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What a lovely spring day today: partly cloudy, highs in the low 70's ... and I sure wished I hadn't been cooped up in the house working! But I at least was able to get out for a little while after work (and before dinner time) to make the discovery rounds with Fernymoss. Though we didn't get anything in the ground just yet, we both were able to get some shots of the current show and made a few surprising discoveries in the process.
So let's peek inside the Mother Ship below and get going on the tour....
Alas, the tulips are starting to wind down, and all it's going to take is a hard rain or a really windy day and their precious petals will be sent sailing off in the breeze ... but for the moment, they are still looking pretty stunning nonetheless. Fernymoss was having a lot of fun shooting these types of shots of blooms that were lowering the front door of the Mother Ship to reveal the mysterious forms within. This particular bloom is one of our Darwins that have made somewhat of a comeback this year. Even though we lost over 100 of these in that awful late extended freeze in 2007, we're still convinced that these hybrids are the best tulips who truly qualify as perennials. With their 18" stems (no kidding!) and brilliant colors, the Darwins are by far your best value in tulips if you want them to stick around for a good long time.....
Here's a quick shot I took of the overall "ensemble" going on in the Primrose bed by the front steps ... I plan on doing an entire post on these beauties soon, but I need to be able to take the time to get close ups, but for now, I wanted to give a sense of just how this grouping works together. The Blue (and red) one you see at the lower left is the pot I got last weekend and planted on Sunday, and so far they look quite happy in their new home. To the right, just by the yellow ones is the plant I got for Valentine's day. It had to spend a little too long in the house on the windowsill, but now that it's in the ground near its cousins, I'm hopeful that it will stake out its place and join the party ... it's a crap shoot as to whether this will be perennial or not (quite often the primroses sold as potted plants aren't), but at least it has a fighting chance. It will get pampered throughout the season, as will all of these, my much prized Primulas.
And here's the newest member of our Hellebore family, Ivory Prince, that we just got last weekend. Though this is not his permanent home, I just wanted to get a shot of him to show off because he's currently got a lot of blooms going on. Talk about instant gratification ... though we have been patiently nursing some very small plants we got in 2005 over the past four years (and they are blooming now ... more on them later), we both feel that $22 was more than a fair price for this plant, given what most nurseries charge for much smaller plants (usually in the $8-9 range). Plus, we already know what the blooms will look like! Gail commented the other day that she has this variety and she really likes it, so we have confirmation from a good source that this was indeed a wise buy. We're excited to see how this new addition will make his home in the Woodland Garden....
An update on what I posted as a "mystery plant" last week ... long term readers here immediately knew what this was, so I might as well lift the veil of "secrecy" and reveal that this is indeed Dracunculs vulgaris, aka: Dragon Arum, and affectionately known as "Mr. Stinky" around Casa IVG. This was an enormous bulb we originally planted in 2005, and in 2006 it came up, leafed out but didn't bloom ... but then in 2007, it rewarded us with its first bloom. (If you'd like to see the evolving history of this plant, click on the "Dracunculus vulgaris" label below the post to see all previous entries. Then you'll see what this will become in another month or so.) Last year it bloomed again, but also put up five little offshoots at its base, so we're hoping for multiple blooms this year ... but today Fernymoss discovered that this year we have eight offshoots coming up and leafing out right now. Wow, just wow! When we planted this, we weren't even sure it would be reliably hardy here, but it sure seems to be happy where we have it planted in the Woodland Garden not far from the peonies. It's ironic that we chose to plant the stinkiest plant in our garden so close to the flowers with the best fragrance ... we'll just call it a happy coincidence.
For those of you who need your daily puppy pic fix, here's Hanna this afternoon, working her Kong for all it's worth. During the day when I'm working, she hangs out with me in my office either snoozing on the futon couch or looking out the window at the world, and is very patient with my schedule. Of course I give her regular attention and loving, but she really seems to realize that I'm working and behaves herself quite well. But when early afternoon comes, she needs to head out for a potty break, and when we return she expects her Kong! So I usually stuff it with a bit of peanut butter and a few small treats to keep her busy for a while ... Here she's trying to extract that last little bit of peanut butter from the Kong, after getting the crunchy treats out first. She has a really cool way of using her front paws literally as hands to grip the Kong, and that was what I was trying to capture, but once the camera is fired up, she gets "shy" about showing off what she can do. At least this shot shows a little bit of what she can do to grip things with her front paws ... what a constantly amazing little girl she has turned out to be! We think she's going to grow up to be "scary smart" due to her already huge vocabulary of words she recognizes! She definitely has mastered every corner of the house so far and knows where everything is (especially the food and treats), so she clearly has established the reign of Princess Hanna, whether we like it or not! And we're thrilled, of course.....
As I noted yesterday, it seems like such a relief that May is finally here and we can banish (most) thoughts of snow (and hard freezes) and concentrate on enjoying the rewards of Spring ...the bulbs are outdoing themselves so far this year and I feel like I can hardly keep up with them at this point, thus the "potpourri" format once again. Though I prefer the single focus on plants in most of my posts, that will come soon, because there are certain plants I definitely want to highlight, but for now, let's just enjoy the many colors now on display at Casa IVG.
Great weather in the high 60's is forecast for today (and no rain for a change!!!) and we plan to get a lot more of the clean up done and get some things in the ground, notably the entire flat of Snapdragons that Fernymoss brought home today after work! We also have a trip to Petco planned for Hanna (her favorite store!) and either today or Sunday we're going to hit our favorite garden center for more plants ... Tonight we vowed that we won't make any major purchases of plants without having gotten the previous ones in the ground first, so that means that we have to get 2 Serrano Pepper plants, some 'ginormous' Italian parsley and that flat of Snapdragons in the ground before we go bringing more things home with us ... we'll see how that works out!
So let's take today's tour ... these are some more of the many Grape Hyacinths we have planted around in the front boulder bed ... this little stand has multiplied nicely since they were planted several years ago (quite late as they were forgotten in the fall and I stuck these in the ground in December!). Though Grape Hyacinths aren't really Hyacinths at all, you can see two real ones in the background, the variety 'Peter Stuyvesant,' which is probably my favorite of all of them, and of course it has that lovely Hyacinth fragrance that perfumes the area, something we don't get from many of the spring bulbs. If you enlarge this photo, you can see the now withered remains of a few of the Species Tulip 'Persian Pearl' in the background as well. That's my only minor gripe with them, they only last a bit over a week, but they're so pretty while they do last!
Let's round the corner and enter the Woodland Garden area where the Daffodils are gradually winding down and take a look at some more Hyacinths ... this is another 'Peter Stuyvesant' along with the other variety we have planted, 'Jan de Bos.' For some reason a couple of the latter have disappeared this year (alas) unless they're just going to be up really late, but anyway, I really like the color of 'Jan' with its almost fuschia shade (though it's typically considered red). I love the combination of these bold colors with the Daffodils, but then, I've been known to appreciate rather "loud" colors once or twice in my life....
We were hopeful that our Darwin Tulips would finally recover somewhat after the disastrous last two springs that had late very cold spells after they had come up ... and though they're nowhere near as numerous as they once were (in 2006 there were about 300+ planted out front), at least they are making a comeback. This is one of the masses we have in the corner Boulder Bed and if you look closely you'll see a few Grape Hyacinths have survived as well (we lost a lot of those in 2007 and 2008 as well), so we'll just keep hoping for future improvement in these areas. I'll have more of these soon, once we can get some shots of them when they are actually open during the day (hopefully this weekend).
Here we have some newcomers to the Boulder Beds ... these are Fritillaria uva-vulpis, (aka, 'Fox's Grape') that were just planted last fall. Though they look similar to the Fritillaria michailovskii we have planted elsewhere, they are much taller (apparently they can reach over 12 inches at maturity) and the colors are a bit more muted, they do share the same sort of lampshade shaped blooms, and instead of single blooming, these little foxes of the garden often bear two or more flowers per stalk.
According to most sources I've read, Uva-vulpis also tends to naturalize much more readily than Michailovskii, so we are looking forward to seeing many more of these in future years. When they first emerge they look pretty insubstantial, much like a long blade of grass, but these have quickly matured over the last two weeks and are just now popping into bloom in various places, so you can probably expect to see (and hear more about) them again soon....
From the better late than never department ... we now have three Hellebores in bloom, two for the first time! Finally, our patience is paying off, and these tiny plants we put in way back in 2005 are starting to bloom for us. Since they were sold as a mix, I really have no idea what varieties they are, other than they belong to the "Royal Heritage" strains (which doesn't really tell one much). We're just happy to see them blooming! Though the plants have done pretty well over the past few years, only one has deigned to bloom for us until this year so this represents a bit of a milestone for this particular area of the Woodland Garden. And, as any garden blogger with Hellebores knows, they're not particularly easy flowers to get good shots of without literally getting down on the ground and looking up. Though they're beautiful flowers, they don't make it easy for us to appreciate that beauty, so hats off to Fernymoss for getting down and doing some "wet belly photography" to bring these to this humble blog....
Ok, I'll admit that this shot makes me feel a bit voyeuristic because my first impression was that I was invading the private space of this Hellebore bloom ... for some reason (maybe because I'm so immersed in iconic film imagery?) this reminded me of that famous picture of Marilyn Monroe with her skirt being blown upwards by a subway grate. Maybe I just have a dirty mind (heh, like I try to go looking up women's skirts!), this shot just seemed so overtly sexual that I had to include it in this post. Not that this is a prurient blog at all, but let's just remind ourselves that the whole reason that flowers bloom in the first place is to reproduce themselves, so we have to give them some (ahem) license in what they do! I do think that this is one of the more creative and stunning shots Fernymoss has gotten in a while, and hopefully we'll have even more Hellebore pictures soon....
Finally, I've gotten a few comments lately that I've been neglecting the "gratuitous puppy shots" in my posts, so we did some quick improvised "cuteness" shots tonight for this post. And just for Marnie, who remarked recently that she thought Hanna looked like such a calm dog when I had said that she was so often in motion that she was challenging to capture in still shots ... here she is running across the living room after having retrieved her favorite Kong. Though Hanna definitely knows when to be mellow (amazing for such a young pup), her usual mode is in motion and jumping and running. We love her all the more for that, and especially when she knows that it's inappropriate behavior and calms down. Once again, we thank our lucky stars that she chose to come and live with us and brighten our lives after our recent losses of Pepa and Rolly....
Make of this shot what you will ... though Hanna still doesn't spend all that much time on Pepa's old bed, she does take advantage of it on occasion, and here she seems to be enjoying some "loungy" time.... Hopefully, if the weather cooperates this weekend, we might be able to get some cuteness pictures of her outside this weekend, so stay tuned!
Spring is a season full of surprises and discoveries in the garden, whether they be pleasant or less so ... but today was filled with excellent ones! As I took Hanna out when I was done working today, I glanced back at the area I've been featuring in the last few posts, and to my astonishment, I saw little masses of purple! After she was done with her end of business, we both strolled back to the corner bed to see what was going on ... lo and behold, there were several small clumps of Specie crocus 'Tricolor' just blooming away where just a day ago there were none! Apparently I had forgotten that I had planted these back there in 2005 (though Fernymoss assures me that I did) because I wasn't expecting any more crocus to be showing up there ... and, as a really pleasant bonus, I discovered yet another blue Iris reticulata in bloom! Maybe we're not such failures with these after all! Now I'm encouraged to buy more of these in the fall and try a bunch in various other places in the garden ... so perhaps my earlier discouragement was unfounded after all....
Here's a closer shot of these little charmers blooming bravely into the late afternoon on a rainy and overcast day ... unlike the yellow crocus who close up shop the minute the sun wanes, these little guys were still showing off for me, even if the light wasn't optimum for capturing their true colors ... but never fear, we have plenty of these out front as well, so you'll be seeing them in sunnier conditions sometime soon! Note the prolific Monarda (Bee Balm) surrounding these beauties ... fortunately they'll be at rest before the Monarda shoots up and shades them out completely from the sun....
We're still in the savage back corner here (we need another couple of nice days like last weekend to get this cleaned up!) where I discovered some more of our original bulb plantings from way back in 2000. At that time, we were aiming for the "natural surprise" effect of Tulips and Daffodils in apparently random spots ... silly us, that was before we discovered the real benefit of planting these bulbs in masses for a more dramatic effect! We've changed out ways and now are firm believers in group plantings of Tulips, Daffodils, Crocus and Muscari, and as the Spring progresses, we hope some of the Tulip masses will make a comeback ... it remains to be seen, but all my lamenting about the Iris reticulata seemed to do the trick, so I'm going to keep our Tulip expectations low and hope for the best! 
I'm sure Gail at Clay and Limestone will immediately recognize these emerging perennials ... it's Phlox paniculata (I'm not sure what variety because this was a gifted plant from another gardener), which we've really come to appreciate over the past couple of years as it has aggressively come to dominate the back corner bed ... last year it was so prolific that it crowded out a few things we may have lost (including a couple of hibiscus), so this spring we plan on digging up quite a few of these to move to the back fence line, where we hope our neighbor won't object too much ... they're so pretty (even if they are pink!), such long bloomers and are so fragrant that we think she'll be fine with having these lining her driveway. We have great ambitions for this back bed this year, after neglecting it the past two or three years ... we want to thin out the Monarda, Phlox and Coneflowers, move our Oriental Poppies from this area and get more Hollyhocks going back here again. This will also give our Black-Eyed Susans a bit more breathing room to spread as well, so wish us well on this project! It's going to involve a lot of digging and moving plants, and some will probably go to new homes too, if there's interest in adopting some of our more enthusiastic growers....
Well, these look mighty dead don't they? Actually there's great potential for beauty hiding in these pods! For anyone who grows this plant -- Baptisia australis aka: 'False Indigo' -- these will be easy to ID, and for the uninitiated, we can't recommend this amazing perennial highly enough! They're incredibly hardy from Zones 3-9 and though they take a couple of years to get established enough to bloom, they're very carefree from that point on. Aside from their striking long stalks of blue sweet pea like flowers, they have lovely grey-green foliage that remains attractive throughout the season (we often use it as filler in bouquets) and produce these pods in late summer and fall. I've read that some people dry the pod stalks for use indoors in the winter, but honestly, unless you do something like spray paint them, or prefer black pods, we've never seen much use for them as "everlastings." We just let the seeds fall where they may, and when we find volunteers in the spring, we find them new homes to inhabit ... they are truly striking and quite dramatic when they bloom in late May or early June and every year someone inevitably stops us to inquire just what they are. We don't see a lot of these around town and wonder why, because they are such an easy plant to grow ... they just require a hard pruning in the spring (they only bloom on new wood) before the new shoots emerge ... which, by the way, look like huge stalks of asparagus! If you're not familiar with Baptisia, you owe it to yourself to get acquainted and find one a nice sunny spot in the garden. We're going to move a second year seedling to the front this spring as soon as it emerges so we can have another spectacular display out in the boulder bed....
I know, I know, these guys look pretty bedraggled don't they? But imagine you just spent the entire winter buried under nearly 5 feet of snow, covered with leaves and only got to see the light of day just recently and you might not be looking so chipper either! These are my prized Primula polyanthus, the ones I was waxing rhapsodically about last week ... though they don't look real happy just yet, look closer and you'll see there's a ton of new growth happening at the center of each clump. All they need now is some sunshine, milder weather and about another month to grow and they'll be blooming in all their wonderful jewel toned colors ... I can't wait, but guess I'll have to after all! Remarkably, these Primula tend to stay pretty green throughout the winter, even if they do look like wilted spinach. I'd venture to guess that for those of you in milder climes where the winters aren't as harsh, they would probably be evergreen throughout the winter. Their main enemy is too dry of a planting position, and I tend to pamper these during the hotter months and water them nearly every day if we're not getting regular rains. They're worth the extra effort for the show they put on every spring and sometimes even fall (when it doesn't get cold too soon).
Finally, we've come full circle from the far back corner to the front of the boulder bed where we discovered these delightful additions I planted back in 2005 ... look at the enlarged version and see if you can spot what I'm talking about ... these are Tulipa humilis v. 'Persian Pearl,' one of the many varieties of "wild" or Species Tulips. They're one of two varieties we have planted and I look forward to seeing them every year ... they're tiny dwarf tulips with every bit of the attraction of their larger cousins and make excellent additions to rock gardens or the front of a border where you want to show off something unusual and colorful ... so be patient and when they bloom you'll see them again in their full glory!
After our wonderful sunny and warm weekend, we're now heading into several rainy and gloomy days (in fact there's a thundershower going on as I write this) where it's forecast to be much cooler, with a few nights down into the lowest 30s, so that's bound to slow down the arrival of some of the other bulbs (such as those in the Woodland Garden), but unless we sustain long periods of sub-freezing weather (such as we did in 2007, which caused the great die off of many tulips and other bulbs), what's up so far should fare pretty well. At least I hope so ... one never knows with these wacky winters we've been having the past few years ... there was another huge tulip and daffodil die off again last year, though our Daffodils were spared and we had a good show ... and it seems the tulips are making somewhat of a comeback, so we're keeping all appendages crossed at this point! Of course, the chronicle will continue, so keep stopping back to see what's going on....
As those who know me will attest, I'm a huge fan of fire coloured flowers, especially those in the yellow to orange range. Now I'll admit first off, that these gorgeous tulips are not from our garden (we should have been so lucky this year!), but are from our neighbor's yard across the street. (He's the cool guy who, in late 2002, left a huge pile of boulders in our yard ... the ones that eventually became the front boulder bed.)
A couple of years ago he bought an enormous number of tulips of all sorts at a late season sale and had his helpers plant them, quite literally all around his place. I don't quite understand how they managed to escape the carnage ours suffered, but they sure were a welcome sight on the block recently, given our paltry number of blooms. What's odd is that he had a bunch of daffodils planted too, but they have largely disappeared this year (along with a lot of others' daffodils), but most of the tulips did quite well. Go figure ... we had a great year for Daffodils, but the Tulips largely disappeared, but when you cross the street, the opposite situation occurred. Ah, the vicissitudes of Iowa weather ....
Photos by Fernymoss, taken on 6 May, 2008.
You may well recognize the second shot in this post, because a slightly different version appeared on Urban Oasis just a few days ago. In fact, both these shots (from 5/06) have been "tinkered" with using photo editing software. They're my first experiments with the new software I was finally forced into downloading last night ... see, I got a trial period copy of Paint Shop Pro with my new computer last fall, and when it expired, there went a lot of the editing functions I used a lot.
So I checked out their upgrade offer, which is now called Corel Photo Album 6 (apparently PSP is no more?). I took a quick spin with some of the features on their website and I quickly concluded for $39 I could do much worse in terms of the features that really matter to me in working with my photos. So out came the credit card and I set down to work ... and work is just what it was in terms of a download! In one of the more complicated downloads I've done in a while, I had to first register an account at Corel, then choose the upgrade download, provide the usual purchase information and then wait for an email with further instructions on how to proceed ... about 15 minutes later the email arrived with my serial number/activation code in it. Then I had to go to another page for detailed step by step instructions on how to download and install it. Then I went to the next step, which involved downloading and installing three installation files ... once that was done, I was told that I had only downloaded a trial version with some features disabled, but in order to "activate it," I had to go to another web page (link provided), enter my activation code and submit it, which took all of about 30 seconds once I clicked the 'continue' button. Then I was informed that now I should launch the program, and it would prompt me (yet again) for the activation code so that it could verify with their website that it was a legit copy. Whew, once accomplished, I was finally able to begin using it! Now I'm sure this was all an anti-piracy method, and I really don't have much of a problem with most of those schemes, but jeez folks, there's got to be a less complicated way to go about it!
After playing with it a bit and getting all my photos catalogued, I discovered the enhancement editing features, which include adjusting for exposure, color, brightness, contrast and other useful functions. It even let me instantly compare what I was doing with the original, which is a nice touch I thought. So ... these are the first two crude experiments that came out of that little session with the new software ... I thought they turned out fairly well, considering I really didn't know entirely what I was doing, but I was happy with the results. Sure, it's no Photoshop, but honestly, that program is too expensive and still way beyond my basic editing skill set. I need something that I can use quickly to perform basic editing (resizing, cropping, etc.) so I can get them uploaded. Though the interface is a bit different from what I was used to in PSP, in terms of its intuitive feel, it's very similar ... so far I'm liking it! And when I can get my skill set upgraded, I'll probably try to do more complicated stuff in GIMP, once I can get used to and figure out how that beast operates ... the little I've done with it so far was very confusing, though in the open source world of software, it's reputed to be on the par with Photoshop. The worst thing for me in the trial run was the fact that you have to have multiple windows open to do anything and have to switch back and forth between them to accomplish even a basic task. Just resizing a photo was too much effort than what I was going to endure at that frustrating point, so I put it aside for a while. Fernymoss has used it for several years and likes it, and says that it's very powerful once you learn it. At this point though, that's for another day! He took a look at the new program I downloaded last night and thought it was pretty good overall. He was especially impressed with how easy it is to perform those enhancement functions I was talking about. Now, I'll just say that 99+% (at this point) of the photos I use here are basically untouched except for resizing and some cropping in certain cases. Call me a curmudgeon, but I still have a fair amount of resistance to drastically altered images for the most part, so if/when I do do something to a photo, I'll be sure to make a note of that. So, the majority of the photos you see here are reproduced au naturel.
This shot is from a large set of photos that Fernymoss took on 26 April. I wish I could claim this one as my own because I really love the angle and degree of textures he was able to get in this shot. And though I had tried to get a shot of this one last weekend, it was too windy and I didn't end up with anything I liked ... but then I wasn't going for this angle either! The colour is very true to the actual flower, which boasts a delicious shading of pinks, salmon and orange. (It too, fortunately, is a survivor!)
And since Boran2 liked the previous (closed up) shot of this Olympic Flame, the last of these favorites still around ... We will definitely be planting more of these in the Fall, along with the others. Actually as I recall, this particular variety isn't terribly expensive (but I think any decent Darwin type tulip under $1 is a good price), and it's pretty hardy and reliable, except when you have a spring like last year's around here ... Anyway, let's enjoy it while it lasts!
Tulips decimated this year ... whine whine whine ... send me some cheese to accompany it, will you please?
Ok, so it's not that bad, and I'm not really begging for cheese ... but if you do happen to have a nice, ripening triple crème brie, I'd be happy to take it off your hands! I might even share some with you, lol.
These two close ups are some of the survivors still left in the original bulb bed and by the sidewalk nearer the house. The first one,, perhaps my all time favorite, is Olympic Flame, and it looks like this is the last of the breed to make it. There used to be about eight of them and there were at least five last year. Even though it's a bit smaller than normal this year, it is managing to make a splash. There also used to be several yellow and red Parrot Tulips, but they too have disappeared.
This basic Red Darwin is the lone tulip in the bed with the primroses (coming soon) and I'm not really sure how it got there. Years ago I planted a bunch of those Peony type Tulips and for a couple of years, foliage came up, but never any blooms, and then they just disappeared. And to think, they were Martha Stewart brand bulbs we got at KMart! Anyway, when we first moved in we discovered there were about 3-5 basic red tulips scattered around what passed as a flower bed back then. We just let them do their thing, but this one appears to have wandered over, or accidentally been brought in (perhaps with some dirt?) and now likes to bloom when the primroses do. It's a nice contrast, so I'm happy that it's here ... you can never have too many red tulips, as I say, hehe. And they positively go with everything!
I took these on 26 April, 2008, using of course the S700! The learning curve is still kind of low due to busy work schedule and crappy weather lately, but so far I'm thrilled how this is working out ...
We'll just wrap up this particular phase of tulipidolatry for now with a nice, illuminated quartet of color (again from April, 2006), showing off the diverse range of truly outstanding shades the
Darwins offer us ... If I haven't sold you by now on the many virtues of the Darwin varieties, I hope this last shot will really make you stop and take notice! They truly are remarkable flowers, and well worth the expenditure of effort it takes to get them going,
In the next few days I'll try to present some contrasting shots from this year, since it appears we will have some (albeit stunted) blooms after all ... not perfect by any means, but real miracles that they are going to be here at all this year!
So stop by again for those and some other surprises coming soon ... we have some exciting shots of a recently planted perennial about to burst forth in bloom in our woodland shade garden ...
... To be continued ...
And here we have the last few examples of Darwins to wind up our mini-series of tulip inner bits as captured last April, when the tulips were at their spring best ... And given the current terrain out there (as of today), these magnificent specimens were indeed in their prime blooming mode .... 
Though this year's tulips are trying valiantly to put on a show this year (see the bottom photo taken today), it's clearly not going to be anywhere near as show stopping as we achieved last year. So we'll have to content ourselves with some prime specimens from last April (2006) ... From the top we have an example of a simple (if that adjective could justifiably be applied to this flower!) basic yellow Darwin ... closely followed by one of the constantly dwindling Parrot Feather varieties that was planted among those first bulbs mentioned in a previous post ... and finally --just for Olivia, of course-- a dirty pink Darwin, one of a mix that I planted along the line of the sidewalk leading to the street.
Of course I'm especially partial to the yellows ... and I may be tempted to get a few more of the Parrot Feathers to replenish the stock, because though they are a fancy variety, the textures they exhibit are just far too fascinating to dismiss casually (as I tend to do with such cultivars). I particularly relish the "pinking shears" effect on the petals, not to mention the mysterious inner bits this particular tulip offers up ... just primed for an enterprising bee to explore and pollinate....
And to my eye, the brilliant yellow (above) edged in inky black just screams bumblebee mimicry ... an inviting landing and collection pad just waiting to be used on a warm, sunny spring day, the likes of which we hope have finally arrived this year to banish the last of the winter woes we've had recently in the garden.
And, as sad testimony to the damage caused by our recent freezes, as well as the tenaciousness of these Darwins, I've included a shot of one of the masses of reds and yellows we have out in the main boulder bed. As you can see, they're doing their best to give us some blooms, but nothing close to what they've achieved in the past couple of years ... In any case, we plan on feeding them before they disappear for the season, in the hopes of better performance next year, weather permitting ....
As much as I praise and love the Darwin varieties, it's Tulipa, "Olympic Flame" that truly embodies for me the perfect combination of sun and fire ... and what better variety to liven up a sunny spring day! And that this particular strain belongs to the Darwins is only testament to its dazzling staying power ... These are some of the original tulips we first planted in the small bulb bed out front, our first foray into planting spring bulbs back in about 1999. Way back then, we quickly filled this bed with various varieties of tulips, fancy and otherwise, as well as daffodils, snowdrops, crocus and Fritillaria michaelovski specimens. Certain ones have come and gone (mostly the fancier tulips, who never seem to last over time ... as I keep preaching) and a few remain, the most faithful bloomers of which are these lovely examples. There are also a few remaining "Parrot Feather" tulips (more on them soon), but for the most part, those tulips whose pictures originally dazzled and seduced us (such as the "Blue Tulips" that turned out to be mauve!) have moved on and just quit appearing over time.
Ok, you can see this coming, so I'll say it just one more time ... if you're going to go to the trouble of planting tulips, make the effort worth it! Darwins are by far the best way to go for years of dependable color ... go ahead and plant those hybridized poodles of the tulip world for a few years of unusual splash if you want, but you'll always come back to the Darwins in the end. I guess it's kind of like the old saying ... you date the flashy ones, but will eventually marry the Darwins. Well, that is, if you have what's commonly referred to as a "lick of sense" in your head. Barring unforeseen catastrophes (such as our disastrous recent cold spell), they will return to reward you and delight you for years to come ... long after the last ruffled petalcoat has left town.
These three shots were taken last year (4-22-06) on a gloriously sunny day, which really helps to show off the true range of fire you can get with Olympic Flame, thus justifying its rather high-falutin' moniker. All pretentions aside, they remain one of my all time favorite varieties ... so go ahead, click to enlarge them (or right click "view image" in Firefox) and get lost in the mesmerizing patterns of their striking inner bits!
I'll have some more different varieties up soon for you to compare with these so you can get a flavor of just how intricate the private regions of tulips can really be ... (Stay tuned, Olivia!)
And since this post was originally conceived of as a joint garden blog post, give a click here to see what Olivia has been doing with one of these!
I couldn't resist sneaking just a wee preview of things to come soon from last year's archives! So here's a tulip, the likes of which we're unlikely to see this year in the garden ... one of our beloved Darwin oranges. I got a bit snoopy and penetrated the inner depths of this one just to see what kind of effect I could get, and I was rather delighted to see the results here!
Recently Olivia suggested that I do a series of inner bits shots from various tulips, just to compare the variations in patterns they each exhibit, so this will be the first in a short ongoing project here. It is amazing to see how different they can be, depending on the hue and variety of tulip .... and those who know me constantly hear me preach, the Darwin varieties are by far the best of your basic tulips. They remain true to form for years and don't tend to poop out in a few years, nor do they tend to disappear or revert to previous forms much like the fancier varieties often do. And if any tulip justifies the "perennial bulb" moniker, it is surely the Darwins, since they bloom faithfully every year and even can spread over time (so I've read but not witnessed yet). If you're wanting to plant some resplendent tulips that you only have to really deal with once (planting!), and who come in amazing ranges of colors, then look into purchasing a good quantity and planting them in masses ... surrounded by Muscari ("Grape Hyacinth") or Scilla siberica OR Scilla hispanica ("Woodland Hyacinth") and you can't go wrong. As I like to remind my bulb intimidated friends ... all the hard work happens once, then you sit back and patiently await their arrival in the spring! And success with these beauties only breeds a fervent desire for more ... just ask us if you don't believe me on that one!
A couple of garden notes: Earlier, after I posted the other entries, I took another walk around to survey the garden and the inevitable devastation. The good news is that it looks as though the Columbines are going to recover and are putting on new growth ... the primroses are hanging in there and I think will bloom still, albeit late ... Woodland Hyacinths are springing up all over and thanks to their later emergence, don't seem to have suffered from the recent cold. BUT, the most exciting thing I discovered was that the two red Trilliums we first planted last year are up, budding out and getting ready to bloom! I'm really anxious to be able to share those with you, as you will be seeing them bloom for the first time, just like us ... The peonies have emerged as well, and though short still, they look unscathed. And though our iris out front were early to emerge, they seem to have weathered the cold pretty well and look to be working their way up to a great show this year ... as long as they don't immediately get beaten down by a hard rain, as was the case last year. I'll be really thrilled to get them up here when the time comes .... So, all in all, there may be hope yet for the garden, and for any dedicated gardener, there's always some way to find hope that things green and floriferous will find their ways to right the world, even if we humans are unable to do so.
And speaking of Irises ... Olivia has some lovely shots of molested blooms up now ... so hop on over and take a look at these luscious finds from the florist's!
Well folks, those who've been listening patiently to my wailing and moaning the past few weeks know only too much about the recent very cold snap we've been having here. Right after I got going on posting the first spring bulbs, our weather took a very cold turn (lows in the low teens at night!), and what at first looked to be a banner year for the tulips, daffodils and other bulbs soon turned out to be a near washout. Or freeze-out, I should perhaps say... The front garden especially has taken a pretty bad hit and we're not sure how it's all going to turn out, despite the recent (e.g. yesterday and today!) upturn in the weather. I'm just not sure at this point how much we will be able to save, though the late emerging bulbs look to be coming out of this relatively unscathed.
To wit ... our bleeding hearts were up about a foot before the record cold set in ... and now they look like spent, limp spaghetti. Same with the columbines .... even the sea holly is looking rather worse for wear, but I do think they will eventually pull out of it ... I hope. And, with the recent arrival of better weather, I hope to be able to report more positive news in the coming weeks.
But for today ... the real tough survivors are the dwarf tulips (Tulipa, "Persian Pearl") and some of our hyacinths... these are the only ones I've seen up yet, though there are about 9 others on the north side I've not seen emerge yet. So here's what I got today ... these dwarf tulips are really fun to have in the garden, and unlike their bigger cousins, you don't have to plant them so deep it takes a shovel... and they appear to spread a bit, as I swear there are more there this year than there were last! Unfortunately, they don't last as long as the Darwins we prefer, but for sheer diminutive stopping power, these little guys are hard to beat! They're a perfect planting companion for Muscari ("Grape Hyacinths"), and also look pretty kicking with the hyacinths too! And since they all bloom at about the same time, and with a little imaginationyou could get some really interesting color combinations!
And of course, what would a tulip post be without the ubiquitous inner bits for Olivia? They may be a bit on the waning side of things, but they're alive! And that's what really is counting for us of late ...
In the next few days I'm going to be posting some of last year's spring glories (for obvious weather related reasons), so stay tuned for even more brilliant color. Olivia and I are going to be doing a joint posting soon on one of my very favorite tulips ... "Olympic Flame" so do check back soon for that in a day or so!
It looks like our Crown Imperial fritillarias may not make it this year ... but I'll keep you posted, so to speak!
Alas, the tulips are starting to wind down, and all it's going to take is a hard rain or a really windy day and their precious petals will be sent sailing off in the breeze ... but for the moment, they are still looking pretty stunning nonetheless. Fernymoss was having a lot of fun shooting these types of shots of blooms that were lowering the front door of the Mother Ship to reveal the mysterious forms within. This particular bloom is one of our Darwins that have made somewhat of a comeback this year. Even though we lost over 100 of these in that awful late extended freeze in 2007, we're still convinced that these hybrids are the best tulips who truly qualify as perennials. With their 18" stems (no kidding!) and brilliant colors, the Darwins are by far your best value in tulips if you want them to stick around for a good long time.....
Here's a quick shot I took of the overall "ensemble" going on in the Primrose bed by the front steps ... I plan on doing an entire post on these beauties soon, but I need to be able to take the time to get close ups, but for now, I wanted to give a sense of just how this grouping works together. The Blue (and red) one you see at the lower left is the pot I got last weekend and planted on Sunday, and so far they look quite happy in their new home. To the right, just by the yellow ones is the plant I got for Valentine's day. It had to spend a little too long in the house on the windowsill, but now that it's in the ground near its cousins, I'm hopeful that it will stake out its place and join the party ... it's a crap shoot as to whether this will be perennial or not (quite often the primroses sold as potted plants aren't), but at least it has a fighting chance. It will get pampered throughout the season, as will all of these, my much prized Primulas.
And here's the newest member of our Hellebore family, Ivory Prince, that we just got last weekend. Though this is not his permanent home, I just wanted to get a shot of him to show off because he's currently got a lot of blooms going on. Talk about instant gratification ... though we have been patiently nursing some very small plants we got in 2005 over the past four years (and they are blooming now ... more on them later), we both feel that $22 was more than a fair price for this plant, given what most nurseries charge for much smaller plants (usually in the $8-9 range). Plus, we already know what the blooms will look like! Gail commented the other day that she has this variety and she really likes it, so we have confirmation from a good source that this was indeed a wise buy. We're excited to see how this new addition will make his home in the Woodland Garden....
An update on what I posted as a "mystery plant" last week ... long term readers here immediately knew what this was, so I might as well lift the veil of "secrecy" and reveal that this is indeed Dracunculs vulgaris, aka: Dragon Arum, and affectionately known as "Mr. Stinky" around Casa IVG. This was an enormous bulb we originally planted in 2005, and in 2006 it came up, leafed out but didn't bloom ... but then in 2007, it rewarded us with its first bloom. (If you'd like to see the evolving history of this plant, click on the "Dracunculus vulgaris" label below the post to see all previous entries. Then you'll see what this will become in another month or so.) Last year it bloomed again, but also put up five little offshoots at its base, so we're hoping for multiple blooms this year ... but today Fernymoss discovered that this year we have eight offshoots coming up and leafing out right now. Wow, just wow! When we planted this, we weren't even sure it would be reliably hardy here, but it sure seems to be happy where we have it planted in the Woodland Garden not far from the peonies. It's ironic that we chose to plant the stinkiest plant in our garden so close to the flowers with the best fragrance ... we'll just call it a happy coincidence.
For those of you who need your daily puppy pic fix, here's Hanna this afternoon, working her Kong for all it's worth. During the day when I'm working, she hangs out with me in my office either snoozing on the futon couch or looking out the window at the world, and is very patient with my schedule. Of course I give her regular attention and loving, but she really seems to realize that I'm working and behaves herself quite well. But when early afternoon comes, she needs to head out for a potty break, and when we return she expects her Kong! So I usually stuff it with a bit of peanut butter and a few small treats to keep her busy for a while ... Here she's trying to extract that last little bit of peanut butter from the Kong, after getting the crunchy treats out first. She has a really cool way of using her front paws literally as hands to grip the Kong, and that was what I was trying to capture, but once the camera is fired up, she gets "shy" about showing off what she can do. At least this shot shows a little bit of what she can do to grip things with her front paws ... what a constantly amazing little girl she has turned out to be! We think she's going to grow up to be "scary smart" due to her already huge vocabulary of words she recognizes! She definitely has mastered every corner of the house so far and knows where everything is (especially the food and treats), so she clearly has established the reign of Princess Hanna, whether we like it or not! And we're thrilled, of course.....
