Hyacinths of various sorts

This first photo is probably what most people think of when they hear the name hyacinth. The parent of these was Hyacinthus orientalis, but they are pretty far removed from that now. These are wonderful, highly scented (maybe too highly scented for a vase on the dining room table) and don't grow all that well here. An older variety 'Woodstock' which is a deep magenta/cranberry color seems to last well, but others haven't been as lucky. We did plant some 2 years ago along the walk from the house. The pink ones all bloomed nicely last year. The blue ones had nice leaves but only some misshapen 1 inch tall blooms sort of like they had been squashed into the ground. I'm curious what they'll do this year. By the way, these are one of the few early spring bulbs that come in pink, a color not all that present in the early spring garden.

These second hyacinths are known here as Wood Hyacinths. Proper name escapes me at the moment. These are lovely in a shaded place and multiply freely. They also come in white and pink in addition to the lovely blue one pictured. They aren't over a foot tall and form nice clumps. These aren't scented and also make good cut flowers.

This last is a white form of the Wood Hyacinth. The flowers are very delicate and look waxy. They bloom more with the daffodils that the early things.

We finished cleaning up all/most of the damage from the ice storm. It was more than we had thought. After dragging all of the large limbs out of the gardens we then had to cut broken branches. One huge on from the mulberry still needs to be dealt with, but since it is not totally broken off and spread out and being held up by the barn roof, it is not an urgent matter and a job neither of us is crazy about starting. Today will be spent in general garden cleanup while we still have nice if totally unseasonable weather. Working in a t shirt was nice yesterday, though I had to keep a sweatshirt on while I was working with the juniper. I love looking at the stuff, just hate touching it since it prickles so much and too much of it will give me a rash. Ugh!.

Jane

Just a quick post this morning so I can get outside and finish cleaning up all of the pine branches from the ice storm damage. We spent most of yesterday on the project and should be able to finish today before it rains (maybe) this afternoon. It's amazing how many branches can be on the ground, large ones too that are hard for me to move, and have the trees look perfectly normal. Just one picture out in the front yard, taken last year, showing several different kinds of spring flowers. Not identifiable, but there are chiondoxa, squill, crocus, muscari and probably a few others. Most of these have seeded in this bed because we only planted a few around the edge originally. In the back, in the next bed are some daffodils which are mostly miniatures and early ones.
Jane

Crocus again

These are more of the crocus that grow in the gravel at the edge of the upper pond. They're from an assortment we got at last 15 years ago since I'm sure they've been there as long as the pond. They make a nice, tight clump that increases every year. They are properly Crocus vernus, though proper names escape me.

Another Crocus vernus, this time in lavender.

This is Crocus tommasinianus 'Lilac Beauty'. I love the red spot in the center. I don't think I have another crocus with that.

This one is a another Crocus tommasinianus. Wish I knew it's name. A lot of my crocus have gotten confused over the years, tags lost, etc, so I just enjoy them. These are very early, usually some of the first to bloom, with small flowers on short stems. Just perfect for cold sunny days so they can stay close to the ground and out of the wind.

I don't seem to have any pictures of the late crocuses - those large ones. I'll have to get some pictures this year, though they are much later coming out. I've always liked the lavender and white striped ones. These large ones don't seem to multiply here as readily as the others and seem to die out eventually. We have one here, one there, throughout the gardens in the front of the house. They are more likely to be blooming with the mid-season daffodils than with the snowdrops.

Jane

Crocus chrysanthus

Crocuses are probably one of the best known of the early spring bulbs. I love them and keep planting them even though they often are destroyed by small furry things. This past fall I decided that I was done with things eating my bulbs and dug a large hole half filled it with sharp gravel, put in my bulbs along with some Repellex tablets and then refilled the hole with a mix of gravel and soil. We'll see if this works. We do have a small purple crocus that seeds itself all over the front yard. Don't know know that the one they don't bother insists on growing in the small amount of lawn we have that we actually cut. (a note on that lawn - it will probably be replaced by gravel/bricks/paving stones this summer). Anyway, back to the crocuses. The one above is 'Blue Pearl' which is just a lovely color , not quite lavender, but not quite white either. I can see by the gravel around this one that it is planted in the raised bed on the east side of our upper pond. These are the first crocuses that bloom each spring because the bed warms up fast and they get a full days sun. Because of the gravel they don't get eaten by mice/voles/etc, but they are prone to munching by bunnies. Hopefully our new resident outside kitty will take care of that problem this year.
The next one is 'Gipsy Girl' , about as cheery a yellow as you will find. These aren't the huge crocuses, but rather small, early ones that do multiply freely.

Next is 'Lady Killer'. This has always been one of my favorites. I need to get a picture of this one open. It is all white on the inside with the deep purple shading on the outside of the petals. Another one sort of like this that I don't have yet is 'Zwanenburg Bronze' which is yellow with a brown/bronze color on the outside of the petals.

Last for this morning is 'Zenith'. The lighting in this picture isn't quite right, but these are lavender/blue with a white center around the yellow stamens.

With the number of crocus species available, you can have bloom over a rather long time in the spring (also fall if you get some of the fall blooming ones). When crocuses multiply, they form the new corm on top of the old one, so if you want to help them along with spreading around in your garden, you simply have to scratch the surface a bit after the foliage dies down to get to the new baby corms and replant them elsewhere. Crocuses will naturalize in a lawn, though you can't cut the grass until after the foliage is done if you want to keep your crocuses healthy. In a less formal space this really shouldn't be a problem because they are done close to the time when the first mowing of the season need to be done, at least in our climate.

More crocuses tomorrow - there are many more than I can ever write about.

Jane

Chiondoxa

These little beauties will come along a little later in the spring. Most often you see the blue ones, but they also come in a pale pink and white. Their English name, Glory of the Snow, is a translation from the Greek and these in fact are native to Crete and Asia Minor.

These increase by seeding and they do increase over time, both in clump size and in new clumps, often some distance from the original. Like most of these spring bulbs, full sun to light shade is preferred. The location is important because the foliage needs to continue to grow after the flowers are done in order to store enough food for next year's blooms. This is why a shady location doesn't work as well and will result in decreases in flowering both in size and quantity over time. Most of the spring bulbs have foliage that is pretty unobtrusive and can be left as is until it dies back naturally which will happen as soon as it starts to get hot. You should never cut back the foliage. Daffodil foliage is sometimes braided to keep it neat. This works really well if you only have a dozen daffodils, but we have many thousands of them spread all over the 10 acres of gardens (plus some that have seeded in the edges of the woods) and it would be impossible to neaten them that way. As the daffodil foliage starts to get unkemp, we simply flatten it to the ground and kind of gather it together - easier to do than to write - so that it doesn't cover its newly emerging neighbors. Here that would be mostly daylilies and peonies.

This last picture is marked as a Chiondoxa, and the flowers look right though the foliage seems a little wide. There are a number of different cultivars, so I'll just say it really is a Chiondoxa, and if not, its still a pretty spring flower.

Jane - where spring is really coming even though it is 3 degrees farenheit here this morning.

Bulbocodium vernum

This little gem is Bulbocodium vernum which appears, seemingly overnight, in the spring. There is no foliage to warn you that they're coming, just flowers that appear right at ground level where there was nothing the day before. It is also called Spring Meadow Saffron. They are closer in appearance to a miniature Colchicum than a crocus, though all are at least distantly related. These will grow in full sun or partial shade, but we have ours in full sun in a rock garden type setting in well drained soil and they seem to be happy. Happy plants are a good thing. They will multiply freely if you have them in the right place. If you get too many in one spot (not likely at this time of year), simply dig some up and move them, replanting immediately so the bulbs don't dry out.
Although this little gem has been in commerce since at least the early 1800s it seems to be much more common in Europe than here. It's native habitat is an Alpine meadow and it is found in the wild from the Pyrenees to the Carpathians. It is good down to zone 3.
Although not as cheap as crocus bulbs and a bit less formal looking (downright disheveled sometimes), they are well worth growing as they bloom before most of the crocus we have growing here and anything that blooms really early after a crappy winter is most welcome to live in my garden.
Jane

Anemone blanda

Anemones are also called Windflowers. The one above, Anemone blanda, is also called Grecian Windflower and has been in commerce for over 100 years. Windflowers come in varying shades of blue, white and pink. I planted a version of this, a summer blooming one, last year with a bright red flower. Not sure how closely related it is, though.
These are small like most of the early spring bulbs and have delicate, ferny foliage. These little tubers don't like to dry out, so they need to be planted as soon after they are dug as possible. If you receiver these by mail order, it is a good idea to soak them before planting. We often soak our little spring bulbs in something that will repel those critters who would like to snack on them. These will like to grow in light shade, but be sure they get enough sun in the spring to ripen the foliage and insure next year's blooms before they go dormant in late spring.
Jane