March 2006

Well, March 1st was a so-so day, not particularly nice, kind of breezy, more lion than lamb-like. And March 2nd wasn't much better, matter of fact we had precip. I did find a bit of time after I got home to take a couple of shots. There really wasn't enough daylight left for a decent shot from the angle I was at, so I had to resort to the use of the built-in flash in order to get a reasonably sharp image to show how the Trilliums are coming along in our shaded corner of the North sideyard. The one to the top left had already been poking it's head up for almost a couple of months but it has only been over the past 3 or 4 days that it shot up and has started to unfurl. Sure sign spring's around the corner and that's great to see.

If I'd looked a little harder I suppose I might have found some other picture material than Helleborus 'Ivory Prince' because you saw it in February already, but I really wanted to show how well it has recovered from the frosty spell we had 2 weeks ago. What 2 weeks ago was limp and flaccid on the ground now stands erect again.

These are not the very first Crocus up, that happened almost three weeks ago now, on February 11th. I really like the pattern on this variety.

March 4th gave us our first Daffodil of the season.

Sticking with the Crocus thing for another shot, it's plain to see this was taken on a nice sunny day: March 12th. Both Saturday and Sunday were fabulous days that weekend and advantage was taken by potting up a bunch more Hosta roots, as well as repotting some more lilies, mostly 'Orange Beauty', something we have an abundance of.

Talking about potting up, here are some of the fruits of those labours. The #4 pots at the back have Daffodils in them with just in front of them some pots with Bearded Iris roots and the #1's in the right foreground have lilies. We're getting ready for the spring garage sale season. First one this year is rather early: April 8th. I'm not sure how much we'll have available in terms of saleable plants at that point, but, we'll keep our fingers crossed. No doubt some of the perennials will not yet be ready for prime time that early in the season. Every weekend after however we'll put up the signs again and have another go for another weekend. As long as the weather cooperates it's not a bad way to pass some time over a weekend actually. A fresh pot of coffee, lawn chair, one's favourite spouse, maybe some rays, what more can you ask for? Now that you mention it, perhaps some paying customers, like lots of 'em, no tire kickers please?

Lots of Bearded Iris growth, Daffodils in bloom, the purple parade about to hit full stride with the Crocus, Heather and Primroses: spring's ALMOST here!

The last weekend of this winter season and the purple blaze is in full swing. The month of March has been on the cool side though, most nights have been right around freezing. You can sure tell how that's made a difference in how far along everything is in the yard when you compare pictures taken the same day last year. After the mild January it's as if mother nature said 'Whoa, not so fast'.

We started the month off with emerging Trilliums, in the 16 days that have passed since then the flowerbuds are swelling nicely.

Three of the four varieties of Bleeding Heart we have are coming along just great. This here is the 'Luxuriant' cultivar. It's a lot more compact than the two spectabilis ones we have, but of course it doesn't have those arching sprays of flowers, can't have it all.

The D. spectabilis 'Alba' is planted in a well sheltered area and is therefor farther in its growth than the nominate one. It's already developing buds; give us another couple of weeks and as long as the temperatures don't dip too low we should be on our way to seeing the first flowers from them.

'Ivory Prince' has been in bloom for quite some time and as you can see, the flowers start to darken considerably when they age. Just for fun, go back to the second picture from the top of the page and compare.

The month may noy yet be over, but winter is and that means only one thing: 'SPRING HAS SPRUNG'