Anna always won....
the bulb patrol.... it was a bit of a contest of sorts at our Hockley Valley Garden.
Anna always scoped the place and found the first bulb popping up through the warming soil.
The snowdrops were first - under a birch clump at the edge of the woodland garden - viewed from our garden room ...so called as it was set on the north side of the house and calling it a sunroom seemed overly optimistic!
The delicate blooms were often hastening spring - blooming even under the blanket of snow.
I recall a year that spring came extra-ordinarily early - Jennifer was visiting from Edmonton - the morning started with a foot of snow on the deck - it was so unusually warm and sunny (plus 20 !) - that the snow melted by noon
by 2pm - what had been frozen soil mere hours ago - was filled with emerging crocus- by 230 - the crocus now accompanied by the iris reticulata were opening up to full bloom - it was like watching time lapsed photography!!! They opened, they fried, they died - by 4pm it was all over but the crying!
My fav's - I have two - Muscari (also called Grape Hyacinths - why do we call flowers so many different names anyway?) and Fritillaria Meleagris (that's quite a mouthful - if only it had another name!) (although I have heard it called chocolate lily???)
anyway - the point is - we got in our first shipment from our greenhouse today - of Muscari (pictured above)
....Spring can surely not be that far off now !!!
hope to see you at our Cabin Fever Breakaway Brunch - Feb 21st - there we will be sharing secrets to forcing branches and bulbs to early indoor bloom - and decorating with the potted bulb - we call it the Moss Thread - and you can see it on Daily Web TV - access it through our website
http://www.vintagegardener.com/dailyweb.html
