March 2008

Hold on, it'll be here soon enough...and, BINGO! There it is. It's March 1st and look at how over the past week these lily bulbils have shot up. They are 'Polyanna', an Asiatic. And it isn't just these, there are lots more in other pots and planters. The unfortunate thing is there is a rodent hanging around at night that seems to have it in for the larger lily bulbs. Three traps have been set with lily bulblets or lily scales as bait, but thus far no dice.

The paeonies in the frontyard are all popping up, some are farther along than others. These shoots here are a clump of 'Bowl of Beauty' and it's remarkable how we have two of them side by side and this one is always earliest to rise of the two. And of course also the first to bloom.

We have Dicentra spectabilis growing in a couple of spots. These shoots here are the 'Alba' form and in our experience this one has always been far less vigorous than the nominate form, which we seem to have to divide almost annually to keep it from over running the spot it's in.

While have had some overnight frosts over the past week, daytime temperatures are well above freezing. Combine that with the occasional sunny spell and you'll see all manner of purple and violet pop-up all over our frontyard. Here it is Crocus and Primulas...

This bloody rodent that's been ravaging our lilies has now gone as far as digging up bulblets and scales and dropping them in a couple of pots with Hostas, like this pot with 'Deja Blu'.....

... or this pot with a 'Wylde Green Cream'. It must use this batch of pots as a roosting place as most of them have rodent droppings in them... the left red arrow shows a lily scale and the two right ones point to rodent droppings.... thank goodness at least it/they haven't gone after the Hostas... yet. These two pots are part of the batch of plants that got the bleach bath last year in my attempt to rid them all of foliar nematodes. They're all being kept together, sheltered under cover on the lower of two shelves so there is no chance of splashing rain passing on the infection to the rest of the plants. By late July/early August I should have a fair idea as to how successful these attempts were. It's encouraging at least that most of them are already showing swelling apical buds, that bodes well.

Part of this batch of 'bleach babies' is an 'Ice Age Trail' which was only just the one shoot when I received it last August. It would appear at this point as if we'll see FOUR shoots this year... let's keep our fingers crossed them thar worms is gone...

It's easy to understand why I sometimes refer to the frontyard being in a 'Purple Haze' this time of year. It starts off with the heathers, followed shortly after by the primulas and then the croci.

This past, second weekend in March was the first time I saw evidence of the Camelia buds starting to break open. A couple more days and the first ones will be open, then in another week to 10 days we'll see the shrubs blanketed with flowers.

Another one of the 'bleach bath babies' is Hosta 'Ray of Hope'. I received a crown with 2 shoots on it last year and as part of the bleaching process I divided it in two. This is one of those two and as you can see it is now sporting 4 swelling apical buds! And it seems to me I saw 3 buds on the other one, so, at least they're showing vigour. Let's hope they can keep it up throughout the year...

Perhaps a day later than last year, but nonetheless it is wonderful to see the Daffodils opening up again. This is what I came home to March 11th, a very welcome sight indeed.....

And I almost forgot! The rat is dead! The bugger that has been ravaging one of our large planters, the one with the Honeysuckle and a good load of lilies, has finally been caught in one of the traps. The trap got triggered by the motion of the rat grabbing the sacrificial bulblet, which was stuck in it's mouth... bit gruesome perhaps, but that makes 2 for this winter, both of them ultimately done in by their choice of favourite food used as bait, it was Helleborus flowers for the first one and this one fell victim to its love of lily bulbs.......

The last day of winter showed us another example of why I sometimes refer to this brief period of time as 'Purple Haze'. With the heather, crocus, violas and primulas in the front and side yards it's easy to see why....