SPED, those are perfect! Glad you found the sunshine. I bet you'll make them happy and be stars in your orange garden. Jane

Gorgeous daisies Sped!

Just lots of bulbs blooming in my lawn.

So lovely to see bulbs blooming and buds expanding!!

Sped - If you can, move the gerberas out when it's warm enough during the day, starting with shade, to harden them off just like you would seedlings, even when it's too cold in the early morning and at night to leave them out. That will help keep them vigorous until you can plant them in the garden.

Well, what do you know, itâÂÂs spring! :-) I love those daisies too, Spedigrees, such a shot of color! Pretty snowdrops and crocus, Pixie Lou. I planted a ton of snowdrops and they disappeared, so IâÂÂll enjoy looking at yours.

Steve, I always wanted a Magnolia and havenâÂÂt tried one. Those buds are so interesting! So fat and fuzzy. And pretty cool to see hosta leaves so early, even if they were in the garage.

Claire, glad to see your sedum and phlox are back.

I'm disappointed in my crocus for the second year in a row. Last year, they seemed puny to me and this year, at least the white 'Jeanne d' Arc' are definitely puny and less of them than usual. I'm also missing quite a few crocus. I don't see 'Advance' anywhere. And I planted 25 Leucojum last year and I don't see one. Could they be late, I wonder?

Well, here is what is going on in my gardenâ¦

A blurry photo of Honeysuckle leaves out already...

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Fri, Apr 4, 14 at 12:10

Daffodil foliage up pretty high all of a sudden...

Hellebore flowers opening. This is the first one to bloom every year...

Oriental Poppy seems unphased by the winter.

And here are my crocus looking quite underwhelming, but alive...

Here is how puny the white 'Jeanne d'Arc' crocus are this year...

Here's what they looked like a few years agoâ¦.

And we're doing over our vegetable beds and just took off the old frame and waiting for the new frames. ...

PM2 - In my garden crocus are a favorite of the voles. Might that be the problem or are you lucky enough to not be plagued by the cursed creatures?

Babs, remember I was asking about the tracks in the snow during some melting earlier? I think that may definitely be the reason. I can't think of another reason, crocus are hardy right? And the Leucojum, 25 bulbs? I'm not sure if it was the cold weather or if they could have found every bulb and ate it?

Plus I mulch with shredded leaves so much, I've read they love those conditions. I am planning on getting more bulbs in the Fall and using hardware cloth boxes. I haven't had a chance to see if I can find where they could be living in the yard or using a treatment for them, but I suppose I'm going to have to. I'm also debating whether to cover all the bottoms of my vegetable beds with hardware cloth. I did read they especially like Asparagus roots, so I am planning on doing that bed, butâ¦.where the rest of the vegetable garden has annual vegetable plants, do I have to? Do they eat the roots of your vegetable crops in the summer too?

Thank you NHBabs for the advice, vis a vis setting the gerbera daisies outdoors on warm days. It's good advice and I definitely plan to, but first the temperatures here need to drastically improve.

NHBabs and Prairiemoon, my crocuses started out great too but after a few years disappeared. I'm sure the voles ate them. Below are just some of the vole highways in my yard this spring. I've heard that planting crocus bulbs in mesh wire cages will protect them, but being a lazy gardener, my strategy has been to give up on crocus and plant daffodil bulbs instead. Voles don't bother daffoldils at all. I don't believe that any of my vegetable roots were on the voles' menu either. My carrots, squash, and corn were unscathed. The only vegetable predators were birds plucking out newly sprouted plants, but Pixie Lou's pinwheel solution solved that problem! They did unearth and feast on the roots of a few of my newly planted spruce trees two years ago. This year they ignored the remaining treelets as well as the newer ones, so I guess their taste for evergreen root waxes and wanes.

I think those whose crocuses do well, probably have low populations of voles. As you can see, though, my property is infested with them.

Spedigree, that is very obvious isnâÂÂt it. I donâÂÂt see anything like that in my yard, but IâÂÂm going to do a good search this weekend. I will definitely increase the amount of daffodils too. No problems with your vegetable beds. That is great!

I wanted to ask you, where did you find those pinwheels you use? And I wonder if they would work for squirrels. [g]

PM2: I do probably have a low population of voles (lots of predators) but I also have a high population of squirrels that also love to eat crocus bulbs.

All of my crocuses are Crocus tommasinianus cultivars which are squirrel resistant (that's why I chose them), and might also not be tasty to voles although I don't know that for sure.

It might be too early for the leucojums to come up, particularly since they were planted last fall.

Claire

Ohâ¦at least that's some hope for the Leucojum, Claire, thanks.

And that is interesting about the Crocus tommasinianus cultivar, because the crocus in the bed with all the missing white crocus, is 'Ruby Giant' which I believe is a variety of that and it seems to be fine.

One of my problems, is I do not have a population of predators. No cats in the neighborhood really, no snakes, only hawks once in awhile and they seem more interested in the birds. I have squirrels every day.

Well, I'm going to search every inch of the property this weekend and see what I come up with.

PM2, I only planted Leucojum once since they got eaten their first winter. I have since started planting tasty bulbs in hardware cloth circles unless they are in a part of the garden with gravelly soil. There are a few bulbs that both the voles and I really like, and it's worth the trouble to me to use the hardware cloth.

I don't think that the voles bothered the onion family or peas, melons, squash, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, or greens. I don't grow carrots, but I do sometimes find my potatoes munched. My veggie garden is surrounded by rough field that gets mowed a few times a year and so is chock-a-block full of voles. I often don't mulch much of the veggie garden (so the soil is warmed as much as possible) so the voles may feel too exposed. Also, most of my vole damage is in the winter.

In some places my vole tunnels look like Sped's but in others they are higher or slightly underground, visible only by the slightly raised or loosened soil. I think it depends on how much cover there is and how frozen the soil was when they were forming the runs and at what depth the most food was.

Thanks Babs, I am going to do the hardware cloth for bulbs. That's interesting that they left your veggies alone. I will look closely for any kind of disturbance in the beds and lawn.

Don't want to hijack this photo thread. I did pull up the old thread on 'tracks in the snow, moles/voles?' if anyone has any further comments about it. Thanks. :-)

Well here is something that is blooming (or budding?) outdoors here. My largest pussywillow bush has pussywillows. The other smaller bushes develop catkins a bit after the "big mama bush."

Just a few crocuses blooming today.

Steve

Spedigree, I love to have Pussywillow branches in the house in the spring. Lucky you, to have your own supply!

Steve, your white crocus look very happy!

Not in my own yard, but just wanted to post my first daffodil sighting from my lunchtime walk around Cambridge today.

And another one. One's mostly open, anyway...

A few daffodils beginning to bloom, probably Rijnveld's Early Sensation that I planted years ago and mostly petered out.

And Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty' is just beginning.

Otherwise, the later crocuses, also tommasinianus cultivars, are coming up while the earlier ones are staying put.

Crocus t. 'Albus'

Crocus t. 'Ruby Giant'

and mixtures of 'Roseus', 'Ruby Giant' and tommasinianus species.

Claire

First open daffodil! Down behind the pond.

I can never remember what these bulbs are called. Scilla? glory of the snow?

pixie_lou: You might email the GW editor again - it took me two tries last time.
............................................................................................
Peonies are mobilizing!

Peony 'Festiva Maxima'. The little red eyes are popping up. This peony always blooms.

and Peony 'Silver Dawn Mix', which is really early, is raising clenched fists! I don't know if this one will bloom this year. I moved it last fall after it had gotten overwhelmed by a Knockout rose for a few years and I didn't do anything about it.

Claire

This post was edited by claire on Fri, Apr 11, 14 at 17:44

Thanks Claire. will try again.

Winter Aconite in the lawn

How lovely to see beautiful blooms from everyone. I am excited just to see the snow and ice gone and a few early sprouts along the foundation wall of my house. I see daffodil and daylily sprouts. It is hopeful that spring may actually have arrived at last!

spedigrees: I've read a few rumbles that this may be one of those delayed springs where a lot of different flowers bloom at the same time once they catch up. I hope so. You're probably at the beginning of an explosion.

My pieris are just starting to bloom.

Pieris 'Karenoma' is ahead:

And Pieris 'Little Heath' is just starting:

This prompted me to give the ornamental grasses their spring haircuts since the grasses were looming over the pierises.

As a bonus, I discovered some daffodils I hadn't seen sprouting between the grasses.

Claire

I cannot wait to get home and start photographing: the lilac bush, the "tree-lings" which are sprouted up in my garden bed, the crocuses and daffodils, the peas and the nasturtiums which I'm hoping have sprouted. And what ever else will surprise me there.

Awesome gardens per usual, everyone. The photos are inspirational. Claire, nice crocuses!

Claire,
Those tommy crocuses look great. How old are those clumps? I think I need to get some of those Ruby Giants.

Here in Central Mass the daffodils are beginning to open. Here's a picture of an early clump.

And this tiny clump, about 3 inches high, that I don't remember planting.

The Hellebores are in full bloom now. This is Golden Showers also, but looks different from it's siblings.

Finally the Hostas are starting to show pips. This group of 9 pips are from Empress Wu, the largest cultivar available, and it shows great promise of the season to come.

Steve

Hyacinths are starting to open!

Nothing is blooming yet- but there is hope! I planted many crocus bulbs last fall and they are only just starting to make an appearance:

Steve: The oldest crocus clumps are about 5 years old, but I planted more each year after that. I also dug up a few of the oldest clumps to move some of the bulbs elsewhere.

The tommasinianus (I practice writing that) crocuses spread very quickly in my yard, helped by the fact that I usually plant five or more bulbs fairly close together in a wide hole.

I checked my records and discovered that I had ordered Crocus 'Whitewell Purple' one year. 'Whitewell Purple' seems to look a lot like 'Ruby Giant' so some of the darker purple crocuses in my pictures may be WP not RG. If I feel particularly obsessed I may go out and stare at them to see if I can find a difference, but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

No hostas yet, but Dicentra 'Goldheart' is rising.

Claire

It's been unusually warm for a few days and the pace is picking up. Tomorrow the forecast is for dramatic cool-down so the overenthusiastic flowers will probably be on hold for a while.

Today 'Toby the First' daffodils opened behind the Pieris 'Karenoma'. There were just buds there yesterday.

and Narcissus 'Jetfire' just opened in the middle of the Grey Owl juniper patch. I'll try to move these daffodils when the foliage dies down; the junipers are overwhelming them (there used to be an open space in the ring of junipers and the daffodils fit nicely in it). I held up one juniper branch to get this picture.

Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty' is fully open now.

No flowers, but the good old reliable groundcover, Geranium macrorrhyzum (it's taken me a few years but I can type that quickly now) has put out nice green leaves.

Claire

It snowed last night.

pixie_lou: your grass looks green under that snow!

It snowed here too, it was snowing early this morning when I got up:

It didn't seem to bother the sedums:

But the heavy rain last night and then a little snow smashed down some daffodils that just opened yesterday afternoon:

The sun's out now though, and all should melt. It looks better already:

Claire

The pussy willow flower buds (catkins) are opening to full-fledged flowers, covered with pollen! The squirrels didn't prune the tree as much this year as in the last few years (maybe my glaring at them worked).

Incredible closeup photos of pussy willow catkins and flowers

They say that pussy willows produce nectar and are pollinated by insects, so this would probably be an excellent source of early food for bees and the like. I didn't know that. I heard a bumble bee buzzing around yesterday so I'm glad it has something to eat. Maybe the pollen is a food source too.

Claire

Magnolia 'Leonard Messel'

This post was edited by steve_mass on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 18:15

MY FIRST BLOOM (Southern Vermont, in a deep valley)! Naturalized/wild bleeding hearts. Unfortunately, I decided to MOVE a ton of stuff early in the season (as soon as the ground thawed, so most of my perennials will be later blooming this year, but I am very excited to see even these tiny blooms before May! Probably will have some lily of the valley blooming next, as they are the closest so far.

Flowers in Zone 4. It must be Spring. Today was glorious day to work in the garden. I took a few pics in between working.

PJM ready to pop soon

Magnolia

Hostas are emerging too. This is Sagae

montana Aureomarginata

Wheee!

A seedling from two years ago. This one needs to go in the garden and get a name.

Steve

NIce pics everyone! I think spring is finally thinking about making an appearance!

No pics here, but I have the usual suspects - daffs (which have recovered quite nicely from a night of sleet and snow last week), grape hyacinths, chionodoxa on their way out, hellebores all in bloom. Hostas, bleeding hearts, daylilies, mums, monarda, phlox, clematis, all poking up, and leaf buds on a few hydrangeas. I think I may have lost some other hydrangeas, though. Keeping my fingers crossed.

My boxwood all looks awful. Not sure what to do about it....

Dee

So nice to see all of the new life coming out of the drab winter! And Steve's yard looks as if he has chairs ready to sit out on the deck/patio! I'm aching for that time to come.

The roses are leafing out and the rambler 'Excelsa' is beginning to cover the bottom half of my (dirty) window. It's in a south facing location next to the house and is taking advantage of the added heat. Somewhere around July Fourth this window should be bedecked in pink blooms.

My great aunt made that stained glass window pane.

Claire

Nearing the end of April the garden is still slow to wake up, but it's a joy to see what does sprout.

It's still mid-season daffodil and scilla time:
N. 'Lemon Glow' and Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty' down by the road.

And there's one daffodil flower that I don't think I've ever seen before and I haven't found anything online that looks like it. It doesn't match my records of daffodils I've bought. This is the only budding stalk in the clump.
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It's in a spot next to a peony where a daffodil certainly belongs. I may have found some bulbs while excavating somewhere else and just moved them there, assuming they were one of my regular daffodils. Does anybody recognize this?

Claire

My Sanguinaria has been looking like it's about to bloom for three days. The first bit of sunlight finally hit it this afternoon, and the blossoms popped open.

That's beautiful, nekobus! Maybe you could post it again on the What's Blooming in Your Garden - A photo Thread - May 2014 that was just put up? That way people who search for May bloomers will find Sanguinaria listed.

Claire

Nekobus, lovely flower and pleasingly composed photo.

Claire, I like that daffodil, both the form and the lemony color. It looks like a split cup which vary quite a bit, but all have segments instead of a whole cup.

nhbabs: I posted the unusual daffodil pics on the Bulbs Forum, hoping someone could identify it. They also suggested split corona but no specific identity. There's another flower stalk there but I'm not sure if the flower will develop, I hope it comes back next year in profusion!

Claire