I’m not sure how I missed these marvelous plants when they were blooming in the spring. Maybe it is because I gave a lot of the potted bulbs away and the ones that were left had slug damage that resulted in no photo-worthy flowers.
Forcing these bulbs is something I’ve taken on for many years. The bulbs are relatively inexpensive, so I’ve planted hundreds of them. The forcing pots make excellent gifts once they have chilled for six weeks–they require almost no care to coax the intricate, sometimes fragrant flowers to pop out.
Here are some of the bulbs I planted this fall. I’m leaving them outside to chill high up on shelves away from the slugs that found them last year in the cold frame.
And here is what these flowers have looked like in the past.
Future plans are to continue to force these bulbs every year for gifts and for windowsill displays. The pots will come into the greenhouse a few at a time starting in mid-January to ease them into blooming.
Here is another Arbor Day Foundation tree that I potted up over fifteen years ago. It has grown into a ten-foot tree with attractive leaves and good autumn foliage color. However, it has yet to bloom in its patio pot home.
My future plans for this tree are to root prune it and replace some of the soil while pruning the top. It has been tough to keep this tree watered adequately in the summers, but I think a soil refresh will help with that.
Grown from seed about five years ago, I moved this plant from a pot to the Douglas fir bed two years ago. It was a sink or swim demand of the seedling. Months later, I saw some glowing orange-gold color flaring from that bed in late summer and sure enough, there were Alstroemeria flowers!
Known to be pretty invasive, these plants form tubers as they spread. My clone seems perfectly hardy and able to handle the dry shade under the majestic Douglas fir. It has spread a bit, but the terrain is pretty severe in that bed–I don’t think it will ever take over.
Future plans for this plant are to move a division of it to a patio pot, where I can take better care of it and coax more flowers out of it.
A phoenix of a plant in the memory garden, I had forgotten that I planted three of these herbs there last year. They disappeared among the mulch and other plants. One of them climbed out of the mulch and is looking really heathy right now, however.
Thymus is a great plant family–not only do we get some great culinary herbs, but the whole family is a fun group of ground covers. I love the smell of this one best, with its lemony spice.
My future plans for this plant are to keep an eye on it and save it from any agressive mulch that tries to cover it permanently. If it does better, I’ll look at propagating it or adding a few new types to that garden.
The osoberry is a shrub I’ve always admired because it is very early to bloom and its mode of growth, with early perky new growth and pretty white drooping flowers, says spring is here like no other native plant. I added one to my native plant garden in April of 2020. It isn’t big enough to bloom yet, but it has settled in and grown well.
I see pictures of these shrubs online that have dozens of berries, but I’ve hardly ever seen a berry on any of the plants I’ve been around. I don’t know if that is timing or birds! But they are edible for humans, too.
Future plans for this plant are to pamper it a bit and hope it reaches its full glory in a year or two so it can herald spring for me and hungry pollinators!
