Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A Bright & Productive Day

The snowdrop (Galanthus sp.) masses down in the hosta hollow garden and fern & moss garden are looking great today (as seen above). I had a nice stroll and noted a new wave of blooms from additional bulbs in those sunny spots. See the winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) blooming up thru a variegated sedge (Carex 'Evergold'?) in the fern & moss garden (to the left). Some of the bulbs in our lawns are starting to poke thru and should bloom in a week or so. However, I did my dog walk yesterday (with younger daughter) by Pat and Tom's home to see how their "bulb lawn" was looking. See below for some neat crocus clumps. Last year I showed the tulips emerging from their turf (in a couple of weeks) but I'm surprised more people don't include the earliest bulbs in their lawns as they are going dormant about the time you are ready to mow for the first time. The Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) will be blooming in various yards very soon and always looks neat too. Look in to having your own bulb lawn in the future. Lots of activity today. We had 160 cubic yards of shredded bark delivered today and will immediately start mulching select areas over the coming weeks. We were worried about the semi-truck getting stuck in our muddy yard but encountered few problems. The guys from Evergreen Irrigation (Rockford) were up to get our system up and running as well. They check all zones and irrigation heads for repair so we're ready to roll with irrigation. Larry then troubleshoots as needed throughout the year. Marianne was here to work on fern labels for a bit and Janice finished up working on her biodegradable container display. Bill cut more grasses and hauled debris all day while Little Jerry continued to prune in the shade garden and worked on resetting rock for a damaged wall. Larry bounced between bark deliveries and the irrigation guys and kept busy while we were fortunate to have Kay out continuing to attack those early weeds (see to the right in front of a weed patch that has now ceased to exist). We also saw John, Greg, Dean and Dave over here as well. The gardens are truly coming alive. The bottom picture, while appearing like emerging daffodil (Narcissus) foliage, is actually the early foliage of the resurrection lily (Lycoris squamigera). This foliage is beautiful as it emerges but like daffodil foliage, you have to leave it up until it goes dormant in late June. The flowers (seen in the bottommost photo) then emerge in mid-August on 30" tall, white stems with no foliage. Hence the name!

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