Living in Oz

The meadow to the east is carpeted in red indian paintbrush flowers.  As I walk out of it onto the road, I notice that the south side, which is shaded, is bright with dandelions still blooming.  On the north side, the dandelions are finished and the bank is a sea of blue lupins.  I guess our yard, with its lush green grass, is the Emerald City.

The blue north country



The red east country



The yellow south country



More daffodils

Nearly all my daffodils are blooming now.  The first ones are just about finished, but the other varieties are going strong.  Here are some of them.

Avalon are big and pale yellow

Butterfly daffs - I forget which variety



Centanees




Thalia, one of my favourites



Barrett Browning



Fragrant Rose






Bellsong, the largest miniatures and another favourite

There are just a few left to bloom.  They'll be starting soon.  

Daffodils

I'm a daffodil collector, in a small way.  When I first started my garden, I put in a couple of dozen King Alfred daffodil bulbs, the standard yellow ones.  They did really well and multiplied like crazy.  They still bloom first of the daffodils and started flowering a few days ago.

A few years later, someone gave me a pot of Tete-a-tete bulbs.  There beauties are only a few inches high.  I still wasn't doing much flower gardening back then, but I put them into the ground and they've been blooming every year since, though they haven't multiplied.  They open just a day or two later than the King Alfreds, and their flower looks like a tiny copy.

The next gift I received was a few Ice Follies bulbs.  Their flowers have petals of a creamy, light yellow. 

Once I had three different daffodils in the garden, something happened to me.  I was hooked on them and started searching out more. I'm up to 15 varieties now.  (Actually, it's more than that, because I ordered a mixture once.)  I think it's time to stop adding new ones and take time to enjoy the one I have for a while.

A Spring Bulb Update

The parade of early spring flowers is continuing in my garden.  My favourite flower colour is blue, and this time of year gives me lots of it.

The miniature irises (Iris reticulata) are in full bloom now.  They are only about six inches tall.  These light blue ones are the variety "Cantab"; I don't know which varieties the others are.

Glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa) started blooming a little after the irises.  They make a mass of colour close to the ground, and multiply fast.

The Scilla are just starting to bloom.  They also multiply fast, and they are a beautiful true blue.

Snowdrops were the first flowers in the garden and they're still going strong.

Dutch crocuses are starting as the snow crocuses fade away.

Crocuses in the Asparagus Bed

 

Crocus tomasinianus (Ruby Giant)



The predominant colour in April in the Cariboo is brown.  The patches of glowing colour made by the snow crocuses are so welcome in the garden.  These are little species crocuses, closer to the original wildflowers than the big Dutch crocuses that bloom a bit later. 



C. sieberi (Firefly)

 

I grow a mix of species and varieties and love them all.  I've started to tuck them into all kinds of spots in the garden.  They pop up between raspberry canes when these are just brown sticks and light up the ground under the apple tree.  They edge the flower bed, share space with strawberries, and line the vegetable garden, where I'll plant greens later in the spring.  By the time the other plants need space, the crocuses are finished.



The yellow are C. chrysanthus (Crean Beauty)



Last year, I planted a few bulbs in the asparagus bed.  Asparagus are planted deeply, while the little crocus bulbs are close to the soil surface, so there is no competition.  Again, the flowers have faded and the leaves are dying back before the asparagus starts to come up in May.  I'm pretty sure the plants will get along together even after the crocuses have multiplied.  At one end of the bed, there's a clump of irises.  I'm not sure how it came to be there, but the strongest, fattest asparagus spears I've ever seen come pushing through the mat of iris rhizomes every year. Each fall, I ease out some of the rhizomes, carefully, so as not to disturb the asparagus roots, but the crocus bulbs are so small that they couldn't hinder those strong asparagus shoots.