Salome

This daffodil 'Salome' has been one of my all-time favorites. The color and gradual change as it matures is incredible, starting out with light yellow cups turning to a soft peach; all within a mostly white backdrop.

But of course since it is one of the favorites, it can't possibly easily multiply like lesser-loved cultivars do. I've tried everything: moving it around to different locations in the gardens in the hopes that I will hit upon the best growing conditions. It's current location is a "plant it and forget it" location on the south side of the house. This bed is somewhat protected from the nasty northern winter winds, and on a slightly sloping ground to mitigate the feared wet soil fungii and water molds attacking the bulbs. Didn't help. Today I still have about the same number of bulbs as I planted several years ago.

Looks like I might be resigned to opening the wallet to bring in some brothers and sisters to keep these company next year.

Let 'Em Rip

This is daffodil 'Rip Van Winkle' I purchased many many years ago (about 20 years), being a little different than your average ho-hum yellow 'King Alfred'. I was craving something different and unique. Well, as with many a plant from my ealier gardening years, they died, disappeared, or packed it in and left town.

Three years ago, this daffodil popped up and bloomed. I was startled, and though some of the different daffodil species in the garden participated in a little hany-panky and produced this offspring. I had never seen this flower before.

The way-back machine in my brain kicked in and memory of the Rip Van Winkles bubbled up. Ah, yes. I looked at other photos of this variety and see that my version is not as hairy-looking and beardly as they are. The flower resembles the beard from someone who may have been asleep for many years. How appropriate - these have been sleeping in my garden for years and just now awakened.

Slowly Multiplying

Spring is in the air. Daffodils don't like blooming around here at this time of year. But, these Rip Van Winkle daffodils are anxious and budding already. Located at the south side of the brick house, protected from winds and severe weather, they are way ahead of the other bulbs just starting to pop out of the ground.

History: I bought and planted a few of them maybe 10 years years ago. They disappeared after flowering. After a few years and a few tears, one bloomed. I didn't know what it was at first! Since, I have been giving them encouragement every year. Look here - five buds this year!

All Daffodils

I really like these daffodils. First, they are reliable. No coddling or special treatment is needed. They multiply. I can't count how many of the orange/white I have given away. Third, they smell great -- especially the orange ones. The other regular typical daffodils I have do not have much of a fragrance.

The latest addition to the collection (the other two) was a gift of about 10 bulbs each a few years ago. They also multiply and now have formed two sizable clumps. I am sure dividing them this spring would result in another gift being passed on to more gardeners.

April 2021 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month

March and April are prime times for the garden. I did not believe I have a lot of spring blooms ... until I began assembling photos for this post. (Dandelions were not included.)

Some spring blooms here. Daffodils do very well and return in my climate, whereas tulips do not reliably return year after year - we progress from winter to summer very quckly, so after blooming, the tulips struggle through the heat to bulk up for the following year .

Narcissus poeticus - fragrant

'Rip van Winkle' planted many years ago and lost track of ... until last year.

'Bridal Crown' was a "I have some leftovers if you want" gift

'Sweet Love' cups turn white as they age

'Salome' cups start out yellow then turn salmon

Muscari - this one is a cultivar I think

Closeup of the redbud blooms

I want more of this free giveaway tulip because of the color, but I don't know its name. It displays incredible carmine red blooms and bluish foliage. It came back from past years, albeit smaller.

Closeup of leucojum after the rain

Pieris is suppposed to be difficult. Not in my garden, although after 5 years, leaf spot is beginning to show up.

Who can have spring in Virginia without our dogwood state flower.

Find other garden bloggers' posts at May Dream Gardens

Damned If I Know

Three daffodils are starting to bloom and I don't know their names. They were picked up in a Master Gardener free-for-all scramble two years ago one winter evening. During our class break, it was announced that the unsold spring bulbs of the store hosting our meeting was giving away unsold spring bulbs - free for the taking. Being the middle of winter, there was little hope of selling these leftovers. After a trip to the unsold loose bulb bins, I snagged these three daffodil varieties but do not know their names.

They were planted in the dead of winter and bloomed that spring. One last variety, a late green-tinted daffodil, is not quite yet blooming.

I also picked up a ferw increadible scarlet-red, late-season tulips, again, unknown. I would love to get my hands on more of the tulips, but the store does not remember what they were.

The Best Are Free

The yellow daffodils here are another freebie. And as an added benefit, they multiply like rabbits, holding up well to our variations in spring weather. 'Golden Dawn' are similar to the poet daffodils with their small flower size, multi-bloom stems, small cups, and sweet fragrance. The timing is also similar -- late in the daffodil season.

The green & white daffodils, another free one from last year, only put up leaves this year. I didn't like where I planted them, so moved them very shortly after they finished blooming last spring -- before they had the chance to develop a bulb for this year.

The tulips are amazing. Their smallish flower with a traditional pointed petal tulip shape has the most incredible deep blood red color against the blue-green leaves. I describe them as a saturated red with just a hint of carmine or magenta. They all came back this year - a feat for tulips in my climate. I wish I knew the name to get more.

Sweet Love

The landscape architects gifted me a few of their extra daffodil bulbs last fall. They were labeled Sweet Love and Bridal Crown on the hand written sticky notes, but I did not keep track of which was which. Fast forward to today when the mid-season and late season daffodils are blooming in the front garden.

I know the newcomers there, so began reading up on them to learn the true identity of each. I quickly realized that Bridal Crown was an imposter. This was not the cultivar, but another mid-season daffodil instead. I have written to ask if my friends know its true identity.

The full size single trumpet bloom starts out with a striking orange fringe at the rim of its white cup which eventually turns a shade of peach. This reminds me of Solome, a white daffodil that starts out with an orange-yellow cup that eventually fades to a pink. I planted my mystery daffodil bulbs too far apart to make any meaningful statement in the front garden, but I hope with the luck of some good spring weather and fertilizer, they will multiply for next year.

Sweet Love is a multi-stemmed delight. A soft yellow tints its small cup and creamy white petals. The blossoms are lightly fragrant, like my other multi-bloom stem narcissus. These daffodil blossoms, also like the others, are small in size with about 7 or 8 flowers on several stems. At just the right angle, they look like a soft creamy cloud hovering just above the ground.

Out of Nowhere

I am ready to start sharing my garden again. Now, I know that everyone has seen a daffodil. But this one is special. It came from nowhere in the middle of the bed of iris that I planted from my own cross-breeding seeds. It is not one that I planted, recently or in the distant past because I do not like these double flowered types and would never have planted them. I have a few possible explanations:

• It grew spontaneously. This may be true, but it I, unlike some presidents, believe in science - daffodils don't just appear out of nowhere.
  
• I planted it in the past when it accidentally got mixed in a batch of other types at the store. It then grew legs and walked down the hill and planted itself in this location.
  
• Some of my other daffodils had a night of passion one year, and this is the result.
  
• It was there for a time and this year got large enough to bloom. Yes, I believe there were daffodil leaves there in the middle of the iris iris bed last year with no blooms.
  
• Someone or some animal known to dig up bulbs did so from a neighbor's yard and planted it here years ago, and it got enough food stored up this year and bloomed.

I have lived here for 31 years, and never saw this daffodil on the property. There is one more bloom in the same "clump". I checked the immediate neighborhood -- no one had this type of daffodil.

Offer your own explanations.

Sugar and Ice

The late spring storm produced 2 inches (5 cm) of sleet and ice that accumulated into a heavy frozen sugary coating. Then the freezing rain solidified everything. The hyacinth showed the most damage by changing strange colors. The white blooms showed yellow, and the blue began showing purple (much like we do when we get too cold).

April 2016 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month

Leave the office early on a sunny Friday afternoon. Rush home to beat the rush hour traffic. Test out the new nuclear powered camera for the first time on the blog. See what's in the zone 7a garden.

I still have the simple rustic Canon Elph that I used for nine years -- for all blog photos up to now -- except for a few iPad and iPhone photos. But the new Canon T5i, well, there are as many settings as the space shuttle. Let's try figuring this contraption out to get closer than the old camera did. One photo was taken with a lens attachment that did not produce a clear image. Put that attachment in the closet or sell it.

My, I have a lot of white photos. I just realized that after looking at what I shot this afternoon. But the white is not all in one place except on my blog. The sun is setting, on another Bloom Day.

Maybe a new camera will help me take photos like A Tidewater Gardener, you think? Nah, no way.

Cornus florida

Azalea 'Snow'

Spirea prunifolia (Bridal Wreath)

Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Shasta'
Looking better now -- years after I severely pruned it and almost lost it

Pieris japonica cultivar

Phlox divaricata -- this is its third year and its leaping!

Tulip 'Princess Irene' not looking good in its second year

Narcissus poeticus -- the late fragrant daffodil even the ant appreciates

For other garden bloggers bloom day photos, check out our host at blog May Dreams Gardens.

Color Me Happy

In the past few years I have become more aware of planning and consideration of color combinations. It probably stems from those dreamy magazine landscapes that grow the same plants that I have but don't look like a patchwork quit.

I used to gaze out the window at this time of year and see a yard full of several different shades of purple, with no other color. Only height, width, and season were really considered in any planning attempt. Although not yet adept at color planning, at least now colors are considered when deciding where to place the latest acquisition.

This spring I was able to see some results of my color strategy (or at least of my thinking about color). Firey Red Emperor tulips bloomed along side blue muscari at the same time. The blue sets off the red tulips more so than if red tulips were stuck by themselves. Imagine that.

Another color consideration was given to the Salome daffodils. Notice how they start out with lemon yellow cups, and a week later turn to peachy pink. These photos are of the same blossom.
Of course, sometimes we imagine great color combinations only to find that blooms come out at different times, or that (like the daffodils) change color over time, or that there are different shades of the same color. I planted a 'red' phlox once only to find that it was more mixed with magenta: in the purple family. (oops, wrong shade of red.) It was not attractive next to the yellow zinnias. I now pay closer attention to descriptions of 'carmine red' versus 'scarlet red.'

Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: California poppies, poet & salome daffodils, dogwood, viburnum, azaleas, muscari, coreopsis, ajuga

Two Spring Favorites

Although these two spring bloomers have been highlighted in previous posts, I include a few additional notes about them this year. The Narcissus poeticus or poet daffodils were first planted for spring 2007 [8.4.2007]. These bloom a bit later than others, and have a distinct fragrance. And they have easily multiplied in the garden. Here are a few more tidbits about them:

• Poet's Daffodils are cultivated in Holland and southern France for their narcissus oil, one of the most popular fragrances used in perfumes. Narcissus oil is used as a principal ingredient in 11% of modern quality perfumes, resembling a combination of jasmine and hyacinth.
• The fragrant Narcissus poeticus has also been recognized as the flower that Persephone and her companions were gathering when Hades abducted her into the Underworld. This myth accounts for the custom, lasting today, of decorating graves with these flowers.
• While all narcissi are poisonous when eaten, Poet's Daffodil is more dangerous than others, acting as a strong emetic and irritant

The Beauty of Apeldoorn tulip [24.4.2009] is a Darwin hybrid. Nothing seems to represent warm spring like red and yellow tulips. I prefer those that have some interest (such as this two-tone color scheme with black base) over solid color tulips.

New bulbs were planted last fall along side those left in from previous years. This spring, the new bulbs produced larger flowers, but they bloomed later than those left in the ground from previous years. And of course, not all of the old bulbs produced flowers. Planting new bulbs mixed in with the existing ones may be a way to extend the bloom time of a tulip bed. (As long as you don't accidentally slice and dice the old bulbs left in the ground when planting the new ones, like I seem to do.)

Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: grape hyacinth, poet daffodils, peony & Darwin tulips,    snowflakes, ajuga

Vertically Challenged

In addition to the regulars in the garden, I like to extend invitations to a few new plants each year. One of the new arrivals to my spring garden is the Tête-à-tête daffodil (Narcissus 'tete-a-tete'). (Tête-à-tête is French for 'head to head'.) My problem with daffodils is their inclination to wear out their welcome. After blooms have come and gone, they like to hang out long afterwards while their leaves slowly and unattractively die back. This miniature's petite size lead me to believe they will not become a noticeable nuisance waiting for leaves to die back, thus allowing other plants take up their place.

I have seen these little ones around here and there in other gardens, so they seemed like a good choice for a spot up front. They really need to be seen close up. They can get confused for crocuses from a distance. I must wear my glasses.

Being only 4-6 inches tall (10-15 cm), these particular tête-à-tête daffodils appear to be lower in height than others I have seen around town. Still others have longer cups than these. My guess is that these are a different subgroup of a larger mini daffodil group, or that they are new, or that I planted them too deeply. I know I planted them too far apart. They would surely look better snuggled together as a mature clump.

For The Record:   • Well-drained soil   • Full sun   • Small amount of bone meal in Fall Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: tete-a-tete, lemon chiffon, poet daffodils, apeldoorn tulips, hyacinth, snowflakes   • Seed started: cleome, tomatoes, millet, hollyhock, peppers

First Bloom Day, April 2009

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of each month
This is my first garden blog bloom day submission. I only recently learned what it was all about.

Red Peony Tulips A free gift that came with my fall order	Orange Midseason Tulips Don't remember their name

Poet Daffodils Need dividing	Muscari Still going strong after a week

Fifer Daffodils Found growing around the house 25 years ago	Lemon Chiffon Daffodils Creamy yellow cups turn to light peach