them indoors, but they were in four shallow pots and several years old. I repurposed a tall container, put holes in the bottom and some rocks for drainage, and used an identical container as a water dish. They now take up less windowsill room and have so much more space to grow. Four plants turned out to be nine, as well – they couldn’t be separated since they were so root bound. I know I did the right thing as I have so many blooms coming up! One seems to grow at least a centimetre a day.

Mar12

More Signs of Spring

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Actually, updates of some of plant pics I previously posted.

The crocus were disappointing – at least for me as I only ever saw them when the sun was just up or nearly down. iDJ got a better pic during the daylight hours last week:

Some kind of critter is digging out the moss along the wall – I’m good with that. Might be starlings, might be a transient hedgehog (hoping for the latter – eat those slugs!!).

Saves me digging that crap or poisoning it, too.

The daffodils are so close to opening! Maybe this weekend. Note the cheeky viola that didn’t bother to die over the winter. I’m rather regretting growing violas – they self-seed everywhere and collect aphids and other nasty bugs.

The clematis are going crazy – well over 6ft high now, and the frost and snow we have had lately doesn’t seem to phase them one bit. I have them growing up a trash-tree that I also accidentally grew (in my strawberry patch) and relocated. My neighbor on the other side of the wall hates this tree! I want my one last surviving lilac from seed to fill this spot, but it is only a couple of feet tall still. I’ll feel bad about digging out the grey willow, as the birds (and the clematis) love it so.

Top pic – first year. Next pic – second year. This is what they looked like February 27:

And a week later:

I’m not sure about all those wee ones coming up. They are so tiny and fragile that the wind we’ve had lately did a number on them since I took this pic. I also picked a rake of little nodules off of their stems last year, and potted them up indoors to see what they might do. They got leggy and soft, so not a great idea!

Still wondering what is growing in that pot that has cotelydons – I’ll leave them until they prove they are weeds.

Feb4

A Touch of Frost, of Spring

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I’m happy to announce that my drive home was, for the first time in what is probably months, not pitch black. Considering I don’t leave work until 6:30pm, that’s a very good thing. We are on the upswing to spring, folks, I promise!

I have some flowers to prove it, of course:

First, some idiot roses, now freeze-dried.

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One of the massive white ones out back. Clearly wasn’t ready for the cold.

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And one of the small pink/red ones out front. What were they thinking to bloom in mid-winter? Okay I do know that roses can’t think. Maybe. I did a science experiment back in the day that made me wonder about that, actually.

On to less-dead things. Of course, the very first flower we see in Ireland is the snowdrop. We haphazardly stuck a few in the ground 3 or 4 years ago, and they are reproducing like bunnies on Viagra.

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Love them! These are closed, sorry – I’m not home during the hours of the day when they open up and show their green, bee-orchid bellies.

Crocus are on the way up too. Not open yet, but the poor things are in a spot where we are likely to walk on them. Oh well.

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Is that snow? Not by my Northern Ohio standards. It will have to do.

The daffodils caught us by surprise . This time of year I rarely go into the corner where they grow unless I’m doing dog-poop-scoop duty.

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They are about 8in tall already – 20cm. Can’t believe I only spotted them on Monday! Guess that means my weed cover grass is too long.

Lastly, the clematis. I have little knowledge of how to care for this plant. I stuck it in the ground at the base of our weed-tree (a grey willow) and let it go to town. iDJ loves them, so these are ‘his’ plants despite me being the caretaker. Any green you see is clematis, or moss…

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This one is a couple of years old now – maybe three? I have a bad time sense. Want to say this is the second spring for it, anyway. These buds look so tender, it makes me worry for them. It’s below freezing now and has been most of the day. I have to trust they know what they are doing. Oh – this photo is taken at my eye-level, and I’m 5ft8in (rounded up to 173cm). So, I’m pretty sure the plant is happy and healthy.

Hope all of you are happy and healthy too, and have some signs of spring in your life.

Mar1

First Green Stuff Post of 2014, or: Spring!

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I’m having way too much fun with my other frosty photos, so I’m not ready to put them up here yet. I think I’m going to have to be a jerk and watermark the hell out of them – they are that spiffy (to me, anyway)!

Instead, I’m going to give you a bit of spring.

Anyone over this side of the pond knows that snowdrops come up first. We got these a few years ago from a cheap supermarket packet, and they are really coming into their own this year.

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We won’t talk about the disastrous state of the paint on my wall, or my finger being in the pic, or the fact they are blurry as hell, okay? Okay. They make iDJ and I very happy when they come up and let us know that it is, indeed, spring in Ireland.

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Next are the crocuses. The purple ones bloom first, for some reason. Have a couple orange-yellow ones now, and a variegated purple – but no decent pics (as if this shot qualifies as decent, considering one of them has been beheaded). I meant to seed the whole front ‘lawn’ with these, but damn, the ground was hard and muddy and rocky and we only ever did a few. Mice ate the rest of the bulbs that I didn’t plant. Oops. I don’t think they really like it there much – no sunshine at all this time of year. Oh well.

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More crocus. Or is that Croci?

I’ve also started some seedlings – early ones. Stuff that needs more time of being alive before it can make tasty food for me and mine:

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Corn! I now have a wee heated Aldi propagator, and so I started corn and tomatoes and super hot scotch bonnet peppers for iDJ. Put them in the propagator Sunday the 15th Feb, and by the 18th, I had two corn plants this tall. They have now been potted out in big pots as they outgrew the prop. quite quickly. But only three of 12 germinated, so I will have to try another batch. Should still have time, I hope.

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Peppers, or tomatoes? I honestly can’t tell when they are babies. Sort of like how a Chihuahua pup and a Great Dane pup will look identical when newborn. They aren’t in danger of outgrowing the propagator any time soon, but it does concern me that they have to lean so far over just to get any of our sunshine this time of year.

I was meant to start the peppers back in December but I wasn’t ready.

I’m now feeling bad that my seedlings are much larger! If I took daily photos it might be fun, but also potentially quite boring. “Watching grass grow.”