Early March Blooms

The ever faithful Pink Dawn Viburnum...


Winter Daphne...


One of the camellias...


A couple more views...




Taken on an overcast day, the crocus are all closed up....waiting for the sun...


A few more of the Iris Reticulata from the other day...


Anticipating blooms soon on the Virginia Bluebells which are just emerging...


We had a very rainy day yesterday. Last night, I happened upon this frog...not something I often see/find with two cats...

I'm just guessing as I don't know frogs...after a search for frogs in Virginia...I'm thinking this one is a Southern Leopard Frog as there isn't any water nearby and I saw him on the driveway under the garage light...

Hellebores

The hellebores are getting going. Some are lagging a bit, but that may have to do with where they are sited. I'm hopeful of seeing some bloom this year that haven't before. They've struggled with heavy workmen feet on them in some areas and with erosion in others. The ones that have made it are survivors.

My most favorite double...from Heronswood....when it was still in Washington State...although, I think the nursery had been bought (just not moved...yet)...


Here's another double, probably a Pine Knot Farms one...


A generic spotted one...


Some stippling on this one....I especially appreciated the up turned face...not typical of hellebore blooms (although they are probably hybridizing for them)....


Here's what I mean....a different one, but you can see the bloom so much better...


Closer, as this is a particularly nice one...


Finally, for today, a very green centered one...

Special Thanks...

...to Renee's Garden for the most wonderful seeds!


I'm so excited! Stay tuned to see how they do for me. While I was allowed to choose just want I wanted (isn't that great!), I tried to be realistic given my space and, let's face it, energy limitations.

If you look closely, you'll see I picked three varieties of tomatoes, including my most favorite cherry tomato Sungold...several varieties of lettuce (I do love growing lettuce!), a couple varieties of basil (who doesn't grow basil), those adorable looking colored carrots...and some flowers like sunflowers, nasturtiums, zinnias, calendula and some double poppies.

The poppies have been sprinkled out, hoping to catch some of the cold that's still around. My experience has been that they tend to prefer a little cold and sprout in early spring (like larkspur). However, I've never grown double ones before but have lusted after them after having seen a few in other gardens.

We're expecting rain today and tomorrow (so far there's none but it's a bit too cold to comfortably work outside, unfortunately). My plan is to put out some compost on Friday in the area where I plan to sow the lettuce...and then get some of these cool varieties started. Yippee!

Peas are traditionally started around St. Patrick's Day (which is next week) and I'll be starting mine. I had some leftover from last year and plan to use those.

Let me take a moment to plug Renee's Garden's website as it is one of the nicest around. I spent quite a bit of time there choosing my seeds and was fascinated with all the information. You can click on easy links to see the seed packets themselves, front and back, which are loaded with information....however, what I really loved were the photos....you can see what everything looks like, really looks like. It's great.

Thanks again to Renee's Garden for the seeds.

It's Official

Daffodils have begun! These Ice Follies type had their first blooms on 030511. As of yesterday, only Cum Laude had also begun to bloom.


You know I consider any that lean or lie on the ground...for whatever reason (such as the rain we had all day Sunday) to be fair game to be picked...

Ever helpful, Sam was intent on snoozing here while I try to blog...

A Bloom for Today

A happy surprise...finding this little iris reticulata in bloom. I feared they were all gone as this area all along my driveway received heavy trampling when I had my driveway worked on (don't even ask about that; what a disaster).

So....a big yea!


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Hmmm...while uploading this photo, blogger mysteriously said I was only using 25% of my allowed photo space.....??? What happened to the 76% it was saying?? Not that I'm complaining, but if the lower figure is true, I'm really happy! I wish it had said this before I went out and purchased a domain name, however...ha.

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The winter daphne looks like it will burst into bloom any day now....plus the early blooming Pink Dawn viburnum...the air will soon be very nice around here!