Re: digest-spring

In a message dated 4/30/2002 2:07:01 PM Central Daylight Time, ECPep@aol.com
writes:


> That little viola corsica (blue) has seeded itself around and survived the
> high temps.  It is blooming with the daffodils. This plant blooms every
> month
> in my garden.  It will open flowers when planted against a south foundation
>
> wall.  Since ours is not the kindest of locations for blooming plants, this
>
> is small wonder.
>
> Paul, what did you lose.  The only plants here that froze (that awful
> saturated look) were dwarf bearded iries.  The rest including the Juno
> iries
> are fine.
>

I have to agree that V. corsica is an out standing Viola and tough too.  I
planted out a few real small ones last fall and they all made it threw the
winter, even though they had the smallest of a root structure, very good
bloomer and large flowers for such a compact plant.  Claire, do all your
plants produce the same flowers?  I seem to have a variation of "whiskers'
but all have the same shaped flowers with the tall up right shape and wide
bottom petals.

The heat wave did in the Crocus, but the snow has not been a problem to most
of the plants except for the daffs that were ready to bloom-they have those
hollow stems that are easy to break.  Last weeks snow came in after a cold
period, the weather people said it got down to F 25, but I think it was more
like F 28 here, because at F 25 a lot of plants freeze.  The only damage I
had was to a few Astilbe, a Hosta or two that were exposed and to Rudbeckia
triloba.  The Tall bearded Iris took a little bit of a beating b but I
covered them the day before to protect the flowering stalks that are just
starting to grow.

Over all it was a good winter, lost a number of Tiarella though, the deer eat
them off in the fall and over the winter, but one only needs a small peice in
the spring to grow a nice large clump the same year.

The hardest part about the weather is the poor working conditions, spent 20
hours on Monday potting up bare root plants-had to take a long nap after all
that.

Its been very windy too, wind and cold  and wet air, make me want to stay
inside.

The Trillium do not want to open when the wind is blooming, when it does warm
up I fear every thing will bloom at the same time this year.  But I am still
very optimistic, even if its a late start to the growing season.


Right now there are a few things in flower:
Brunnera
Uvularia - in the more sunny parts of the yard
Pulmonaria - P. rubra 'Nittany Red' with red-pink flowers strikes me as the
showiest so far but soon P. 'Little star" will bloom and it will top the list
of showiest flowers with its very dark almost electric blue color.

Petasites japonicus 'giganteus'- have to keep this plant contained, nice
leaves and funny flowers but does it ever spread and you can't get rid of it
once you have it. I think the plants I have are really hybrids and not the
true form because the flowers are a lilac color instead of white.

Mitella diphylium-sp? - just starting, I love this wood land plant, which is
a relative of the Tiarellas and Heucheras
Dandelions
Vinca minor - three forms
Epimediums x sulpherium
Helleborus

Otherwise the beds look empty, but in 30 days I will be hard pressed to find
any open spots.

Lots of new things this year for the summer  garden  - so waiting with
anticipation


I hope every one is having a good spring and it will be a rewarding gardening
year.

Paul

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