The weather was perfect this weekend for some Saturday kayaking and some Sunday gardening. I sorted through the 60+ clivia plants and pulled those with spikes into the display area. Only thirteen spikes were found. There are bound to be a few more as the season warms.

One clivia was already blooming–this interspecific hybrid.

A few other plants have February blooms in the greenhouse, including the orchid we call Mom’s Cymbidium that we’ve had in the family for over thirty years now.

And this sad holiday cactus with just one flower open.

I set up a heat tray and lights. I planted a bunch of seeds, including the following:

Petunia “Lavender Sky Blue”

Viola “Johnny Jump Up”

Thunbergia “Black-Eyed Susan”

Petunia “Easy Wave Burgundy Star”

Impatiens “Accent Star Mix”

Viola “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”

Aster “Single Rainbow Mix”

Coleus “Coral Candy”

Viola “Sorbet Mix”

Petunia “Tidal Wave Silver”

Petunia “Purple Wave”

Petunia “White Easy Wave”

Alpine Strawberry “Alexandria”

Alpine Strawberry “Yellow”

Red Shiso

Nicotiana “Sensation Mix”

Petunia “Lavender Sky Blue”

Petunia “Lavendar Sky Blue”

Cosmos “Psyche Mix”

We are in for some cold weather, but with the thermostat set at 45 degrees and the heat mat raising the soil temperature even more, I think most of these seeds should germinate and grow in the next two weeks. Most are destined for patio pots and to fill in blanks in the memory garden.

As I get older, I feel winter’s negative drain more intensely and notice spring’s positive push. This weekend, there was no denying spring is coming. The Pacific wren in our yard has been singing incessantly his beautiful, somewhat desperate song. And the native plant seeds have started to pop up in the pots outside. My mood is lifting a little more every day.

Seattle experienced multiple days in a row in January below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It seemed like this would stall out the anxious spring growers like the crocus, tulips, and hyacinths in the garden.

During the freeze, I moved the iris and crocus bulbs that I am forcing in pots to the greenhouse. I saved them from freezing solid, but then the greenhouse heated up in the sun and we experienced a spell of warm weather. Normally, I would move the pots in the house to force them one pot at a time, but the cold/hot/warm treatment caused them all to bloom at once when I moved them out to the shelves again! The crocus did not make it–rats ate them all in the greenhouse except the one pot I have already moved into the house! But the iris flowers are spectacular.

The bulbs in the memory garden are also blooming beautifully with the unseasonably warm weather.

Last year, the Veltheimia bracteata in the greenhouse failed to bloom for the first time in several years. But I noticed, way back in the greenhouse, that there is a spike coming this year!