Working up some pics yesterday, I came across a lot that I had taken before the trip. But since they would still be in season to our distant friends,,, I thought why not post a few anyway

My substitute for the lovely bluebells walks in England... the Spainish Bluebell or Wood Hyacinth and more specifically, Hyacinthoides hispanica (once deemed Scilla campanulata).


My favorite tulips, Apricot Beauty, returned from last year - rare for hybrids. I loved the lovely broken mutant one.


And I swear I only planted the pale blue 'Wedgewood' variety several years ago, yet there are only clumps of solid white ones in garden - am I nuts, or have they changed colors?!?

You gave me a start of those, and told me I would be surprised how gorgeous they are. Well, they didn't bloom at all last year, and this year, they look exactly like the picture above. Very pretty and white.

Here's some spring bulbs and blooms that we're deprived of around here ...
Frits and primroses in Savill. Oh so wonderful

Darn,,, everytime I've prepped a vertical pic for the forum lately ,,, it has come out huge. Need to figure out what causes that. Sorry about the load time it must take.

okay, it took me few seconds to figure out the primroses - it's a close up! Such lovely color. Our primroses here are blooming now, even if we don't have roses yet

You mentioned that it is rare for Hybrid tulips to come back the 2nd year. Guess that's why I never have much luck with tulips staying in the garden. And here I always blame the poor little moles. So what kind of tulips should I look for. (Maggie, I'm not good with Latin, so talk simple)

Well, I should have said 'rare for hybrids to return in this garden'... reason being the hot summers cause high soil temps, which when combined with my heavy clay and slow drainage in most of the beds - it is a perfect recipe for bacterial rot to set in.
The above pic is over the French drain = great drainage. I also plant 'Apricot Beauty' in both of the twin terraced beds. One side drains much better than the other, so the AB's return in the well-drained for about 3 yrs, but never in the heavy clay one. I've tried to fix the drainage there for years, short of replacing entire soil - don't have the whatever to pull that off at this age ;-)

Basic rule of thumb to ensure return and multiply, even in the worst conditions (as above) are the oldest cultivars and species wildings native to Turkey. Their smaller size is better suited to cottage and informal gardening too. Some good ones to start with (usually available in Aug-Sept bulb catalogs) are T. clusiana (or 'Lady Tulip':

or its sister T. clusiana var chrysantha
or some T. saxatilus 'Lilac Wonder':

and the short yellow and white 'Tarda' (don't have pic at hand) These are hardy to zone 3, and are the easiest to find in retail, altho there are other old ones that would be fun to track down.

I like the 2 pictures you posted, and you're right, they would look great in a cottage garden setting. I looked through some of my old catalogs and saw several that would be better in my gardens than the hybrids I've been trying. Now I'm anxious for the fall bulbs to come available - and spring is just beginning here

Thanks for the tulip lesson Maggie.

I can recomend the Tarda ones also, they have to be the easiest of all to establish. The Primulas MK are denticulata and the flowers fall a perfect ball on top of the stem. They come in all shades of blue and purple together with pure white ones. Great for a damp shady spot.
Maybe the Texas sun bleached the Irises, Maggie.

It's strange that I've never noticed the 1st stage of the ladybug (bird) and the 2nd stage only once - I wondered what that strange bug was We have had so many ladybugs in the house that they have become a real pest and we had to resort to vacuuming them out of the windows. Ladybugs do bite - or at least pinch and they are no fun when they start crawling under the bed covers with you.

Now I don't know how the ladybug post got here - I was reading and posting up there at the Creatures 2002.

Now that I'm down here at Spring 2002 - I've had enough rain!


Sunday morning thunderstorms

The river is back down, now there is more rain predicted for tomorrow morning. I've got more pictures of the high water on some web pages. And of course I had to add some spring blooms. There's a picture of the new flower beds in progress for Maggie, too.

Spring Green at C R Farm

MK, Lars says the message you rec'd came from your firewall program, so it must not have been completely disabled. Sorry for the trouble it gives you with posting pics. I'll have a go at that one from here.


I loved my spring visit to your place MK, thank you! Oh for primroses and lupines xoxoxox
You really did get dug into some new beds!! Won't they be great! I can already taste your homemade peach jam

Here's what happening right now out my north-facing window

Oops, I lied. ... I clicked on a diff one than I meant to, but it is sim to what I meant to post. This is one I took from the rooftop when I had to go up there to inspect it when they finished. By the time I got up there, I decided that it would be the last time I would do that for a very long time. So while I was clinging to the chimney, I made the roofer guy go down and get my camera for me! (I don't do well with heights;-)

A great view Maggie. I'm sure those roofers just loved you.

Yep MK, probably as much as the tree trimmers that I had to inflict my wiles upon today. I can see the headlines now,,, "raging gardener terrorizes workmen weekly"

Speaking of newsprint, this is to Anne Mattern who left lovely note in the Guest Book last week. This Saturday's column in the Star Tellie is just for you
The email address in your gb note seems to be incorrect, otherwise I would have told you about it by email.

Sandra, here's some more bulb ideas for you in pics up there... Spainish Bluebell, Dutch iris, old and species tulips