Tulips Are Blooming – Indoors

  • Post published:02/26/2013
  • Post comments:5 Comments

Yesterday I drove into the valley to see tulips, and many other  bulbs and flowers, blooming at the Mt. Holyoke College Talcott Greenhouse and the Smith College Lyman Plant House. Both institutions are preparing for their annual Spring Bulb shows which require attentive and scientific handling of the potted plants, cool and then slowly warming so that they are at the perfect moment for spring-hungry flower lovers to visit them when the shows open on Saturday, March 2.  Both…

Bloom Day February 2013

On this Bloom Day the ground is covered with snow and the plow drifts are still  substantial. My indoor blooms are modest. These paper whites, a bonus from Brent and Becky's Bulbs, have been blooming for over a month. A couple of the stems collapsed, but I cut the blooms off and they continue in a little glass vase. This little pot of primroses was a door prize at the annual meeting of the Greenfield Garden Club. I…

Dig Up, Dig Down, Cut Back and Rake

  • Post published:11/12/2012
  • Post comments:3 Comments

Mild weather this long holiday weekend has  given us time to work together to dig up, dig down, cut back and rake, all parts of putting the garden to bed. Henry helped me slightly enlarge the end of the bed around the fountain juniper, cleaning out weeds, and making room for small bulbs, miniature golden daffs, 'Diamond Ring,' Pink Sunrise' and macrocarpum 'Golden Fragrance' muscari. We will be able to see  these from the dining table in the spring.…

Time to Think About Spring and Spring Blooming Bulbs

  • Post published:10/13/2012
  • Post comments:3 Comments

  While attending a wonderful art show featuring my friend Trina Sternstein’s paintings at the Forbes Library I couldn’t help using the library services as well. I was searching in the garden section for a book on trees, but I came away with Anna Pavord’s big book, Bulbs. When I got home I found that the mailbox was full of bulb catalogs, from John Scheepers, Van Engelen, and Old House Gardens. That made for a very dangerous night,…

Acidanthera – A Gladiolus?

  • Post published:09/18/2012
  • Post comments:3 Comments

Acidanthera, now officially named Gladiolus callianthus, was an impulse buy this spring. I have admired it on the Bridge of Flowers and when I saw a bag of ten little bulbs at Shelburne Farm and Garden I popped them in my basket. Acidanthera is a tender bulb which means it will have to be dug up in the fall - or be treated like an annual and simply left in the ground. It does not have the rigidity…

April Has Been the Cruelest Month – Almost Over

  • Post published:04/30/2012
  • Post comments:6 Comments

April proved herself to be the cruelest month indeed this year alternating summer and winter temperatures. The past couple of nights we've had frost - and this after we had gotten quite used to balmy temperatures and tender zephyrs in mid-month. Now these lovely white daffodils might as well be snow cover - it is so cold. And windy. And dry. My Early Garden in front of the house is still adorned with row covers that blow and…

Bridge of Flowers Is Sweetly Fragrant

  • Post published:04/20/2012
  • Post comments:1 Comment

As I walked across the Bridge of Flowers yesterday I was suddenly aware of a sweet fragrance. Looking around and sniffing first in one direction and then another I realized the fragrance was coming from this Viburnam carlesii, just beginning to bloom. This shrub is also called Koreanspice viburnam, and the fragrance certainly certainly is spicily sweet. It is not a surprise this is a member of the honeysuckle family. It is not fussy about soil, but I…

Record Breaking Heat Brings More Bloom

  • Post published:04/17/2012
  • Post comments:2 Comments

I hope you can see how yesterday's heat - 88 degrees - is making the forsythia bloom as it never has before. We also have a lot of wind which is drying, but blossoms keep coming. All of a sudden the wild cherry trees in the chicken yard have burst into bloom. Last year we gambled on this weeping cherry, bought at Home Depot where I do not buy many plants, and it came through the winter and…

A Surprise on Bloom Day

  • Post published:04/15/2012
  • Post comments:8 Comments

Bloom Day and I have the most respectable forsythia ever. Which isn't saying too much. A little rain would probably have helped. We haven't had any real precipitation since two inches of snow on March 8. The Van Sions, an old early blooming  variety were here when we moved in, have been blooming for a couple of weeks. Now other daffodils are just starting to bloom as well. Lots more to come. Rain would help. I have little…