It's 55 degrees at 8:10 pm. Frost is expected tomorrow morning. Geesh! I covered up a few plants with towels and sheets to protect them. I also brought in my hanging geranium and amaryllis plants that have been vacationing on the back deck. I was looking at the forecast for later next week and it's supposed to be in the very high 80's by Tuesday with T-storms. This weather is so ... freaky!
Yep! Hit the ground with a thud. I was rushing to get the cat when I side stepped the corner of my back garden. My foot sunk into the soft soil and I went down like a stone. I was lucky I didn't fall on the rocks edging the garden bed. Didn't hurt anything except my pride. Hubby leaped off the steps of the back deck to rush and help me. I kept muttering, "I'm all right... I'm not hurt," as he helped me to my feet. I always feel so embarassed when I do something like this. Why? I don't know. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans, so at least I didn't scrape my knees or arms. I really have to be more careful. The last thing I need is to "break something".
Today I did a bit of planting out. I planted my winter sown allyssum seedlings in my front garden bed. I also added some garden soil to the bed as well as a few other spots. The past week or so I also potted up some WS candytuft seedlings. I grew annual candytuft last year and fell in love with the plant. I still have a lot of other WS stuff to plant in the ground and in pots - more candytuft, snapdragons, cleome, lemon mint, marigolds, gaillardia, and catnip plants.
In early May I planted a dwarf variety of glads called Tiny Tots - from Walmart. I had stuffed 16 corms into a pot and they are all coming up. Last summer I grew the taller ones and really like them and wanted to try the short ones this year. They should be blooming by July/August.
In late April I had planted freesia in a large pot, too, but they are not doing all that great. Only a few are pushing up through the soil. It was colder then. I recently dug into the soil and found a few rotted ones and some that just didn't do anything at all.
My mini roses are doing great in their pots outside. One is 3 years old and I overwinter it in my garage, and the others were bought on clearance from Valentine's Day. I had them in the house and they did fine.
My amaryllis bulbs from Christmas (the ones encased in wax) are doing fine outside. I had removed the wax after the holidays and rooted the bulbs in water and then planted them in soil. They grew healthy, tall green leaves while in the house. Now they are on summer vacation. From what I can see in the pots, the bulbs really bulked up. I'm going to try and force them for Holidays at the end of the year.
Late this afternoon I had my stepson & hubby do some tree trimming for me. I have a pretty large beech tree in front of the house that had branches that hung over half the driveway. They took off 3 large branches. There should be a lot more light now in front of the house. It was way too shady. The bleeding hearts loved the shade, but not much of anything else was thriving in the front garden anymore.
I'm posting a few pics of some of my spring flowering and growing plants. Have a looksee. The last 2 pics are my cats. Jake is the orange/white one and Patch is the black/white one.
In the 60's for the past two days and just loving it! Supposed to be in the 60's-70's all next week. Did run a lot of errands today, but I did spend some time strolling around the yard. The daffodils I planted last fall are finally showing color. I planted about 25 new ones and they are the ones that are ready to pop any day. And as for the daffodils from previous years, I see just a spattering of them here and there. I think I lost a lot of daffs this past winter. This past winter was very cold and snowy. Either they succumbed to the elements or critters may have eaten them. Oh, well. I'll just plant more this coming fall.
I did have other losses. I lost all my lavender plants and most of my lambs ear ... sigh.
Thumbs up though for my 4 peony bushes! Right now the red tips are starting to get taller and leaf out. Bleeding hearts are nice and leafy ... bee balm is greening up from the bottom ... forsythia blooming ... irs coming up ... and red yarrow springing up nicely. Columbine, yellow daylilies, and 2 clematis bushes coming along nicely.
My winter/spring sowing showing a lot of sprouts! They are tiny but I've got snapdragons, cleome, lemon mint, poppies, gaillardia, candytuft, catnip, bachelor buttons, and alyssum all doing fine. I alslo have shirley poppies I direct sowed outside starting to sprout. I planted them in my mailbox garden.
About 2 weeks ago I planted some freesia corms in a large pot and kept it under a plastic dome to conserve heat and keep it from getting water logged. I grew them last year, but had a problem with them rotting from too much water when it rained. I'm hoping with the warmer temps next week they will start pushing up green tips within the next 2 weeks. Today, I also planted out some dwarf gladiolus bulbs in a large pot. It will probably be quite awhile for them to start growing. I think I'm going to cover them for awhile like I did with the freesia.
I'm hoping that next week it will be warm enough to put my mini rose bushes and amaryllis plants outside for their summer vacation. I have one mini rose bush that's 3 years old now that I keep outside all summer, and then and I put it in my garage for the winter. I originally had 6. As an experiment I had decided I was going to try over wintering one and plant the rest in the ground. Sadly, the 5 I had planted outside didn't survive the winter.
With the amaryllis plants, I'll keep them outside all summer and then begin to let them go dormant starting in late August. After the leaves start to dry up, I'll cut them back and let the plants sit in a dark, cool closet (still in their pots) for about 2 months or so. Hopefully, they will start to regrow around late October/early November and I can force them into bloom for Christmas.
Boy, have I been rambling on and on and on ....
All I can say is ........................... the blasted Winter is OVER! FINALLY! WOOT! WOOT!
58 degrees and clear at 6:45 pm. Today was nice. About 61 degrees, but a bit windy. I'll take it!
All the snow cover is gone! Not a speck! And it's been that way for about 10 days now. The past couple of days I raked out the flower beds. I can actually see the daffodils. They were covered with so many leaves I didn't even know they were coming up in some spots. Some spots seem a bit bare, though. Maybe squirrels got to some of the bulbs over the winter. As things continue to grow I might move some of the daffs around.
I had done a bit of late winter/spring sowing. Some things are starting to germinate. Got alyssum, shirley poppies, and bachelor buttons sprouting.
Today I went through some of my seed packs and decided to plant some Shasta Daisy seeds - Silver Princess. My brother-in-law gave me the seeds last year. The package says they are perennials that bloom the same year! I dunno ... maybe they actually will. I direct sowed them (winter sowing style) in a large flower pot and covered the top of the pot with heavy clear plastic sheeting with some holes poked into it. The package says it could be 3 weeks before they germinate anyway. I've grown Alaska shastas before and they don't mind chilly temps. So, I took a chance with these, what the hey!
During this past winter I bought a couple of packages of freesia and glad bulbs and kept them in a closet. Today I decided to plant a pack of the freesias (16 corms) in a large 15 inch pot. I covered the pot with a clear plastic lid from a storage container. They are supposed to be freeze proof to 20 degrees. I figured the extra protection wouldn't hurt and I don't think our temps will go that low again any more this year. Hmmn ... on second thought, I'm still going to keep my fingers crossed anyway.
Too early yet to plant gladiolus. I'll wait til May 1st for those.
I have quite a few plants in the house that will go out once the temps stabilize more. I have 6 mini roses (bought on Valentine's Day clearance) that are growing nicely on top of my curio cabinet ....
And I have my 2 pots of amaryllis plants that are doing very well on the floor in the corner of my living room. The amaryllis plants are an ... experiment. They were bulbs "encased in wax" that I bought before Christmas. They required no water, no direct light, no work at all. They did bloom beautifully. But I HATED the idea of throwing the bulbs away. So ....after they bloomed, I carefully cut the wax off, salvaging whatever bit of root I could find on the poor things. I then put them in water (only tips of the roots touching the water) and waited to see what might happen. Voila! They began making new roots! Eventually they were planted into heavy pots and good potting soil and I gave them as much light as I could. I babied them all this time, fed them, turned them, and now they are long-leaved and healthy looking. When it gets warmer I will move them outside for the summer. And then I will let them go dormant in the Fall and try to make them bloom again the tradional way for Christmas 2015. Wish me luck!
Finally, I saw robins yesterday!
The mounded snow cover, too, has finally melted quite a bit (that means only about 12 inches high now) in places. There are even large bare spots. I was so happy when I spied some daffodil tips peeking up through the mulch.
And ... I found the missing 3 metal rods that had broken off my wind chime. Since the snow has been melting, I found them beneath the tree in the front of the house. When I get a chance, I'm going to re-string the wind chime and metal rods with strong fishing line.
My backyard (still under a lot of snow cover) is going to need a GOOD CLEAN-UP. Large patches of the yard are covered with piles of deer poop! We've been feeding the deer all winter and they made quite a mess. If there's any consolation, at least we know that a lot of them made it through this tough winter with our help. In particular, there is one large doe and her 2 yearlings that came everyday for the corn we put out. She would sometimes eat right out of my hand. They all look healthy. And ... she is definitely pregnant! I know I complain about the deer that eat my plants, but I know I would miss them if they weren't around.
I'll just have to plant more marigolds. They don't like them at all! :-)
