Home / Blogs / toni's Blog / February 2008 /

Now if even half of them sprout I will be happy

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:12 pm

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Yesterday was a warm one, 81 degrees for a high. But that wasn't reached until around 4pm and by then I was exhausted, happy and back in the house relaxing.

The day began here of course, I always peruse the Stew when I first get up...that and a cup of coffee wake me up and start my day right.
Randy and I went to breakfast and then to Home Depot. He was looking for something to seal the back window of his pickup truck, a minor item compared to what my mission there involved.....seeds and bulbs. Those are the nectar of life, the things for which gardeners live, the gold at the end of the rainbow...okay, I might be pushing the envelope with that last metaphor but I think you get my point.

I came home with Zinnia's in three different shades of purple, MoonFlower, Poppy-Lady Bird, Cosmos in shades of pink and white. I might have mentioned at some point that I do not like pink in any form but I think the garden needs it for variety.
And cucumber seeds for pickle making of course.
I also bought two packages of 'roots' ... 7 assorted Hollyhocks and 5 assorted Astilbe.

When we got home I changed into gardening clothes, picked thru the assorted packages of seeds that I have from last year and end of year sales last fall and started planting. The bloom house is now home to a couple of hundred potential plants.
Added to the seeds I bought yesterday, I also planted...
Red and Apricot colored Zinnia
Two other color combos of Cosmos
Scarlet Flame Zinnia
Grampa Ott and Scarlett O'Hara Morning Glory
Black Gem Cornflower
Black Knight Sweet Scabious
Butterfly Asclepias-Bright Wings
Sublime Dark Blue Larkspur
White Sage
Calendula Marigolds
Pear Tomatoes in yellow and red

Last summer I had such fun watching the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly chow down on the two Fennel plants and then watching all those butterflies flitting around the yard that I decided more Fennel plants were in order this year so last fall I bought three Sweet Fennel and two Bronze Fennel plants and kept them in the warm bloom house.
I transplanted them to larger pots and now have 6 of the Sweet Fennel and 4 Bronze Fennel, those things multiply like rabbits! Not a problem tho, I will plant some out back and some out front and really have butterflies all over the place.

The Spring Snowflakes (Leucojum vernum) are blooming, at least some of them are, the others have been blooming in early summer. As sometimes happens I don't 'put two and two together' as quickly as some people and it just dawned on me that maybe I have two different kinds, Spring Snowflakes and Summer Snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum)...well that's cool. I have wondered why they bloomed at different times, they weren't labeled differently when I bought them.

The tulips are coming up nicely, squirrels are eating some of the leaves so a few of them will look a little weird when the get larger. At least they aren't digging up the bulbs.

Some of the Daffs are coming up, but way fewer than half of what I had last year. And the newest additions I planted last fall have not shown themselves yet. Durn, I planted 36 bulbs last fall, I would like to see at least a couple of them show up this spring.








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