A SUNNY AFTERNOON ON THE THIRD DAY OF MARCH

03 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in March flowers, Narcissus family, Spring bulbs, Spring flowers, West Seattle garden

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MARCHING INTO DAY THREE with the first blooms of the fava beans! Hooray! I thought that they had taken a pretty hard hit with the week of cold weather in December, but they came through pretty well after all. I went through my archived photos from February and March back to 2002 and did not find any evidence of blooms this early. Hoping for a bumper crop.

And last highlight of today’s post is this showy, double narcissus scavenged from Grandma T’s garden. I have no idea as to the cultivar. I was able to find about 8 or eight bulbs and they are slow to reproduce and did not bloom the first year after planting. We planted them below an espaliered pear since the summer watering is minimal and the bulbs will not have too much water when dormant.

Now it’s outside to enjoy the afternoon sun!

MARCH, DAY TWO

02 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in March flowers, Spring flowers, West Seattle garden, Winter flowers

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Spring flowers, trillium

AS EXPECTED MARCH BRINGS SOMETHING NEW EACH DAY. Today the first of the trillium are showing off and more are breaking ground. These trillium are planted under two sixty (+) year old red cedar trees and may have been planted along with the trees by the previous owners of the property. They are interplanted with sword ferns (another nw native), slow to spread and are much like the ones found wild in northwest forests. I am not sure if they are grandiflorum or kamtschaticum cultivars. There are about two dozen and they slowly fade to purplish color. Anyway, they are another herald of spring that we look forward to seeing. Tom is especially partial to them.

Another sweet and dainty little late winter flower is Omphalodes cappodocia ‘Starry Eyes’. It is a slow spreader; at least in this garden. How can you not be happy looking at this? The overall height is not much more than 2-3 inches.

And the last photo for today is the first bloom of Runnuculus ficaria ‘Bronze Hussy’. Bright, brassy, yellow flowers above dark, purple-brown, heart shaped leaves. They are reputed to be a vigorous (synonym in the plant world for pest) spreader. But under the ‘bare feet’ of miscanthus sinensis (Maiden grass) they have slowly increased from 2 plants to about 5 over ten years! They would make a lovely early spring ground cover since they go dormant after a couple of months, not to be seen for another year.

MARVELOUS MARCH

01 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in March flowers, Spring bulbs, tulips, West Seattle garden, Winter flowers

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avalanche lily, erythronium, trout lily, tulips

MARCH IS HERE WITH A WHISPER TODAY. A photo (or two or three) posting a day is the goal for March!

The bright spots today are the first sunny blooms of Erythronium tuolumnense Applegate. These lovely avalanche/trout lilies were collected from Grandma T’s garden about ten years ago. She may have collected them in the wild or received them from a friend. They are slowly colonizing the area under the lycesteria formosa and go completely dormant by June. A piece of arum italicaum came along with the erythronium and it is a spreader and can be a pest, but the darker green foliage and white veining is a nice contrast.