Todays Finds: 03-20-07

Remember my post about the basil? Specifically, the non-blooming basil? I thought I'd show you just how easily it roots. Here are some little clippings sitting in a small vase of water. If you look closely, you can see roots already starting. What could be easier! I've put some of the new variegated one also in a small vase...it's a little behind this one, but coming.

And here are those red tulips open:


I'm still watching that odd daffodil in the Barrett Browning clump. The buds are starting to separate...I hope I don't miss those flowers after all this scrutiny:


I like this picture. This is Jet Fire (Jetfire?). It looks like a good 1-2-3.


I've been posting some pictures of these iris reticulata...they are quite different from the others...look how tall their leaves are...which were up long before they began to bloom. The others tend to bloom first and then put out their foliage, especially the taller leaves.


Of course, there must be more crocus pictures (they'll be gone so soon...)! Here's one that's coming up with these daffodils. I think they are beginning to seed themselves around.


Yesterday we had the purple striped ones closed. Here they are open, looks like a good subject to maybe attempt to draw:



Some of the driveway crocus...on one side, naturally:



And, last, for Carol, my attempt to capture the blue/purple:



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I went out this morning to just have a look around. Almost two hours later, I was back inside. It's starting! My favorite time of year...where things happen so quickly and change so fast that it takes time to see it all...and more than one round a day.

Today's mission was the daylilies. Most are making an appearance by now. However, the chickweed is so bad that it was necessary to pull chickweed just to see where some were. I mean to get to it. I need to get to it! The good news is that most daylilies look well. The bad news is that somewhere between 6-10 are probably not going to make it. I guess out of over 600, that's not too bad. The ones in peril are all new from last fall, but with daylily rot, it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint a reason. I really haven't the patience to deal with recovery, if they recover. Some will send out a tiny fan, but it can take years to get a bloom. Last year, I replaced the few I lost or decided I didn't want them any longer.

I'm trying hard to not buy single fans. I think I do have a few coming this spring, however...but much better than last year! It's just that my experience with single fans is that they seem to increase slower. And, if the particular seller has sent a small single fan...well, that's just disappointing.

I also thought about which daylilies will leave. I need the space and my tastes have changed, etc. Some are large clumps which I am dreading digging out. Others are unregistered or just don't seem to be earning their keep. It's probably good I do this culling because down the road lies lots of culling with my seedlings. I'm expecting to see some first year blooms this year from daylily seedlings.

On other fronts, I saw buds (leaves, not flowers) on the tree peony! This makes me feel good because it was doing well last year when I decided to move it...and it sulked terribly after the move. I thought maybe I had lost it (small thing that it is). So, these buds made me happy.

I also discovered that the lantana appears to have made it! Who would have thought it and by rights, it shouldn't have. This particular one, Miss Huff, is thought to be hardier and I have overwintered it twice before. However, this year, it received no mulch and we had a very hard February. You probably remember me moaning about several single digit nights with no snow cover. It had gotten quite large last year... if I had thought it was going to actually make it, I probably would have planted it somewhere else...so I started clipping off dead branches only to discover they were green! Oh my!

Well, while the weather is so nice and because I'll be gone, I'm out to do a little of the endless chickweed removal.