bloom_dates

Five days late. I considered skipping it this month. But participating in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day has allowed me to track changes in the garden, so I decided to post most tardily. Several plants that were blooming last year are done blooming already, such as cephalaria and pink foxglove. The tunic flower and perennial flax [...]

First, the good news. Unlike last year, I have plenty of foxgloves blooming this year. I have more foxgloves than ever, blooming in places they've never bloomed before. This is partly because my garden buddy Bub gave me some foxglove seedlings to plant last year, and partly because conditions were favorable to foxgloves this spring. [...]

I took a look at last year's April bloom day post, and discovered that most of last year's blooms are already gone. The crocus that were in their glory last April, are completely done with this year. The squills are at the end of their bloom. The Cornelian cherry that was merely in bud this [...]

Spring has finally arrived at Purdville. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost some of my photo gallery features when I switched to this new design. You can click on each thumbnail for a larger image, but then you have to use your browser's Back button to get back to the thumbnails. Creeping phlox Narcissus poeticus, [...]

Looking over last year's April Bloom Day post, I see the same things blooming at pretty much the same time. The smaller-and-earlier species crocus are on the wane, but the later-and-larger Dutch crocus are definitely making a color statement. I'm thinking about getting more of these and extending the crocus bank further towards the road [...]

As soon as the snow melts, before anything even blooms, there is color.If you are aware that some plants can grow underneath the snow, this is not a complete surprise, though I always marvel when it is an attractive garden plant that pulls this trick, and not just the tap-rooted and creeping weeds.The first flowers [...]

Last week, before prices started to rise on flowering plants for Valentine's Day, I picked up a pot of florist's cyclamen to brighten up the kitchen--and to make sure I had a bloom for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. (Here's the owl's summer home.) There are hardy cyclamen that can live outdoors in the northern reaches [...]

Yes, this is it. One measly Christmas cactus blossom. The last one, and no longer in its prime, at that. I've learned my lesson. Winter is just too long to go without flowers. Next year I will invest in something--amaryllis, hyacinths forced in glass, florist's cyclamen from the store. I don't know what it will [...]

It's not much, but it's more than I had last year. There are two methods for getting Christmas cactus to bloom. One way is to keep it in total darkness from 6pm to 8am starting September 1st until buds form. The second way is to keep it cool (say 53F) from mid-September to mid-October. (Source: [...]