Spring-flowering bulbs need a period of chilling in order to bloom properly which can make it tricky to plant them later in winter here in Seattle. I decided to take a chance, however, and ordered about 200 bulbs, tulips, daffodils, and alliums.

My understanding is that bulbs need 12 to 16 weeks of cold weather in order to bloom. We have at least ten days coming up below forty degrees. I’m hoping for continued cool weather through March to provide for a colorful April, May, and June.

The bulbs were late clearance items from Tulip World. Here are some of them:

Another challenge in late bulb planting is finding spaces to plant them. The garden is pretty full and I had already planted a bunch of tulips in unmarked places two months ago. Trying to avoid those bulbs isn’t easy. Ultimately, I put about 35 tulips along the west property line in front of the greenhouse, a line of about 35 parrot tulips along the sidewalk in the memory garden. I also planted a bunch of tulips and daffodils in the front of the foundation planting in our little dog yard on the south side of the house. I tucked alliums into the memory garden in bunches of three and also along the driveway in the orchard garden and in a couple of pots along the south side of the driveway. I also planted a few tulips and alliums in the orchard garden.

Late clearance bulbs aren’t perfect and plump the way earlier autumn bulbs might be. Some have mold and some are desiccated and dead, but at least 75% of them looked good and healthy and likely to bloom well.

I didn’t attack the other chores I had lined up today, but Leon was kind enough to help lift up the side of the greenhouse where the wood foundation frame was rotting and shim it with bricks so the gap in the door closed up. He had to adjust the latch, as well, and then also adjust the latch on the nearby gate.

We also poured some cement for the maple samara wind sculpture in the native plant garden so we can get it reinstalled. The wind had snapped the pipe holding the sculpture earlier and we’re trying to figure out a better way.

I did a little watering and rearranging in the greenhouse today, as well. I noticed something interesting with my Pleione plants. These orchids form small bulbs on top of the older, mature bulbs. And the bulblets each have a long, thin leaf attached. When I pull off the old, faded leaves, the bulblets come with the leaves. I planted up about seven of them into moss and fir needles. As I was doing that I realized that this is a reproduction strategy for the plant. For plants in the wild, as the leaves fall off and get blown away by wind or dragged by animals, the bulblets are distributed away from the parent plant. You can see the bulblets attached to the leaf stems below.

Our cold snap wasn’t quite as cold as promised but still kept us below freezing for the better part of a week, with ultimate lows around 15 degrees. I am glad I took the steps to ensure the greenhouse heating system was working and that the Tonsai starts are safe. The greenhouse got as low as 37 degrees but held steady. The six inches of snow on top likely helped!

Here is what the greenhouse roof and the pots outside looked like after the snow with their snowy blanket.

I planted native plant seeds yesterday as my new New Year’s tradition–eight different kinds in nine pots.

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I packed snow on top of them to be sure they were watered/insulated. I also mixed a bunch of seeds to load into seed bombs later on and ordered some clay to use for seed bombs later this month.

Today, I worked on the seed starting station and got the lights and heat mat working and ready for seedlings. I planted some violas, dahlias, and forget-me-nots. The violas need to go into the refrigerator for a few weeks before coming back onto the seed mat, or possibly the greenhouse. They grow better cool.

Lastly, I moved some of the fern sporelings from their original container to terrariums.

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I only moved eight of the fernlets into these shiny new homes–and there are likely 50 or 60 more that need to be moved! I predict a big fern giveaway for the neighborhood this spring if I can get them to a reasonable size where they will make resilient houseplants.

My garden plans for 2022 include the removal or relocation of many non-native plants and adding native replacements. I plan to move all the shrub roses from the too-shady orchard garden and plunk them into the memory garden where they can get full sun. Those poor plants give me a few beautiful flowers every year but not very many and the plants themselves are forever looking for light.

Other plans include growing veggie starts for friends and neighbors from organic seeds and also some flowering plants and herbs. And, of course, a big focus on propagating and giving away native perennials, shrubs, and trees.

The forecast for Seattle is for a chilly, potentially snowy Christmas, with subsequently colder and colder days with lows the rest of the week of 36, 28, 21, 15, 18, 18, and 24 degrees before it gets back above freezing.

The tender plants were already in the greenhouse, but there are some less tender but more precious plants that needed to get some protection. This included 13 pots of dahlias that had been on the driveway and all of the Tonsai starts, which are between four and ten years old and too important to lose.

Here are the dahlia pots, all lined up–a baker’s dozen of them!

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I cut all the stems off and am just hoping not too many slugs made it into the greenhouse because slugs love to eat the tubers.

There were six or seven trays of young trees in small pots that I moved into the greenhouse after the dahlias we stacked inside, and that completely filled it–very little room for anything else.

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I started to order some native and ornamental plant seeds from Chilterns but they no longer ship to the US, apparently. I’ll order from somewhere else over the holiday break.

Seattle hasn’t had a frost yet so it isn’t as surprising that plants are still blooming. The witch hazel is in full bloom and the dahlias and marigolds in pots on the driveway are still throwing flowers here and there, though they are soggy beyond belief.

Here are some photos from the memory garden:

I have about six or seven different kinds of houseplant that started from seed form a Chiltern mix this spring. Photos follow. I have no idea what any of them are!

We had a wonderful weekend full of bright sun and calm winds. I watered the plants in the greenhouse well. It will be the last watering for the Clivia and Cymbidium plants before February unless they start to shrivel. On top of that, I used liquid orchid food on all the Clivia and orchid plants today to coax them to bloom more in the spring.

Later, I loaded all the patio plants into the greenhouse for the winter. The temperatures were down to 34 degrees last night. Luckily nothing outside suffered from frost damage of any kind. All the Dahlias are still blooming and I left them out in the driveway for now. I may move a few of them into the greenhouse. Most, however, will stay outside for the winter.

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A very interesting find in the orchard garden today–I found two full-grown plants of Nicandra phyalodes near the cherry tree. I haven’t grown Nicandra for at least 20 years. The seeds must have been dormant in the soil and they came to life when we dug up the area next to the driveway. Amazing!

There were a few other fun flowers around the greenhouse and garden today.

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We had a deluge again last night and all the plant trays filled up with water again. To prevent any root rot or other problems in the coming weeks/months I moved all the potted plants out of trays today. It took a few hours, but it was obvious that it was good timing. All of them were soaking wet.

I took a few photos of some of the trees that were showing particularly nice autumn color.

Boy, there are a lot of seedlings–both trees and shrubs for tonsai and native plants for the garden and giveaways.

I took a few minutes to photograph some other autumn colors around the garden, too.

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I found these seedlings next to the “Sweetheard” Erodium plants. I’m curious if they’ll come true from seed. There are a lot of them.

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I cleared my schedule today to move the Clivia plants and Cymbidiums into the greenhouse. The weather is getting cold fast and I’ll be traveling the next two weekends so it had to be today.

In an effort to make up for spring and summer neglect, I sprinkled organic plant food on these plants about a month ago just ahead of the first autumn rains. Today, as I cleaned them up and topped up their potting soil, I watered each pot well with Orchid Love organic (smelly) orchid food–a capful to a two-gallon watering can full of rainwater. My hope is that the food will help the plants set lots of buds for next spring. It might be too late, though. Most of the plants looked pretty healthy and happy.

I stuffed them all into the greenhouse and did a little clean-up in there. The patio plants need to come in, as well–I’m hoping to have time to do that tomorrow.

There were a few other things to photograph around the greenhouse and yard today.

Another Colchicum showing off.

We had some gorgeous autumn weather in the last few weeks, and then the rain really started in earnest yesterday. Maybe that’s the most gorgeous weather of all!

Below are some pictures from around the garden the last few weeks.

The garden reflects two different worlds right now. The first world is a very dry, hot summer world where plants are just trying to survive. The second world is the world of pampered plants that have been watered all along and who love the heat–they aren’t struggling to survive and some are blooming wonderfully.

I barely spotted this camouflage bunny in the front yard.

Pampered begonia on the patio below. This is Funky Pink in its third year from seed.

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And a seedling heliotrope below. This one lives up to the heliotrope hype. The color is deep and rich and the fragrance is sweet vanilla honey. Even Leon noticed this one.

And in the greenhouse, the Sinningia and most of the Streptocarpus are blooming.

I’ve been working a lot and just trying to keep the garden and greenhouse plants alive! Due to the lack of rain, it is quite a struggle.

There are always highlights, though, so below are a few.