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aliceg8

First Blooms!

aliceg8
15 years ago

I couldn't believe it, but I have some tiny yellow crocus blooming (I think they were called Golden Bunch). And I saw one tiny viola bloom. And my hyacinths in my 'hot garden' have their buds coming up too!

I was out yesterday thinking I would trim back some of the dead perennial growth when I found these little gems. What a spirit lifter! But then I cut short some of my trimming as I noticed that some of my perennials already have growth at the base. I was afraid I would rob them of needed protection.

I guess I need to get going on indoor seeding - as spring seems to be in a hurry this year. I want to try and get some stuff in the vegetable garden early - planning on putting some hoops up. I feel like I'm being woken from slumber myself!

Alice

Fort Collins

Comments (19)

  • highalttransplant
    15 years ago

    Well, I don't have any blooms yet, but the daffodils are poking up now, and the tulips that I thought I pulled out, are coming up thicker than ever! I decided to give up on them, since the deer eat most of them before they ever bloom. I must have left a few pieces of bulbs behind : ) Maybe I'll plant some crocus this year, just to have something pretty to look at this time of year.

    Bonnie

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    15 years ago

    Geez. Down here in Aurora early daffies and the first tulip are poking thru, many green leaves at bases of woody perennials, garlic shooting up now, first yarrows with leaves, couple others. Maybe we need to put in some spring crocus.

    Dan

  • davies-cc
    15 years ago

    Here in Canon City I've had some little yellow crocus for about two weeks now, plus some white ones and a few Iris reticulata have just joined in. Also I noticed the 'winter jasmine' (www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/product/59607/) shrub had started blooming a little last weekend. It's kind of a weird sprawly little shrub - the original plant sent out stems every which way and one of these rooted about 2 feet away and is actually the more vigorous part of the plant now. But the blooms are a welcome sight, that's for sure. I put in a Lenten Rose last year and I would expect it to start blooming soon, but it's still too small so far - maybe next year ;-) Plus I've got to figure out where I can put in a Witch Hazel sometime; that would really liven things up about now. Anyway, only ten days 'til Daylight Savings Time begins, then I can start touring the gardens after work again!

  • greenbean08_gw
    15 years ago

    I noticed today I have a hyacinth starting to poke up out of the ground.

  • foxes_garden
    15 years ago

    My purple crocus surprised me by opening up this morning, and I've got one daffodil that looks like it will open soon. I log on to report this and find Alice has me beat by more than a week. I guess I should look for the Golden Bunch crocus!

  • laura_42
    15 years ago

    Nice to hear some of you are getting daffs and crocuses popping up. How cheery. :)

    All of my container plants I've been overwintering in the garage are leafing and budding, too. Eeep! Is it too early for this? Should I put 'em somewhere cooler, or....?

  • lilacs_of_may
    15 years ago

    I had crocuses popping up in late January. They were blooming in February. Now I have a couple dozen crocuses blooming, and my daffodils, tulips, peonies, and irises are poking green leaves up. And my lilacs are leafing out, except for the Adelaide Dunbar, who's always the last to wake up in the spring.

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    15 years ago

    Walking back home from school yesterday, the gardener kindergartner enjoyed her first "wild" flower of the season, a little cranesbill-geranium-type on a dry southern exposure. She caused a couple other kids to come by and look too.

    I'm getting quite a bit of bud swelling on the woody shrubs, many of the woody perennials have green at the base, and many daffies are well up, a few flower stalks hint at their promise.

    Many above are making me think I should plant some crocus, never cared for their ephemeral bloom, but the joy at a bloom and some color in the sea of brown might be worth it...

    Yay! Spring is in sight.

    Dan

  • digit
    15 years ago

    I'd like to point out how early this conversation started this year. Winters are variable in Colorado, eh?

    In 2008, crocus claims didn't start until a Montana gardener, Jamie_mt, first brought them to our attention on the 19th. This thread started in February!!

    Okay, in 2008, my contribution came on the 27th with the photo of a homely, little lawn violet . . . I should be able to make that same claim in 2009. Whooppeee! (Just give me a couple more weeks. ;o(

    The snow only remains in my yard where it was piled from shoveling. We are getting a skiff most mornings lately but it melts quickly. I mean, we are "basking" in warmth up here! It made it up to 47°F a few days ago - the warmest so far this year. I was out working in a sunny yard yesterday. But, with 27°F here at mid-morning and wind above 20 mph . . .

    There are tiny snapdragon seedlings here indoors sharing this south window. So, now where's the sun?

    digitS'

  • highalttransplant
    15 years ago

    You are right, Digit. It IS warmer this year. The snowcover melted almost three weeks earlier this year, than last. Also, this is my third year to wintersow, and the germination started close to two weeks earlier than it did two years ago. Just hope we don't lose a bunch of stuff later to a late season cold snap.

    Bonnie

  • phloxy_mary
    15 years ago

    I just went out to pull a few weeds and grass out of the beds and found crocus and daffs popping up! They're all covered with leaves still - I don't want to spoil their surprise! Whoooh, the ground is hard. Is it time to cut back the dead growth on the perennials, or do I keep waiting?

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    15 years ago

    Is it time to cut back the dead growth on the perennials, or do I keep waiting?

    Here in SE Aurora, we're waiting a few more weeks. The old weatherman in me doesn't like the long-wave pattern in the N Hemisphere setting up now, and I am thinking we have some heavy wet snow in the medium-term forecast along with a good chance of cold Canadian air making it down this far and hanging around for a few days.

    Dan

  • jah742foco_co
    15 years ago

    i, too, have some yellow crocus blooming. they are 20 days earlier than last year. i checked last years garden notes, and from my first yellow crocus, i had a flower on something until the end of the year! purple crocus next, then snowdrops, those iris-looking crocus, bleeding hearts, daffys and tulips, then i lose track. i have daffodil, tulip, and hyacinth leaves and buds peeking up over the past two weeks. columbine leaves making their way up through the mulch, too.

  • david52 Zone 6
    15 years ago

    Do deer like tulip foliage, or what?

  • highalttransplant
    15 years ago

    Yes, yes they do, David! But they like the buds the best, especially the day before they open!!!

  • matoad_gw
    15 years ago

    Here in Arvada my forsythia has a few yellow blossoms and the honeysuckle vines and bushes have leaves. I have been raking away most of the fall leaves to allow the sun into the new growth. Should I prune grape vines that are 4 yrs old and how? How about the perennial pruning? We all know we have much winter left!!

  • greenbean08_gw
    15 years ago

    motoad,
    Do your forsythia require a lot of watering?

  • david52 Zone 6
    15 years ago

    My lilacs are just about to open. It's supposed to get down to 18º tonight.

    I have over 100 green ash trees on my place, thanks to the Soil Conservancy, and after planting them, nursing them along, and joyously witnessing their first flowering in spring, discovered I'm rather allergic to the pollen. So every year, we await anxiously the bloom, and hope for a freeze to zap the flowers. However it also seems to zap all the fruit flowers at the same time. So here I am, stuck on those dilemma horns, both wanting fruit and not wanting to spend 2 weeks sneezing.

    Whoever said gardening was easy?

  • matoad_gw
    15 years ago

    Greenbean- I don't give the forsythias any more water than anything else- it seems as if everything needs alot of watering since we don't get much rain!