Another little bulb joins the parade of minor spring bulbs here at Oak Lawn. Actually I should say thousands of scilla have joined the parade... no matter how many we pull each season, a great many return every year throughout the gardens. We don't even wait for the foliage to ripen after their bloom period... they pop up all over pushing through last fall's leaves and even layers of wood mulch that I pile over them four inches deep each spring after the bloom...
By the way... we added some stockade fencing yesterday to hide the Ag bags belonging to the farm next door.... this is only temporary as once my shoulder heals from surgery, I plan on completing the rustic cedar fence at Oak Lawn's perimeter and the fence pictured below will go away...
Some may recall that my first attempt to grow daffodils at Oak Lawn was a total failure... well almost, since two bulbs out of the full bushel I planted came up and bloomed! I have no idea why this happened and for years, daffodils didn't do a thing here... perhaps the long term soil improvement is responsible for us having good luck with them for the past several years.
Last season I had an area that truly needed dividing... there were hundreds of bulbs. I didn't wish to wait until the foliage was spent as the area was to be overplanted with annuals, so I dug and potted them in huge tubs of soil where they ripened off and did very well, were planted out in the fall, and are budded now. This was a lot of work and I learned this spring that there is an easier way, have tried it, and am amazed at how well it's working!
Thank you Francis at Fairegarden for your post of March 10 this season, in which you described dividing and moving daffodils immediately after bloom on a cool day. We didn't even wait for bloom and I am amazed at how good the plants are looking and the ones that were in bud will bloom normally despite the division. This is how we will handle the task from here on out.... as you can see below, there are areas where bloom has become sparse at Oak Lawn and we'll need to get to these soon as well...
... and if you don't follow Fairegarden, may I highly recommend it... there is a magical quality about the blog that I find very appealing!
We also spent some time taking down some trees and limbing others up yesterday. I have two fifteen foot Galaxy magnolias and a Susan as well that were being starved for light and water by reasonably good sized conifers, so some went and other lost limbs...
The last of the crocus are now in bloom at Oak Lawn...
I am more enamored with chionodoxa each year and think I need to order large quantities of them this fall...
And to close... more hellebores. My goodness, life would have been easier had I planted them a bit higher off the ground. It's work getting a half way decent photo as I'm sure you are aware of if you grow them... I'm not young anymore, seeing as I applied for social security today, and these gymnastics can be wearing!
Most of our hellebores are not very far along yet as you can see below...
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| One of the Lady series... not certain if pink or red until its neighbor blooms! |
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| This is Winter Dreams Picotee... I really like this because of its pure rich colors |
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| This is WB Elegance White, a double white with raspberry spots... I'm hoping the white will improve as the blossom develops some more |
All for now... Larry
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