| March | ||
Monday, 31 March 2025
Over time I planted 6 or 7 star magnolias, Magnolia stellata, here at BelleWood Gardens.
They are the familiar white flowered kind. I like them, in part, because their straplike petals
seem less subject to frost damage than the much larger M. soulangeana that collapse and fall
In view from the front door is a cultivar with lovely pink flowers, M. stellata 'Rosea'.
Well named, don't you think.
Thursday, 20 March 2025
I was not sure where to put this. Certainly it could be in Flowers Around Town as these early little bulbs
snowdrops and winter aconites, have shown their way up above last autumn's fallen leaves
and here they are across the road from BelleWood Gardens. But I do know that's where they came from.
How did they get here? Floods washing them across the road? Gardening squirrels? What do you think?
Wednesday, 19 March 2025
It's the little bulbs that bring the first flowers. They seem quite happy here, multiplying nicely.
Winter aconites, Eranthis hyemalis, are frustrating to begin, then settle in and become very happy.
They grow from a small, even call it a tiny tuber. Which do not appreciate drying out for shipment.
Fortunately their price is as minute as their size. So plant as many as you are comfortable buying,
soak in damp peat moss overnight, then plant. If 20% appear next spring you can rejoice. Because
they'll flower, seed, reproduce, and in only a few years the few bright flowers become very many.
Snowdrops are perhaps the most iconic of the little end-of-winter flowering bulbs.
While similar overall, there are several different species, there are named cultivars.
Galanthus woronowii differs from the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, in that it has bright green leaves.
Galanthus 'Virid Apice' is distinguished with a green marking on its three outer petals.
Galanthus 'Hill Poë' is a sturdy double snowdrop discovered in an Irish garden in 1911.
Not a snowdrop but rather a snowflake, Leucojum vernum, for vernal meaning
in, or appropriate to spring. Looks rather like a bell, or a starched white petticoat.
A crocus. Not positive if it is Crocus vernus or perhaps a deep colored cultivar of C. tommasinianus
The dainty little two leaved scilla, Scilla bifolia with its raceme of starry blue flowers.
Narcissus (or do you think of them as daffodils) provide a forecast of spring.
Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' from circa 1943, is the earliest of trumpet daffodils to flower
by a good two weeks. Absolutely cold hardy, it stands up to surprise snowfalls. Skullduggery
in its naming. Apparently (or so the story goes) it was originally bred by F. Herbert Chapman
in England sometime before 1943, but only registered in 1956 by F. Rijnveld & Sons of Holland.
I'm not sure who this daffodil might be. My records have it as 'Mustard Seed' but it looks
nothing like the online information for that name. After some research I now believe it is
Narcissus minor 'Cedric Morris', which does make sense as it is also very early into bloom.
Now onward from bulbs with their underground stored food reserves to perennials.
That of course brings BelleWood into bloom with hellebores. Here, my favorite deep purple
of Helleborus Early Purple Group. What's not to love - they grow in woodland shade, are
pest proof, even by deer that believe my garden is a salad bar, and display their lovely flowers
unharmed by freezing weather that nights might bring. This year there was massive leaf browning.
Hellebores do, by the way, offer their flowers for a fresh from the garden bouquet.
Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Last November I presented a talk on "Little Bulbs for Rock and Woodland Gardens" to the Delaware Valley NARGS (that's North American Rock Garden Society) chapter in Pennsylvania. They are a very active group. All who attended were given a little bag with some spring flowering bulbs. I came home with two gift bags of Narcissus 'Ice Baby' bulbs. (My friend Bill who came with me graciously gave me his.) Rather than plant outdoors I decided to pot them up.
Now the nice thing about daffodils is that if you use a standard flower pot (as tall as it is wide) and plant in two layers they'll all grow and flower at the same above-soil height. It's like this: Fill pot 1/3 with potting mix. Set bulbs at north, east, south, west. Fill pot with 1/3 more potting mix and set bulbs at northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest. And one or two bulbs in the center. Then finish filling pot with potting mix.
I watered the pot and set it in our unheated garage to root and grow. As you can see, the results delight me.
And meanwhile, in the greenhouse
where it is warmer than the garage! - clivia is in flower.
Saturday, 8 March 2025
Springtime delights as time changes and galanthus flower in the garden.