{"id":141,"date":"2015-02-22T06:34:23","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T06:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/?p=141"},"modified":"2021-02-24T04:43:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T04:43:17","slug":"earliest-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/22\/earliest-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Earliest spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>I went running today and it was stunning how many plants are already in bloom.\u00a0 Daffodils and crocus are in full bloom, much earlier than I ever remember.\u00a0 Vinca minor is in full bloom and the bedraggled bergenias are trying to bloom, but being severely outclassed by pink heathers and white iberis.\u00a0 Many plum, cherry, ornamental pear\u00a0and apricot trees are also boisterously flaunting their flowers.\u00a0 I saw scotch broom, that weedy invader, starting to bloom.\u00a0 The early flowering rhododendrons are also in flower.\n

Today was so very spring-like, and it is obvious that the plant life here believes that spring is here, as well.\u00a0 The buds on the Santa Rosa plum I purchased from Raintree<\/a> are plumping up and near to blooming.\u00a0 All the fruit trees and shrubs have expanding buds already.\u00a0 The winter hazel is about to be in full bloom next to the blazing forsythia, and Osmanthus fragrans\u00a0is days away from sweetly scenting the driveway.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC03627\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Any severe frost or cold from now on could be devastating to crops, flowers and the plants themselves.<\/p>\n

There has been an especially sweet smell in the garden when I leave in the morning and when I come home at night.\u00a0I wasn\u2019t sure what could be smelling so sweetly and fairly strong, as the only obvious things in flower have no scent.\u00a0\u00a0I recently read for the first time that Daphne laureola<\/a>, the spurge laurel, can be fragrant.\u00a0 This handsome plant, now considered a noxious weed in our area, has sprouted a few places in our yard and is currently in full bloom, with yellow-green flowers.\u00a0 I always let it grow, but try to cut it back before it has a chance to form ripe berries to keep it from spreading.\u00a0 I had always been told that this\u00a0plant\u2019s flowers do not\u00a0smell, but there is no doubt that some of those in our yard have a wonderful fragrance, and the Wikipedia link confirms that these flowers can have a strong scent.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC03634\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

One notices so many things while running 16 miles through the neighborhood.\u00a0 Probably the most obvious thing I notice is how few people even try to maintain any type of garden nowadays.\u00a0 Most of them are content with lawn and a few shrubs or perennials, poorly placed and even more poorly maintained.\u00a0 Among these plain-Jane yards, I do see some gems mixed in.\u00a0 Many of these have obviously been designed by professionals, but some appear to just be garden-crazy individuals with their home-style charm applied liberally to\u00a0a city lot.<\/p>\n

I checked the seeds today and, while none of the seeds planted last week are poking through yet, the seeds from the prior planting are up and growing well.\u00a0 Several of the mixed lathyrus seedlings are up, some myositis, hundreds of campanula and the sweet peas.\u00a0 In an earlier post, I mentioned the possibility of mold in the greenhouse, and I realized today that one of the fans had died, so I ordered a new one to be delivered in 10 days or so.<\/p>\n

By moving the flat of wallflowers outside (under a clear plastic cover), I was able to make room for one more flat of seeds without having to rearrange the entire greenhouse.\u00a0 So, I planted mixed Andean rarities, a salvia mix, a verbascum cottage mix, roemeria hybrid<\/a>a, along with some primula japonica in a soft pink.<\/p>\n

The best things blooming in the greenhouse are the forced spring bulbs, a species crocus and mixed dwarf iris.\u00a0 They are so lovely and graceful (and short-lived), that I took a few pictures to remember them:<\/p>\n

$\"DSC03640\"$ <\/a> $\"DSC03641\"$ <\/a> $\"DSC03642\"$ <\/a>\u00a0 $\"DSC03643\"$ <\/a> $\"DSC03644\"$ <\/a> $\"DSC03646\"$ <\/a> $\"DSC03648\"$ <\/a> $\"DSC03647\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Shopping filled some of my time today, as I was too tired after the run to tackle much!\u00a0 I ordered from Gardens Alive<\/a>, who now carry plants\u2013one dwarf mulberry, a new type of blackberry and a goji berry vine.\u00a0 I also ordered some fruit fertilizer.\u00a0 Their products have always worked well for me and are designed with the environment in mind.<\/p>\n

From the Kelp4Less<\/a> website, I ordered some rooting powder, some kelp meal (which I swear by), and some azomite powder, which is a natural mined substance that adds minerals to soil from A to Z (thus the name azomite).<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be having a neighborhood studio tour in September and our house will be one of the stops.\u00a0 I intend to have some plant stock saved up and ready to sell during the art sale.\u00a0 I already have a bunch of cymbidiums and queen\u2019s tears, and if any of the seeds I\u2019m starting take off in any significant numbers, I should have some good-sized perennials to sell.\u00a0 Also, I\u2019ll take cuttings (once the rooting powder lands) of the clematis on the arbor in front (small, prolific, purple single flowers) as I cut it back for the season, and will also get cuttings of the Clematis alpine \u201cWilly\u201d on the back patio and the C. Montana rubens, as well.<\/p>\n

Other plants that will be easy to divide are the campanula porscharskyana, and the big root geraniums are easy to root.\u00a0 There are typically some Echinops in the veggie gardens seeded from the big parent plant nearby.\u00a0 My goal would be to have plants in the $2.50 to $5.00 range ready to fly off the shelves.\u00a0 That has never happened before, but I\u2019m telling myself that if I have the RIGHT plants I can sell them.\u00a0 Spring makes me optimistic!<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went running today and it was stunning how many plants are already in bloom.\u00a0 Daffodils and crocus are in full bloom, much earlier than I ever remember.\u00a0 Vinca minor is in full bloom and the bedraggled bergenias are trying to bloom, but being severely outclassed by pink heathers and white iberis.\u00a0 Many plum, cherry, … Continue reading Earliest spring<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9780,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/9780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}