Among my favorite flowers — rich, dependable rewards for very little effort. Thank you, commentor SkyBluePink:
A banner year for Daffodils!
Rescued these from a soon to be built upon lot.
With almost weekly heavy rains, I bring the downed daffodils inside for bouquets.
And when the bouquets are past their prime, the flowers are placed in the pet cemetery.
***********
It’s a weird spring, for sure — my yard is in a condition of (transplant) staging confusion that it usually doesn’t reach until mid-May. And White Flower Farm decided to deliver my first three mail-order tomatoes, two Chocolate Sprinkles and a Sun Gold, presumably because they’re well-grown enough that in two weeks they’d be too big to ship. Cherry tomatoes are tough, but not *that* tough — nights here are still dropping into the high 40s, so for the next week or so, I’ll be trying to keep the seedlings alive in the living room, dammit.
What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / premature despair), this week?
WendyBinFL
Lovely to wake up to this glorious display! Thanks to SkyBluePink and Anne Laurie! We used to live in Connecticut, and the first thing I did when we moved in was plant 75 daffodil bulbs. They multiplied every year. Now that we’re retired in Florida I miss them! (And I also miss having Democrats as neighbors…)
Benw
My cherry and apple trees have already bloomed and the deer haven’t eaten them (yet)!
raven
What’s the pup’s name??
NotMax
@Benw
Mmm. Chapples.
;)
Ken
I don’t have a garden of my own, but I take care of the one at church. We did a renovation a few years ago, and the city required us to have a water-retention area. However despite the city’s concern, we rarely get so much rain that it has standing water, so the reeds that the builder optimistically installed are being choked out by the thistles, goldenrod, wild asters, dandelions, and other stuff the wind and birds have kindly planted. I’m thinking of giving up the fight and just calling it “natural prairie.”
kalakal
Oooooh daffs! Thank you for the pics, I love spring bulbs and they don’t grow here so nice photos are always a treat.
We have finally started to get some rain this week, in fact got a tornado watch at the moment* , after weeks of drought so the garden is saying thank you
* not much happening around here so far, the watch covers half the state
raven
We are reaching a tipping point for garden girl. Her back is so bad we had to cancel our beach trip and she is talking about hiring someone to help in her garden. I already have a high school kid mowing our lawn(s) and I even gave him a raise without him asking. Getting old sucks.
Geo Wilcox
@Ken: All the plants you mention will bring in a plethora of insect pollinators. We let our pasture go fallow. All we did was mow the areas of Canada thistle until it died out. Then we let the goldenrod, aster, ironweed, and other native plants take over. It is so beautiful in the fall with all the yellow, purple, white, and lavender flowers and it hums with bees and other insects.
satby
oh, SkyBluePink, you have some cool varieties of daffs I don’t have yet! Everywhere I live I plant them, and as the bunches get bigger I divide them to share with neighbors. So I’ll have to look for some of the ones pictured; very lovely and thanks for sharing them!
My garden seems to have survived three nights in a row of freezing temps in the 20°s, though I covered my most fragile plants and put the potted roses back into the garage. But the fruit tree blossoms appear undisturbed too. Still too chilly at night to put out any of my tomato starts, so I need to go get small peat pots to transplant them into. Most of my tomato seeds germinated, so I’ll be sharing with the neighbors (wish you lived closer OH). My petunia seeds mostly germinated too, and I’ll be transplanting them later this week into their hanging baskets.
satby
yes, what is that cute doggo’s name? Obviously a very good boy!
SkyBluePink
@satby: Lucked into an end of season sale at Tractor Supply one year of different varieties of daffodils. I’ve really enjoyed those. And order some collections along and along. Its an addiction.
@raven: Freya – a Norse Goddess. It was her shelter name and it suits her. She is the best!
raven
@SkyBluePink: Aw, sweet pup! Our Artemis is the goddess of the hunt!
PAM Dirac
Here in central MD spring has been all over the place. The winter was pretty mild and I thought the grape vines would break bud before my normal pruning time of mid March, but then there was stretch with highs that barely reached 40 and I finished the pruning in the last week in March. Then we got over a week of highs in the 80s and not only did bud break happen near the end of the first week in April (about 3 weeks early), but the growth was crazy. Today is about the normal time for bud break and I have shoots 5-6″ long. It’s not that far away from flowering. The upside is the possibility of a nice long growing season and really super ripe grapes that make a beautiful wine. The down side is a frost is still not impossible (we got to 35 last Monday night) and that would wipe out the shoots. The vine has secondary buds, so they will survive, but these buds aren’t as fruitful and of course you loose your long growing season. I don’t think I could do farming for a living.
satby
@SkyBluePink: Freya is adorbs!
I have several of the varieties you have, but not that one front and almost center in the bottom photo. The closest looking one on Colorblends says it’s not hardy in my area, but it’s also not a perfect match. The hunt begins.
OzarkHillbilly
I got a reminder when I helped some friends with some much needed repairs on their house last week. Just 2 and 1/2 days but it damned near broke me. Then, as if that wasn’t enough I came down w/ whatever ailment my GD’s are fighting and suffice it to say I feel like hammered shit.
NotMax
@raven
Also a hotel of questionable clientele.
:)
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: UGH!
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Unpossible! ;-)
delphinium
Nice daffodils and doggie!
OzarkHillbilly
My daffs didn’t do so well this year, they are overdue to be split but that won’t happen this week as I have a head full of snot and leaning over makes it feel like it’s about to explode.
I bought some tomato and pepper plants as my seed starts just aren’t, starting that is, keeping my fingers crossed that the few eggplants that came up make it. Lows this week are supposed to be low 40s upper 30s so I’m waiting a bit to stick them in the ground. I will go ahead and plant the herbs. Other than that, I have 2 yards of compost to spread in various locations so that will keep me busy this week.
Love the daff pics SkyBluePink. Just like Satby they have me wanting to expand my varieties a little more.
Jeffg166
@Ken: Throw an appropriate wild flower mix for your area on it at the right time of year and see what happens. Plus enjoy the plants that do come up. A weed is only a plant you don’t want. Embrace those plants. Once I embrace a plant it usually up and dies.
SkyBluePink
@satby: Try as I might, I just can’t keep up with flower variety names. I know I bought some daffodils from Brecks.
oldgold
After the Dee Dee Plorable corn gambit failed miserably, the geese, sated with grain, returned to my sandy cove and waddled up on my beach and noisily and immodestly went into ultra high cate mode – both forni and defe! It was a sight not to behold.
Soon nests began appearing. One morning I hobbled down to the beach to check if the goose that laid the golden egg was among my fertile flock. (That’s my story and I am sticking with it.)
Bent over and checking a nest with a hammer in my hand, I heard “Fee-fi-fo-fum!” I turned and there stood my old nemesis, Big Don T. Poach, our giant Conservation Officer, all 6’ 8” and 340 pounds of him wearing a big gold badge and a revolver on his hip.
“OG, Don’t do anything stupid.”/ “Don T., Why would you think I would do something stupid?” /“Oh, a hunch and the last 91 years of your conduct.”
Gvg
Where do you live in Florida? There is a book you should read. Daffodils in Florida. You may find it at the local library or they may be able to get it interlibrary loan. Admittedly it was more for north and central Florida than South, but even there you can grow paper whites. Israel has bred quite a few.
https://www.addall.com/SuperRare/UsedRare.cgi?title=&author=&title=Daffodils+in+Florida&keyword=&isbn=&exclude=&bookshop=&binding=Any+Binding&min=&max=&dispCurr=USD&order=PRICE&ordering=ASC&match=Y&timeout=15&store=ABAA&store=Alibris&store=Abebooks&store=AbebooksAU&store=AbebooksDE&store=AbebooksFR&store=AbebooksUK&store=Amazon&store=AmazonCA&store=AmazonUK&store=AmazonDE&store=AmazonFR&store=Antiqbook&store=Biblio&store=BiblioUK&store=Booksandcollectibles&store=Ebay&store=EbayUK&store=EbayFR&store=LRB&store=ZVAB&via=used
Gvg
@WendyBinFL: comment 24 was supposed to be a reply to you, but I messed up.
JAM
I’m keeping my tomatoes inside at night too, I was worried I wouldn’t get a Sun Gold before they ran out so I bought them all too early. I hope the nights will be warm enough to plant them by next weekend.
MomSense
It’s cold and rainy here so I’m focusing on finishing up some interior projects. I’m going to try and rally and figure out what to plant in the veggie garden and how to deal with the perennial beds.
With the severe drought last summer and every season being different from the one before, it’s hard to know what to do.
WendyBinFL
Thanks, Gvg!
munira
I especially love that first photo of the daffodils in the vases and the trees outside in the background.
Jess
My eyes slid right by the pretty flowers and zeroed in on the gorgeous Freya! Husky mix?
Miss Bianca
@PAM Dirac: Oh, my, thank you for the update on your vineyard! You remind me to look in on my niece and her family over by Laurel.
I often think of your kind hospitality (and your delicious home-vinted beverages!) from when I visited in the fall of ’21. Let me know if you and your missus have any plans to come to Colorado!
SkyBluePink
@Jess: Yes, a Husky mix- one blue eye and one brown.
PAM Dirac
@Miss Bianca: It was nice to have you. Maybe good luck too because the ’21 wines turned out great. ’22 was pretty much a bust. Some trouble ripening and a lack of energy on my part, mostly I think a hangover from the European cruise. It’s very easy to get used to that level of service :-). ’23 is potentially going to be a great year. The vineyard is in the best shape it’s ever been and it look like we’ll get a long growing season. Another reason is a bit bittersweet. The last of the really nearby chunk of forest was just cleaned to bare ground to put in a housing development. We haven’t seen any deer this spring. If some of the other critters have relocated, I might get a better harvest yield. We do have a fox that runs through the yard frequently. Anyway, if you get back to the area there are some really nice wines waiting for you.
Jess
@SkyBluePink: So she can see into the spirit world!