Daffodils up! Missed my dwarf iris :( And, warbler

Several of these beautiful things greeted me today. Try if you can to resolve this mass of frilly petticoats into a daffodil -- it really is one. By far the silliest daffodil I've ever bought, and it is just a big ball of cheerful on a stick out there in the (fantastically well-raked) flowerbed, as you can see.

It's daffodil "Replete," to be precise... and it's supposed to be PINK! Haven't figured that out yet. Mom says sometimes they change color after they've been open a few days, so I'll watch it. My theory is the alkaline soil leached it yellow :)

So all the bulbs I planted this fall have at least come up. I missed the dwarf iris, which nearly breaks my heart -- owing to work pressure, daylight savings and a couple other issues, I barely saw the garden at all in February, and I think that's when they bloomed, because when I did get out there I saw the spent brown post-floral husks. Sigh!

I did hit every single bulb with the Magic Rabbit Poo (Buds N Blooms) a couple weeks ago. And the roses as well -- all the roses survived the winter of many freezes and total neglect. (You wondered why it's called the Darwin Garden? They don't.) The roses, in fact, are all glossy-leafed out with the flush of new growth that always happens right before the aphids hit. Sigh.

For the record, here's what got planted in the fall, each with bloom time and quantity:

	CYCLAMINEUS DAFFODIL PROTOTYPE	Mar-May	5
	DOUBLE DAFFODIL REPLETE	Mar-Apr ✓	5
	DUTCH IRIS BLUE PEARL	May (✓Apr!)	15
	DWARF ROCKGARDEN IRIS (Iris reticulata)	Feb-Apr ✓	25
	SKY BLUE LILIES (Ixiolirion pallasii)	May-Jun	25

I checked off the ones that have already bloomed. We'll see if the rest do as well!


Also today, very exciting: Saw the first yellow-rumped warbler I have ever seen. He was polite enough to spend a full two minutes flitting around the cedar elm branches that are right outside our bedroom window, and if I hadn't been looking from that high position, I might have never seen his identifying feature: His bright yellow diamond where his back tapers into his tail! Without that, he would have looked like any of our gabillions of other LBBs (little brown birds). And indeed I think he was an immature, or maybe a she, because he had no other yellow on him -- no yellow wing or breast patches or crown, as are shown in some pictures.

But what a little cutie, and he obligingly hopped from branch to branch trilling his pleasant little song until he'd cleaned every single bug off our cedar elm. Cutie McCutepants!

Catching up on three weekends of garden blooms

Here it is the first weekend in April and my Duchesse de Brabant bush is covered, just exploding with buds. She's already given me three fat frilly roses, currently scenting the bedroom:

Last weekend I was amazed to find five of my Thalia jonquils sporting lovely, pure-as-snow white flowers, two to a stem. The blooms are larger even than I had expected (this is the first year they've bloomed for me) but with that stunning graceful form that looks almost more like an orchid than a narcissus; the scent is pure paperwhite narcissus, though. These two came to work with me and spent the week making my desk happy, along with a miniature Parade rose that I think might be Apollo Parade:

And the weekend before that, I was stunned to see blooms on my tiny. tiny Louisiana jonquils, which like the Thalia did not bloom their first spring, but must have enjoyed our conditions this year -- drought, freeze, flood, freeze, neglect, freeze, flood. Hmph. They're also called Early Louisiana jonquils, which fits 'cause they did come up first -- middle of March. Tiny things, and sweet-scented -- I zoomed in close for detail here. Also borne in pairs:

Since I have planted a drift of, say, five bulbs each year, I am now starting to get the effect of a few dozen wide paintbrush strokes that appear in green at first, then flame into a different color as each week rolls on. This fall, I think, if I put in some Iris reticulata and perhaps a peachy white jonquil, I'll be able to expand the magic a few weeks (and a few colors). Off to place my order!

Mini roses, violas, rosemary and fertilizer

Today I redid all our flowerpots on the front and back porches. Amazingly, the garish pinwheel-looking impatiens on the front porch survived for two years, through drought and freezes, until a month or so ago when we had what must have been one freeze too many.

Delicate "Sorbet" violas went into every pot -- the Natural Gardener had an incredibly lovely color for sale this year and I just bought half a flat of it, never mind trying to mix and match colors. There isn't any color of "Sorbet" violas I don't love, but this one is a cream shade with a very delicate feathery thin edge of lavender-blue. I think it must be the one called "Coconut Swirl." Anyway, I just slathered it into every pot; the nursery also was selling some particularly nice "Parade" miniature roses -- perfect hybrid tea form in a pale blush ("Breeze Parade"?) and also a creamy white with a tiny pink tinge to the edges ("Bianca Parade"?), so I mixed those in with a few rosemary sprigs. I'm pretty sure the rosemary won't enjoy the same conditions as the violas and roses, but it's a very tough little plant so we'll see. I'm tired of not having any rosemary to nibble on and cook with, so I will take what I can get.

Then I fertilized all the narcissus and iris. Both the spuria iris I planted and the mystery iris I inherited have come up strong this year, but not a bud scape among them -- I'm hoping the "Buds and Blooms" (aka magical rabbit poo) will fix that. The new Narcissus "Grand Primo" are huge, but only managed a couple of flowers as of yet; the new ones are even larger than the established "Grand Primos." The "Thalia" narcissus came up a little smaller, and the early Louisiana jonquils are just spindly little things ... but with buds! They've never bloomed for me before, so I'm very excited.

Narcissus poking up their little green noses

With Jason's help again, took another sunny garden stroll today. The plants in pots on the deck have taken a beating with all the dry cold (although the Mexican oregano continues to appear unkillable and Larry the Lemon is, as Jason phrased it, thanking us for bringing him in on the really cold nights by covering himself with buds and blooms -- even without the benefit of Rabbit Hill Farm's Buds & Blooms, aka magical rabbit poo.

The new Thalia and Grand Primo have almost all sprouted, as have the new Louisiana jonquils -- though the latter have unhealthy brown tips on their sprouts that worry me. The established Grand Primo appear at least a couple of weeks ahead of the new ones, two to four inches tall! (Or else I planted them two to four inches shallower :)

Bella'roma and, particularly, Sonia have lots of clean new growth, and the climbing roses look spindly but half leafed out. Didn't visit the outside roses today, so don't know about them. And Jason reports the potted impatiens on the front porch are droopy, but alive.

Redoing the flower bed

We've hauled out all the weeds and most of the old weed cloth, and pulling up the drip irrigation system revealed a couple of leaks in it; now, with some new sprinkler spikes and the leaks fixed, we're just about ready to plunk down some new plants. Waiting until this week's risk of freeze is past, though.

My plans are to install more roses and daylilies this spring, as well as the tasty herbs and two sweet olives. I think I will also experiment with a crinum and some sternbergia lutea, for blooms in October and green leaves all winter. For fall planting, I see I am already too late to get French Roman hyacinths, but I will certainly try to lay in some drifts of Dutch iris and at least a couple dozen more Grand Primo narcissus, the best little jonquil on the planet (for my garden, at least).

In fact, I might be able to get my GPs by dividing the thick double clump I have now. The Master Gardeners say you're supposed to, to help 'em along. If you do it when the leaves start to yellow (but leave the foliage intact), then that should be right around April or May for my guys.

Holding steady amid the rains; pruned roses

Pruned the sickly roses pretty heavily about a month ago (NOT the approved pruning time!) and was rewarded with a flush of healthy new growth. It's been raining heavily for about a month and everybody's lush... now the heat will set in!

Other crapes in the neighborhood are blooming but not ours yet; Mom speculates those in full sun may be warmer, thus starting earlier.

Daylilies have been blooming for at least a week -- the soft peachy one is blooming its head off and just lovely.

Ruellias are green, not blooming; narcissus greens have just started to go brown.

Two potfuls of impatiens on the front porch, planted about a month ago, have been blooming steadily the whole time; ditto two pots of petunias in a sunny corner of the back deck. Really pretty.

Narcissus bloomed Jan-Feb; Larry blooming

The Grand Primo bloomed healthily from mid-January to mid-February -- I think that's its third year to do so now. It has developed into a thick stand of lush, sturdy green. A few feeble blooms on the Texas Star at the same time.

As of now, in early March, Larry the lemon tree is covered in blooms (a bit early, I think) and bees.

The roses have all leafed out with flushes of healthy, burgundy-colored new growth. With their Rose Hose that I am proud of installing, they get regular measured doses of water right to their roots!

And every bulb in the garden has its greenery up, making mid-March an excellent time to install watering systems or weedcloth or anything else that requires that you know exactly where all your plants are! The schoolhouse lilies, narcissus, spuria iris (they made it!) and daylilies are all fully green right now.

The trees are getting their first sprigs of spring green. And the crape myrtles, as is traditional, look so dead that we are afraid, as we are annually, that this is the year we killed them! But we have faith.

Broad-leafed weeds took over the yard in the last half of February. We didn't do doodly squat in the way of corn gluten prevention or anything, so we deserve what we get. However, we've requested estimates for installing a sprinkler system -- healthy grass will choke out weed growth naturally, or so we hope.

Narcissus sprouted; crapes dormant

Saw yesterday that my Grand Primo narcissus are back in full force, a vigorous stand of green stalks. Not sure how long they've been up because lately I've either been indoors in the cold, or traveling in the heat.

Weird December weather's taken a toll on the spinach and pansies -- alternating from light, wet freezes to 70s and dry has left them spindly. TV folk are actually forecasting snow for Christmas, so if that comes true it's back in the garage for them!

Trying also to keep several holiday rosemary topiaries healthy. Overwatering has turned some parts black, but I've been good about getting them lots of daylight.

In the past week the baby crapes have dropped all their leaves and in the grand tradition of my family I am completely convinced they are dead.

After two years of experiments (results recorded here) we are ready to commit to bedding plants for the back bed. I'll design a watering system and sketch a plan with the following solid performers: dwarf purple ruellia; rosemary officinalis; Grand Primo.

The plan is to have a few rosebushes along the back (because I love them, not because they do well); then a belt of rosemary for scent, vigor and permanent greenery; then edge the bed with ruellia. Between the lines of rosemary and ruellia I plan to tuck the Grand Primo and whichever bulbs I like to experiment with. That way there will be green most of the year (ruellia is green right now, for example -- I think it croaks in the heat) and it won't look as odd when the bulbs pop up or die back.

Oxblood dormant; daylilies still blooming

Both the oxblood lilies and the Grand Primo narcissus have completely croaked in the past two weeks; I sincerely hope that's dormancy!

Replanted front flowerpots with vincas, doing OK so far. Pansies had completely dried up.

Copper soap fungicide (or dumb luck) is doing wonders for the roses. No sign of black spot or powdery mildew.

Daylilies still blooming, only a couple at a time, but really fantastic colors.

Daylilies blooming; pansies pretty much toast

This makes the daylilies' start time official too: end of May/start of June (first bloom observed yesterday this year). 'Chicago Petticoats' is the only one blooming right now, but others have scapes. All are pretty short even after a full year in the ground, which is nice to my mind because they make a tidy low plant. If I could just remember how long the foliage stays pretty, I might consider popping some daylilies between the crape myrtles in front.

Foliage on the jonquils is starting to die, about the same time as last year.

The pansies in flowerpots out front are miraculously still blooming, which means I have verifiable bloom time from at least December through May (and I planted them pretty late in winter, probably could have started them in September). But, they are looking extremely rough -- very dry, much dead foliage.

A neglect-fueled drought has hit my roses particularly hard. Even the relatively robust climbers now exhibit powdery mildew. Having found a reliable source for copper soap fungicide I'm going to step up to once-a-week spraying and get the watering system in the ground pronto. Last year's notes indicate that they looked awful in late May though 'Brigadoon' down there in the shade looked better (which is exactly the case right now); and then a week or so later they were resurging and Brigadoon looked worse. Will be interesting to see.

Larry has a big crop of lemons that are larger than last year, still green, and not dropping off the boughs. We are pleased.

Our two crape myrtles on the north side of the front (Droopy and Mickey) are consistently wilted -- we have stepped up to watering them every other day or so. Watering system might help there but not necessarily as the two near the driveway (Gunter and Greta) do not need such frequent water.

We have been observing other crape myrtles already in bloom around the area so we think that if we don't kill 'em, we might have an artificially long blooming season there as well.

Larry; narcissus done, roses budding

...and this is how he looked exactly a year ago (March 12, 2005).

In other news today the narcissus seem to be spent (though I spent ten minutes watching a monarch butterfly flap all over them, sticking his mouth tube in every single flower), but there are buds on the Apricot Nectar and Pristine roses. All roses, bulbs, irises and daylilies got fertilizer today and the roses along the fence got Rose Defense spray also.

I had to scare a baby lizard off the Fragrant Cloud rose first, though! He was quite tiny but had a fat belly. I felt bad that he might still be somewhere in the vicinity so I stamped my foot a couple times and only sprayed lightly. Hope I didn't get the little guy sick.

Narcissus in full bloom; volunteer rose

Got back in town yesterday to find 3 blooms on "Texas Star" and about 40 on "Grand Primo." The GP is shorter this year but flowering well. Need to fertilize it regularly before it goes dormant.

Where the High Hopes had sat in its grower's pot for a year (until last week when I finally planted it), suddenly yesterday there is a six-inch rose sprig! Odds are it is something like Dr. Huey, since it's coming up from the root stock.

If it is Dr. Huey, I may be in trouble, since that is a climber that gets 12 feet tall. I could do worse than a vigorous old red rambler, though, I guess!

Narcissus blooming; planted rose arch

70 degrees today and I got the rose arch in the ground finally! We found a spot we both agreed on so I was glad to finally dig holes for these roses that have been following me from home to home in huge containers for four years (more than that, really). The Don Juan is on the left and High Hopes on the right; they're against a fence where they should be encouraged to reach upward for the last rays of evening sun, but not boil to death in the midafternoon. Both have some very strong canes and lots of new little leaflets; I planted them with a little Osmocote sprinked in the soil and will wait to bind and prune them till I'm sure they're not suffering from the transplant.

Both "Grand Primo" and Texas Star" have begun to bloom, but not really spectacularly -- the Primo in particular looks a little shorter and weaker than last year. I'll try fertilizing it so it can store up more energy -- Old House Gardens recommends a balanced fertilizer anytime I can think of it, but says in the South I might not want to water them in the summer. So I'll fertilize now till they go dormant.

Violas in the front porch pots have gone bonkers and those on the back porch are starting to bloom again also.

Light freeze. Daffodils returning, pansies exploding

Both the Grand Primo and the Texas Star narcissus have come up for a second year; again, the Star looks spindly and the Primo looks lush and vigorous, but both are about to bloom.

Looks like at least two of the spuria iris and six of the daylilies have made it; I need to begin fertilizing the spuria again as they emerge from dormancy, and probably the same for the daylilies.

Looking around after the recent freezes (moderate one last week, two light ones this weekend), I am glad to see the lemon verbena has squeaked by, the rosemary and roses look great, the schoolhouse lily foliage is undamaged. The ruellia look like hell but they always come back; and the pansies (which I left outside) and violets (which came in) are thriving and blooming their heads off. Probably because they get watered more when I'm worried about them.

I have ordered a Moonstone rose to replace the croaked Tiffany -- nothing against Tiffany and I'd like to find a place for that variety if another opportunity arises. But Moonstone is the kind of rose that is my particular weakness -- a show-quality bloom that is mostly white with a pink edge and looks like a delicate china cup. It's a relatively new variety I had not heard of before and I have high hopes.

Speaking of, Jason and I have found a location to park my rose arch, so the Don Juan and High Hopes from my old condo patio can finally go in the ground. They've held up well, High Hopes particularly, and I look forward to seeing how they do freed from their containers. The bonus of the location is that it will also obscure the view into our yard from the neighbors down the culdesac -- a view that was opened up when we got the trees heavily pruned. Two birds with one stone!

Roses along the fence have put on much new growth in past two weeks. In between the freezes, it's been 70 and sunny, and I've watered them both weekends in advance of the freeze, and they are really responding.

Rain equals roses

It's been pouring rain for what seems like weeks, and the rosebushes are responding. I had given up on this mid-season, actually, on the logic that our long hot growing season is actually broken up by a dormant season in the middle. But all the July rain brought out blooms on Brigadoon, Mr Lincoln, Double Delight, Belinda's Dream, High Hopes, Don Juan and, here, Tropicana. For future reference I will say the flower really is this rich color, maybe a shade warmer, and even lovelier form.

Elsewhere the daylilies are quiet but still green, the oregano is blooming, the lemon tree has put up new suckers and the ruellia many new blossoms also in response to the rain, and there is no sign of life as yet in the area of the oxblood lilies. The greenery from the jonquils has long vanished, though there is something that looks like ophiopogon poking its heads up in that area.

I guess I expect the oxblood lilies to start putting up leaves soon, since it's called schoolhouse lily as well for its autumn start.

Not to be too confident about it, the entire row of rosebushes has made it through the first part of the really hot season and right now looks fairly healthy, except for ailing Tiffany. No bugs, strong new growth, etc. If they put down good root growth they may yet all make it.

Jonquils are toast

I sincerely hope they're dormant. The thriving stand of "Grand Primo" narcissus that bloomed from January 4 through March 5 has gone from yellowed stalks to completely, flat, dead. Deader'n a stump. Please, you little plants that bloom like fireworks and are supposed to like my scalding alkaline clay, please come back next spring and make me glad again!