March 1, 2023

First to blossom, hybrid magnolia.

Although this one is only a few yards farther down the slope, it is slower each year to bloom. Both were labeled 'Jane' when purchased, but you can see there is variation in color.

Several days of warm weather have forced them into early bloom. 

If this spring runs true to past years we will have several bouts of cold weather with frosts, possibly sleet or snow which will punish plants and shrubs which have blossomed in haste.

This bowl of miniature pansies spent the winter outside. Most of the plants were volunteers that sprang up in the turf along the raised bed. Pansies are the first plants I buy every spring. My favorite nursery opened for the season on 15 February and I must soon make a visit there to bring home more pansies.

Nigella self-sows in abundance, sprinkling its tiny black seeds in the raised bed and all along the edges.

For such a delicate-appearing dainty plant it is remarkable hardy; the seedlings remain green throughout the winter.

Achillea in the raised bed under the kitchen window. Willis-cat supervised the pruning of dried stems last week.

A wild variety of 'lamium' locally called 'hen-bit' is our most invasive ground covering weed. 

Whole fields will shortly appear purple with its small flowers.

Poppy 'Lauren's Grape' shed seeds along the edge of the raised bed and the small plants are entangled with the weeds. There is nothing judicious about a poppy when the brittle seed pods break open. Small plants germinate in clumps, the thread-like roots so fragile that it is nearly impossible to transplant. 

I lifted a clump of inch high plants with their surrounding soil and moved them to the west wall garden. I will keep watch to see if the roots 'take.'

Blackberry lilies in the bed under the kitchen window. Thyme planted here as edging didn't survive into the winter. Already the Michaelmas daisies/New England asters have pushed through. The small struggling Nandina shrub appears to have succumbed to the Christmas freeze.

Heirloom clematis 'Candida' rushing the season--as usual. I will no doubt be swathing it in old sheets and towels when cold weather returns.

Sage plant showing fresh leaves. I don't regularly use sage as a seasoning, but find the plants interesting with their pebbly leaves and pungently distinctive scent. Some years the plant is covered with blue flowers. 

I'm waiting to see if this is a flowering spring--if not it will be pruned.

Oregano shows a mat of new growth just below the sage. 

None of my lavenders survived the winter; they are finicky plants, often with me for several years either in containers or set into the ground, then they are gone and I have to start over.

I have two new packets of lavender seed--lavender vera and Munstead. Starting some either indoors under lights or in the greenhouse is on my list of things to do. I will no doubt be unable to resist a few lavenders from the greenhouse.

 

I feared that the thyme planted around the clematis trellis in the west garden had died, but there are a few green sprigs--another thing to prune and cosset. The fantastically twisted thyme plant which has grown for several seasons at the edge of the front steps is another victim of winter. I'm having a think about whether or not to replace it. 

Tending plants directly in the ground is not a comfortable process--my knees are no longer amenable to kneeling, yet I continue to plan as though I can miraculously create gardens.

Heavily pruned roses are showing signs of new growth, coneflowers are emerging, lemon balm has proliferated. I fear I've lost two clumps of foxglove in the back garden and all but one of those planted near the Knock-Out roses. The plants were all grown from several varieties of seed, some apparently hardier than others. I have several foxglove plants that wintered in the large black planters and noted tiny seedlings along the west wall which can be potted to grown on in the greenhouse. 

'Jane'--or not. In the warm, almost humid air this afternoon I realized the magnolias have a light scent--one I perceive as 'spicy/citrus.'

Plants under the light strip in the back area of the walk-out level.

Today I brought the tub of amaryllis upstairs, shuffled smaller plants from the sunroom table to give the amaryllis pride of place.

There are several bulbs in this tub. They sulked until friend Ellen suggested a spell under the lights. 

A second bulb is forming a flower stalk. 

The 'Christmas Cactus' which bloomed in late November/early December has rested, half hidden in the ranks of rosemary and geranium on the sunroom table.

 

[Blogger arbitrarily posted clematis Candida twice!]