Bloom report -- sort of

Hi all:

I've been mostly off-List the past week & am just catching up. LOTS of
postings to read.

Friday April 10th brought my first blooms of '98 -- a goodly clump of
Iris reticulata (PAULINE, PURPLE GEM &, I think, HARMONY) were glowing
in front of a lichen-mottled granite boulder, a few others were blooming
in the Blue Grama/Buffalo grass "lawn" & many other I. reticulata,
species & hybrid tulips, daffodils, g. hyacinths, chinodoxa & "summer
snowflakes" were poking their noses up in the terraces or elsewhere on
the hillside -- yippee!

Turns out that Friday thru Sunday constituted spring but winter slammed
back down with a sleetfall Monday & by Thursday we had 2 1/2' of snow
again. It also snowed Friday night but just a dab. It's not been all
that cold -- the kind of snow we get at this time of year is really
spring-rain-that-must-be-shoveled, but boy, am I sick of shoveling!

Before everything got buried again, I did get to do the first clean up
in the beds this year & things were looking pretty good. Of named
irises, I lost my single start of ENGLISH COTTAGE -- planted July '96,
didn't bloom '97 & also didn't make any increases, I guess. I also lost
4 or 5 (of zillions) of my old reliable variegata, which is about
normal. I'd been thinking for about a year that it is the species I.
variegata but since seeing the photo of HONORABILE on the HIPS website &
then checking the stats elsewhere, I now believe this is a match --
these irises were scattered all over our mountain when we moved here in
1980. Rest of named & nameless TBs & SDBs seem to be okay, couldn't tell
much about how SIBs fared, yet.

So -- I don't know whether this is really a kosher bloom report since
the white blanket returned but it cheered me to see flowers, if only for
3 days. Let's hear it for sunshine & warmer weather!

Marte in the mtns	Zone 4/Sunset 1  Colorado -- at 7,400' altitude
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