Bloom Succession

Bloom Succession- Observing bloom dates for various plants in your neighborhood and filling in your bloom times can result in continuous bloom for much of the year.   Welcome to my Monday post, today I am linking with-

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Mandarin Orange Monday hosted by Lorik

Monday Mellow Yellows hosted by Gemma Wiseman

I find variegated foliage very enchanting, here is a great early spring example, one link in my continuous-bloom-succession scenario, the heavily silvered 'Excalibur' Pulmonaria-

Cowslip Primula-

Primrose-

Even more blooms on the Primula elatior 'Victoriana Laced'-

So, I am enjoying my line-up of latest flowers to bloom, soon to be joined by others pictured last year.   Hannah

or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.  

Tomatoes!

Welcome to my post, I am linking with-

Mandarin Orange Monday hosted by Lorik

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Monday Mellow Yellows hosted by Gemma Wiseman

My house actually gained 2 dgrees heat beyond the setting on my thermostat the last 2 days, spring is here.   I enjoyed working in the garden in the sunshine.   Here is an extremely fragrant Daffodil, Martinette.

I'm late starting my tomatoes this year, but my little seedlings are doing great.   I am again starting seeds in small ziplock bags from a bead store, 2x3".   I cut a piece of paper towel to fit inside and this year I wanted fewer seedlings so I did 7 seeds just in case some didn't sprout, but in spite of using some old seeds from 2004 I had good germination, so I didn't really end up with fewer seedlings, present count is at 52.   Some will be for my son and daughter-in-law's garden.   I was busy so left them a little long so many had roots at 1" long, 2.5 cm, some were just barely sprouting.   I also can only do 10 or so per day since I microwave the potting soil/ perlite/ peat moss starting mix and do a few each evening, so the last seedlings are considerably behind the first, though started at the same time, though I start with the most developed sprouts so the slowest would naturally come last.   I start tomato seeds in ziplocks because I used to plant 4 seeds to a 2" pot and then have to split up the 1-4 sprouts and re-pot them later, and now I just pot one seedling per pot and save that step, and only use pots for viable seedlings.  The little seedlings have to be handled very carefully and when they are 1" long they are frequently twisted and hard to orient, but I just try to place the seed leaves just above or below the surface depending on if they are free of the seed coat, and the very wimpy pale seedlings in just a few days look like this, started March 1 and taken on March 24-

My tomato list for this year is:
New- Sweetie cherry tomato
New- Rio Grande paste tomato
Bicolor- Lucky Cross
Black Pear
Black Sea Man
Shapka Monomakh
San Marzano
Legend
Unk small round tomato
Verna's Orange Oxheart

To see my ziplock starting method and my tomatoes last year when ready to plant out, click here.

The star first bloomer of my perennials I started under lights November 15, 2013, the impressive Browallia speciosa, with bigger blooms than the B. americana I grew last year but shorter height.

I hope winter has loosened its grip on your garden now too.   Hannah

or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved, no unauthorized copying without permission.

Comments on my GGBD and other posts for March 16 and 17

I made a mistake Sunday and deleted an extraneous incomplete post after posting a second completed post and managed to erase all my hard work.   I recovered the file and pasted it into a new post, but for some reason the comments seem to be disabled, so I am trying this.   If you want to leave a comment, do it here.

Thanks, Hannah

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, March 15, 2014

Welcome to my March GBBD, to see what's blooming in other gardens, visit hostess Carol's blog, May Dreams Gardens.

I'm also linking with I Heart Macro hosted by Laura,

And with my usual Monday links-

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

Monday Mellow Yellows hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Mandarin Orange Monday hosted by Lorik

More flowers are blooming here every day.   A crisply fluted trumpet daffodil with a few Muscari-

The tiny Jetfire-

My favorite Muscari, M. latifolia-

The Pulmonarias are filling out-

Mrs. Moon-

Some are a pale blue with pinkish buds-

Some are deeper purple with rose buds-

The Primulas are also getting started, these are just the ones actually blooming now that overwintered, I have more new colors in pots, they don't always come back.  P. polyantha with many colors-

And Primula veris, "Cowslip"-

P. elatior 'Black Lace' that I grew from seed in 2012-

Vincas are blooming, V. minor 'Wojo's Gem making a good show of pinwheel flowers early-

They are filling in a bed under a Turkish Tree Hazel-

Hellebores are still blooming that can be seen here last month, and also Ornamental Flowering Quince,

So, what is flowering for you?  Spring countdown is at 5 days, it seems like it is already here!

-Hannah

or cameras are macro

My comments below seem disabled by my attempt to restore my blog after deleting it, so please  COMMENT HERE.

Blue Macro Mandarin Orange Monday March 10, 2014

Welcome to my Monday post, today I am linking with-

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

And a big welcome back to Mandarin Orange Monday hosted by Lorik!

This is a watercolor technique copper enamel flower composition I made many years ago-

 

My current knitting project, another hat-

To herald the soon arrival of spring, I found a few Pulmonarias starting to bloom-

Mrs. Moon-

Pulmonarias have been among the most reliable perennials I have grown, useful for foliage plants with their silvery variegated leaves after the bloom season is over, and they self-sow delightfully,  but really only do well in shade to part shade.

I found some Snowdrops with open flowers this week-

I hope spring is beginning to manifest in your gardens, my countdown to spring is at 10 days!

Hannah

or cameras are macro

Blue Macro Monday, March 3, 2014

Welcome to my Monday post, today I am linking with-

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Monday Mellow Yellows hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Here are some flowers from the Celebration for the life of my Swedish mother-in-law, who passed into eternity last month.  She was blessed with 102 years and 4 months of life, and touched many people's lives.

Here is her most recent great-grandkid, born in that same month, to carry on her heritage-

Outdoors, my Hellebores are blooming valiantly in the cold, my older ones that self-sow and have speckled but down-facing flowers in a range of shades of magenta-

Then there are my fancy Hellebores I bought last year, outward facing flowers, shorter denser foliage with some silver marbling, that didn't preform very well their first year, in fact Pink Frost is the only one blooming, though Ivory Prince and Pink Beauty are alive and have buds-

Unfortunately Pink and White Marble didn't make it, as well as Winter Moonbeam.

Other new ones with taller green leaves like the older varieties made a nice showing for their first blooming a year after planting, here.   I noticed a few Pulmonaria starting to bloom.

I hope spring will come quickly for all those suffering through record low temperatures and snowfall.

Hannah

or cameras are macro