Spring, Glorious Spring!

Bright Crocus and Tulips ... Spring, Glorious Spring ... It Finally Got Here!

The weather today gave us a wonderful official re-introduction to our long awaited friend Spring! We had a very busy day, starting bright and early by going to get our taxes prepared ... happy, happy, joy, joy! Actually, it wasn't that painful (both of us are getting refunds) and it's virtually done, all but for the signing and payment ... at least one less banal worry during the time we want to get kicking in the gardens. Of course Princess Hanna accompanied us on a couple of errands for groceries, so she was enjoying the going fast machine ... but our main accomplishment was getting almost all of the front boulder bed, sidewalk and the front gardens cleared out, cleaned out and raked. Some fantastic news to report: we were both seeing quite a few Tulips coming up, and to our memory more than last year, so we are cautiously optimistic they may be making a comeback..... Though we haven't yet found any bulbs coming up in the Woodland Garden, that's not surprising because it always stays coolest there and they usually arrive later than those planted further in front or the parking.

Today's photos were taken by Fernymoss ... You'll notice I changed the header photo again ... it now displays a Crocus that is actually blooming at this time ... The same variety you see in these first shots is called Specie crocus 'Dorothy' and was planted way back in 2005 when we really worked ourselves and planted hundreds of bulbs we had ordered, the same year we planted the 200 Tulips, 100 Spanish Squill and a bunch of Daffodils, Hyacinths, Alliums and Crocus. Many of the bulbs planted that year are now starting to spread nicely, especially these 'Dorothy' planted in the back with the snowdrops. We'll be seeing more of the progress of the rest of that year's class over the coming weeks and are looking forward to the show, given the number of bulbs coming up we uncovered or discovered today, which is only the start!

Golden chalices filled with sunshine ... that's what this shot evokes for me. A view you can only get if you're willing to get down, up close and personal with your crocus ... it's essential, I think, if only because their yearly visit is so brief, indeed ephemeral. Yet, they're such a deceptively complex flower when examined up close. To me, the outstanding features of this Crocus, aside from the brilliant gold accentuated by sunshine, are its hardiness (zones 3-9) and those dramatic stripes on the outside of the petals. And the nice bonus is that this Crocus naturalizes readily, and quite rapidly. As you'll see in the following shots, it has spread quite nicely in this part of the back corner bed.

These Crocus and Snowdrops are clearly establishing colonies in this bed, where they were originally planted on the periphery ... they've moved inward a bit, as you'll see in successive shots. At first glance, I missed the "baby" in this shot ... further proof that the colonies are reproducing nicely. You go, Crocus!

Here's a bit wider view of two small colonies of Galanthus elwesii and 'Dorothy' not far from the parent planting but moving inward ...in the forest of Monarda and Coneflower stalks, and if you look closely at the enlarged image, you can see the Monarda 'Blue Stocking' (purple) already up and growing ... in fact, the Monarda all around Casa IVG is already up and growing, despite the recent cold weather. After all, it is a member of the mint family, and one doesn't get rid of those easily! We make major exceptions for this one, however!

This is obviously the parent planting of the Snowdrops in this area of the garden, and it sure looks like things have gotten crowded enough that some have set off to establish homes elsewhere in the area, much to our delight ... the more the merrier as far as early spring bulbs are concerned!

Let's go a bit wider in this area to get some more perspective on these plantings and colonies ... now you can see how they've moved around a bit over the years ... naturalizing is what it's all about for me when it concerns bulbs ... yes, they're a lot of work to get started, but if one is patient over the following years, that's when the reward really starts to pay off. Of course, any perennial gardener already knows this, but I think it's worth reminding ourselves about this at times, especially when it relates to early Spring bulbs!

Despite my recent laments about the spotty performance of Dwarf Iris in our gardens, three of them have managed to sneak above ground since I last visited this area with the camera on Thursday! What a great surprise to find when we ventured to the back garden today! They came up remarkably quickly (I didn't see them on Thursday!) and have bloomed apparently the last two days, testimony to their ephemeral nature, as the one that looks purple is already a spent bloom ... the blue is fresh and current. These are such incredible little flowers, but I still wonder about expending much time, money and energy into growing them, given their spotty hardiness for us so far. We'd love to have a great mass of them ... but don't want to have to be planting them every year, so again, if anyone has great success stories to share about growing these Iris, please let us know. We'd love to be able to count on seeing them every year!

All in all, it was a great first Spring day here at Casa IVG ... the front beds got cleaned up and are sprouting all sorts of plants (including dandelions!) and the big wind up to Summer is starting with our earliest bulbular friends' (imminent) appearance. By this evening, all three of us were exhausted from today's work after dinner and conked out in our respective nesting places (recliners and couch) for a good portion of the night, so no Saturday Cinema here this week. But we all had more than sufficient fresh air, sunshine, warmth and work to wear us out, and when you add in a big dinner, it's easy to see why we all conked out for a while!

I think we're all contented with the arrival of Spring and all we got done today ... but it's going to be that yearly adjustment to the season (e.g. work and fresh air makes you sleepy!) that will send us into the full swing for the next few months in terms of planting. Weather permitting, we hope to get some more clean up done tomorrow, and perhaps even some seed planting ... we'll see how it goes, since the next few days are being forecast as fairly rainy. No matter what, we had some great flowers blooming on this, the first day of Spring! Let's hope old snow has finally been sent packing!

More Bulbs Are Starting to Pop Up ...

Today wasn't as warm as earlier this week, but at this point, even a sunny day with a temperature of 54 seems balmy! So I quit work at 4:30 and headed outside to survey our messy garden that's definitely starting to wake up ... even though I tied Hanna to her long lead in the backyard, she certainly seemed to enjoy the late afternoon sun while I strolled about the gardens ... except for that chattery evil tree rat that tormented her from the spruce. Actually I was amazed she didn't bark at it because it's already clear that she has no tolerance for such vermin! They better be on notice, because she's quick enough she may just nail one some day soon and that won't be a pretty sight (for the tree rat)!

Though these first few photos may look a bit like reruns, they actually have new flowers popping up in them ... this is the same area in the far back garden where the first snowdrops and crocus have appeared, but now you can see that additional clumps of both have sprung up since we last visited this area. Those crocus have definitely been moving around a bit, as have the snowdrops, so just click through to the larger version and let your eyes wander and find the splashes of gold and white ... also note the increasing numbers of Monarda (Bee Balm) starts coming up ... I think this will have to be the year that we thin this patch out! We have both the deep red and purple ('Blue Stocking') planted together out here and with all of the Phlox Paniculata (Pink) that took over back here last year, this corner is in serious need of some thinning. As for the Monarda, we'll probably just give it away to interested gardeners, and our tentative plan is to dig a lot of the Phlox and move it along to our back fenceline and hope it doesn't offend our neighbor, but we hope she wouldn't object because when it blooms, the scent around it is just delightful!

Here's a closer view of the same area, and I think I can spy some other things breaking ground here ... I hope one of them is that blue dwarf Iris! We would be two very happy gardeners to see it reappear this year, despite our doubts ... you'll be sure to see it here if it does!

Out front, the snowdrops are finally, slowly, showing up ... this is a shot of the Primrose bed by the front steps, complete with the "Round Tuit" that Shady Gardener gifted me with during her visit last summer (thanks again, Shady!). There are only about 4-5 Snowdrops in this bed, but I'd like to add more ... the ones that are here ended up getting planted because they were dug up inadvertently from other positions and I didn't want to lose them, so I put them toward the front of this bed where they are multiplying slowly.

I could see today that the Primroses are greening up and pushing up through the leaves, so this weekend, I plan to carefully rake out this bed to give them more air and sun ... I'm anxious to get a handle on just how many we have this year because last year they had practically doubled in number from the previous year and that would be a fantastic discovery to make again this year! I've been toying with the idea of ordering more from Spring Hill Nursery, which was the original source for these Primula polyanthus hybrids, which have been the only Primroses I've ever had any degree of success in growing. They're not cheap (3 for $12.99), but they're pretty foolproof as long as you pamper them a bit during the dry months and these have even been known to produce a brief flush of re-blooms in the fall as long as the hard freeze doesn't come too early. They're hardy from zones 3-8 (yes, Boran2, you could grow these!), and aside from needing a partial to shady position in moisture retentive humus rich soil and some watering during dry periods, they're very hardy and these hybrids have multiplied pretty rapidly for me. This will be their fourth year here this Spring.

I fell in love with Primroses over 30 years ago during my first trip to France in 1978, where in the spring one sees these planted in huge masses in public gardens and many people also buy them on the streets to grow in windows and balconies ... seeing a mass of these planted by the hundreds, all blooming simultaneously is truly a beautiful sight! When I made my first hike in the Pyrenees (near Andorra) that spring, I also saw them growing wild and profusely everywhere (the "Cowslip" variety) and I still have a project I did for my exchange program --a notebook of dried mountain wildflowers-- that contains a yellow primrose I collected ... along with other flowers of Le Midi such as the famed Violettes de Toulouse, the native flower from my home base at the time. Little did I expect at the time that one day I'd own a home where I'd be striving to make them happy enough to bloom for me! It may have taken me a few years, but I'm glad I finally made it....

These next two shots are the first two snowdrops to show up in our "original bulb bed" that we started 10 years ago (yes, these were Martha Stewart bulbs, lol!) and are usually the first to appear, but this year this bed was piled high with so much snow over the winter it must have really frozen things down deep because even the many crocus in this bed haven't shown themselves yet, but won't be much longer I hope, because there are some real beauties planted here! I think I'll give this a light raking this weekend as well just to get the leaves off of the ground to encourage the ground to warm up a bit quicker ... aren't these two "twins" cute together nodding in the same direction?

This one had actually "speared" a leaf on its way up from beneath the ground, and it's funny, because though I had taken a (not so great) shot of this same flower while I was out, once Fernymoss got home from work, he grabbed the camera and took a few photos as well (he took these two) and he removed the leaf! Galanthus elwesii is a determined little flower and though it may take its time to show up, when it does, it's not going to let something like a leaf keep it from doing its floriferous duty! Now, if the rest of the crocus would just get busy and spear a few leaves of their own, I'll be a happy gardener!

This is actually an inadvertent puppy picture! The real subject of this shot was supposed to be one of our Chives plants in the little herb bed behind the house, but Hanna decided to walk into the frame just as I took it. So far the chives are the only thing that have come back to life, but there are also several varieties of Sage and some Thyme planted back here ... we'll also probably have some volunteer Cilantro and Basil as well because I let some of them go to seed last summer with just that in mind. It's good to see the chives back up, not only because I like to use them in cooking, but if you've ever grown them you know how pretty the flowers can be when they bloom in the spring, just one more reason to have them in the garden! One of many....

There are other things breaking ground here now that I saw today and I'll have another post sometime this weekend showing what I've discovered ... we also plan on spending some time doing clean up (it's supposed to be in the mid-50s this weekend) in the garden, so I'm sure we'll discover a few other Spring surprises ... just one more day until the solstice! It's about time!!!

The Snowdrops Have Finally Arrived!

Some tentative signs of spring have finally arrived in our neighborhood ... at least the first snowdrops have broken the ground! Actually these clumps (in the far back garden where it's much sunnier than out front) first emerged on February 25 (the first two shots) and were promptly buried again by snow and then that torrential rain-hail event we had the day after that. But, true to their tough reputation, they persevered and are now entering into full bloom.
This first shot shows the flowers just breaking through the surface and beginning to unfold their leaves .. I first thought these might be crocus, but closer examination revealed that no, these were indeed Snowdrops. This particular clump has migrated a bit from the original planting and appears to be doing quite nicely spreading out around the area. We're glad to see them gradually forming more small drifts of flowers each spring, which is precisely what we wanted them to do over time. These were some of the very first bulbs we planted over 8 years ago and every year we're thrilled to see them arrive and bring more of their friends with them, because where Snowdrops are concerned, the more the merrier! We'd love to plant several more big masses of them, but for some reason, Snowdrops are a very pricey bulb for such a small flower ... averaging just under a dollar a piece, which seems inordinate to me, but hey I don't set the prices. Maybe one of these days we'll find a mega sale on them and we can plant them everywhere, but for now, we just have 3 areas where they grow, out back where these are, in the Primrose bed and a few in our original bulb bed by the sidewalk. Fernymoss told me today that the ones out front are just beginning to come up, so I should have photos of those soon!
Here's the more developed clump ... as you can see the flowers are just beginning to emerge from their stems ... then nasty weather hit for two days (Snow, Rain, Hail!) and I was afraid to go check on their progress (besides it was like a lake in the backyard!) until late last week.
Friday I could tell from the window that they were indeed blooming now, so after work I headed out (swamp and all) and took some pictures ... They're coming along quite nicely now! I'm glad to see them finally arrive, and given the chilly weather we're due to have this week, I think they'll stick around for a while. Snowdrop blooms can last quite a while as long as the weather doesn't turn off hot (fat chance of that here right now!), so they should be around long enough to join the crocus when they finally get going, so look forward to much more of them together.

Honestly, I'm getting really impatient for the crocus to appear! Both of us have been scouring areas of the gardens where they will come up and haven't seen a single sign of them yet ... I think it's going to take a few days of really nice, sunny weather to spur them along, but when they pop, we're looking forward to a veritable explosion of crocus!

And yes, I'm a bit antsy about that ... I've had more than my fill of winter and all its "bugs" that have been hitting me all winter long! Last Tuesday-Thursday I was hit with yet another intestinal bug that gave me intense and very painful stomach cramps along with everyone's favorite, vomiting as well. Tuesday and Wednesday night were miserable and I could hardly sleep at all and it was Friday night before I had much solid food other than saltines and toast, but finally I was able to work my way back to some scrambled eggs. Oddly enough, at some indeterminate point on Friday afternoon, I suddenly felt all better, so apparently that particular nasty bug finally decided to exit my system. Thanks for leaving, and please don't come back will ya? It seems like I've had every single thing that has come through town this winter and have been sick off and on since Christmas, and I think I deserve a break! Anyway, I hope you helped yourself to the cheese while I whined there....
Ok, excuse me, but I still can't resist precious puppy moments ... here's Hanna from Friday night as we were watching John Waters' A Dirty Shame ... obviously this one didn't capture her interest any more than Wallace and Gromit the previous week. I guess she's just not a movie dog, though she has shown some interest in The Dog Whisperer and a few Animal Planet shows we've watched recently, mostly because they had barking dogs in them, I think. But then she had played really hard with Lacey several times Friday night and I think at the point I took this shot, they had both been played out and Hanna didn't even twitch when I took a whole series of her ... she was totally out to lunch, curled up in a ball and didn't move until we got ready to head upstairs....Actually she pulled a funny stunt last night after she got all wound up playing with Lacey (who then tired and quit playing) ... she started tearing around the room at breakneck speed, running behind all the curtains, couch and furniture multiple times before sailing across the living room toward the couch ... she made a minor miscalculation in jumping and rammed head on into the base of the couch! She paused briefly, as if saying, "I meant to do that!," then jumped up on the couch and curled up. We were both cracking up because it was such a classic cartoonish moment, one that made me think of Pee Wee Herman on his bike. It's moments like those that make us savor every silly puppy moment she gives us ... she's such a happy energetic pup who really knows how to live in the moment. I think in that respect she has a lot to teach us. It's rarely a dull moment with Hanna around!

Well, Lacey went home today and it's much quieter (and oddly more spacious) around here now. I'm sure Lacey is home now, relishing the peace and quiet without a crazy puppy pestering her to play at every instant ... she's such a patient and loving dog. I do think the two of them did bond somewhat over the week or so we had Lacey around and by last night they were even snuggling up together briefly, but the best thing was that there were no spats or too much jealousy exhibited. We're just hoping that Hanna filed away those good puppy tips Lacey had to pass on to her ... I think she will. She's a great little dog with a good start and learns so fast that we have really high hopes for her ... we just have to keep her busy and stimulated. Which reminds me, it's about time to play "find the treats" again ... it's a game we used to play with Pepa and Rolly ... very simple actually ... the dog must leave the room while we go around and plant bits of dog food in the room, out in plain sight, but odd places (windowsills, baseboards, ledges, etc.) then let Hanna back in, tell her to find the treats and she gets busy! The last time we played with her, it took her about an hour to find all the pieces (there were a lot) but she was a happy pup when she finished!

Now a few words about A Dirty Shame ...
Our Friday night dinner and a movie was purely escapist and frivolous, as only John Waters can deliver ... so this week's choice was easy ... when everything else sounds blah, delve into the Waters! I know many of you may not be familiar with John Waters, other than perhaps Hairspray, but he's been an obsession of mine for many years ... I've followed every film of his since Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs and the infamous Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble since the late 1970's. I've watched with fascination how he's morphed into more "mainstream" filmmaking over the years with films such as Polyester, Hairspray, Cry Baby and Pecker, and have generally been pretty approving of these works, even if they strayed pretty far from his original radical épater le bourgeois ("outrage the bourgeois") type trash fests. With a couple of exceptions I find somewhat questionable, Serial Mom, Cecil B. Demented, I love his entire trashy oeuvre. (Did you know William S. Burroughs gave him the moniker of "Pope of Trash?")

Now, Waters' films are not for everyone. In fact they generally aim to offend, outrage and make you laugh at the absurdity of we silly humans. No obsession is spared, no fetish or foible is spared ... Waters lays it all out for ample mockery. If all you've seen is Hairspray (hopefully the Waters non-musical version), there's a whole world behind all of that awaiting you, and it's not always pretty, but it's funny as hell.

So ... it was with slavering anticipation that I awaited the arrival of A Dirty Shame back in 2004. Alas, this film got such a pitiful release (only in big cities) that it never made it to Des Moines, or else no one would book it, I'm not sure which. That was a pity, because this is perhaps the funniest Waters film in about 30 years, and is, in many ways, a throwback to his earlier, trashier and more jubilant films. I've always wondered if he had this idea filed away somewhere from way back because it seems like such a fit for his regulars such as Divine, Edie Massey, Mink Stole and the rest of the Dreamland crew of yore ... but no matter, how he finally brought this to the screen is brilliance. Casting the likes of Tracey Ullmann (that woman can do no wrong!), Johnny Knoxville and Chris Isaak, it had to be good!

The plot, quite simply, relates the war between the "sex addicts" and the "neuters," who engage in battle in modern day Baltimore, centering around the tawdry "Pack n'Sack" convenienence store run by Ullmann and Isaak. One morning, as Sylvia Stickles (Ullmann) heads to the store, she runs out of gas, gets out of her car and is whacked on the head by a passing vehicle, which leads a to life changing moment ... at that point she becomes a sex addict who is rescued by Ray Ray (Knoxville) and introduced to a whole new life diametrically opposed to her humdrum sex negative life. What follows is a compendium of sexual perversions and fetishes as we meet the various denizens of the sex addict community, all to hilarious results. Even Waters admits he doesn't think some of these are for real, but he just had to include them for comic effect.

So if you've ever been wondering what "Yodeling in the canyon" is, or a "double decker" or what a "plate job" is, this is the film that will reveal the answers for you. I've omitted a few of the more unsavory references (well, quite a few of them!) but this should give you a flavor of what's in store. It's all in good natured Watersian fun and if you approach this film with the right attitude, it should be a lot of fun (we got our requisite bellyaches of laughs as always). Obviously, if you have kids around the house, make sure they're fast asleep unless you want to be answering uncomfortable questions for quite some time! "Daddy, why is that guy eating dirt?" "Why is that man dressed up like a baby?" "Why is that woman's crotch burning?"

Thankfully, dogs don't ask those kinds of questions.

Galanthus Forever! (I wish...)

Some more shots of Snowdrops ... in the snow this time, albeit briefly! I took the first shot Friday late afternoon, when the sun was literally pouring through the flowers out front (such as the crocus in the previous post) on a really nice spring day ... whereas Fernymoss took the second shot just the previous day when we got that surprise snow. Though the second environment is how we usually expect to see the Snowdrops emerge (which usually happens in February, not late March!) ... eager harbingers of spring, bearing promises of crocus soon to come ...

Though I didn't get out to take some more shots today (household tasks got in the way), I did take a quick tour around the back yard and front gardens to see how things are progressing ... still no signs of the big Hyacinths, the Crown Imperials or the Siberian Squill, but there are lots of crocus, tulips, Daffodils, Chionodoxa and Spanish Squill breaking ground. It won't be much longer, that is, if the weather cooperates!

Olivia asked me recently if the Dragon Arum had broken ground yet, to which I of course had to answer Not yet... If I recall correctly (I should check the archives on this), it broke through in late April or Early May last year, and was in full bloom a month later. We're hoping that this year (its third) it may actually be able to muster up more than one bloom, though even if it's just one (as last year) we'll be more than happy. We're planning on adding one or two more of these spectacular oddities in the fall, if all goes well ... we'd love to incorporate some more Arums into the scheme of things, but I think we'll need to take stock of the landscape after everything is up here to see if there is enough room. They're somewhat pricey bulbs to plant, but well worth the results they offer!

If you're interested in planting some interesting bulbs, I'll conclude by linking to two resources we have used (to great satisfaction) for purchasing bulbs online.

The first, McClure-Zimmerman bulbs has a fantastic selection ranging from the more common bulbs (tulips, crocus, etc.) to more esoteric collectors' items such as a wealth of Fritillaria species and of course, Arums.

Van Bourgondien bulbs and plants was the original source for the Dragon Arum, as well as that half bushel of daffodils we planted several years ago. They have competitive prices, a great selection and best of all, they ship exactly when you're ready to plant, so you can order in June (usually with a significant discount) and they'll arrive right about when you're ready to plant. They usually also include a freebie or two with larger orders (we got a couple of Iris from them last time) and don't charge your card until they ship (in case that's a concern). --End of shameless plug-- But I'm often asked where one can get certain things they've seen on the blog, and these are two sources we consider reliable, high quality purveyor of bulbs.

Galanthus Encore

We're still seeing some new snowdrops popping up in places, though in another week or two, they'll have likely disappeared until next year ... such is the garden fate of one of its earliest late winter arrivals. But we do treasure them for their brief reign over the still messy garden littered with leaf cover, from which they have little problem (if any) just punching their way through when they're ready!

These two little clumps are near the front of our original bulb bed we started out front years ago, and if we can get ambitious enough this season, we'd like to to totally overhaul it and build it up. But it all remains to be seen, because this particular bed is just loaded with small bulbs (crocus and galanthus), tulips and daffodils and a few stray fritillarias. In the first shot, if you look closely you can see even more crocus poking through the leaves on their way to their place in the newly warming Spring sun.

I consider the second shot a fortuitous mise en scène of these little plants emerging from their winter den ... I can almost see the nest where they spent their winter's nap below them, and it's as if they all woke up at different times and are arising from the darkness where they slept .... But alas, their waking period is oh too brief, and they'll soon hibernate again until the right moment again next Spring. To me, that's one of the most magical aspects of the spring bulbs ... they provide so much beauty and wonderment during their relatively brief appearances, only to vanish until the following year. When I think about it, it's a lot like Morel season ... it's brief, sweet and oh so delicious, but oh so short ... always leaving us wanting more.

Photos taken 29 March, 2008
Fuji Finepix 2650 -- soon to be replaced by the bigger, badder Fuji S700!
More to come ...

Yippee! The Snowdrops Finally Appear!

We've been waiting for over a month now to see the Snowdrops emerge ... telling ourselves that this is the latest we've ever seen them ... Well, I was curious about last year's arrival date, so I went back to the archives and found this post. Looks like we were getting impatient last year too! But, after what has seemed to be an interminable winter, the Galanthus elwesii have finally broken ground ... now we know that winter is on its inevitable way out ....

These photos show a nice little patch that has been naturalizing in the back corner garden, along with the yellow crocus featured in the previous post. We're of the mind that you can never have too many Snowdrops or Crocus in the garden ... they both naturalize freely in the garden and don't mind breaking through the winter dead vegetation and leaf cover, oftentimes literally spearing their way through to announce themselves, and with that the definitive arrival of the Spring bulb season.

I was out this afternoon after work getting some late day shots of some of the crocus out front and I noticed that lots of other bulbs are breaking ground ... tulips, daffodils and even more crocus are on their way to join the show! I'll be featuring them here (as usual) as they come into bloom, so there's lots more to look forward to in the next few weeks ...

Photos taken 21 March, 2008