Amaryllis ‘Ruby Meyer’
This is a lovely, small amaryllis, blooming on our kitchen table.
Tagged With: Bulb
Amaryllis ‘Ruby Meyer’
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Amaryllis, Amaryllis Ruby Meyer, Bulb, Red
Comments Off on Amaryllis ‘Ruby Meyer’
Crocuses
Crocuses
If snowdrops signal the end of winter, then crocuses signal the beginning of spring for me. None of the bulbs planted last fall have started to come up yet but that’s usual. Those planted two years ago are coming up and these, which were planted in the fall of 2006, are looking good.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bulb, Crocus, Crocus vernus, Purple, Spring
Comments Off on Crocuses
Pink Hyacinth
Pink Hyacinth
I’m not a big fan of hyacinths in general. They’re pretty enough but they smell quite awful. Some people like it, I guess but it’s too much for me. Anyway, they are pretty cheery in the garden.
Crocus
Crocus
The so-called Dutch crocus (Crocus vernus and its cultivars) is native to the mountains of Europe, the Pyrenees, Alps and Carpathians. The name crocus comes from krokos (κρόκος) the ancient Greek name for saffron (Crocus sativus). While crocuses prefer gritty, well-drained soils they do amazingly well in our heavy, clay soil that is totally water logged all winter most years. This one is growing in a bed of lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) and Vinca minor in our back yard. There are also some daffodils and hyacinths that are starting to come up bu those won’t be in bloom for a little while yet.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bloom, Blooms, Bulb, Corm, Crocus, Crocus vernus, Hardy Perennial, Purple, Spring, Spring Ephemerals, Yellow
Comments Off on Crocus
Tulip ‘Van Eijk’
Tulip ‘Van Eijk’
In the fall of 2009 and again in 2010 I bought a pretty good number of bulbs from McClure and Zimmerman (https://www.mzbulb.com/). In each of those orders they threw in five tulip of the variety ‘Van Eijk’. There are still ten plants growing where I planted them although we only have six blooms this year. Tulips are not terribly long-lived plants, certainly not in our area, anyway, so the fact that these are still blooming after 8 or nine years is pretty good. They’re quite bright and a sea of them would be more impressive than the six I have, of course. In general, though, I’m more a fan of daffodils, which seem to live forever and form large clumps over time.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bloom, Blooms, Bulb, Red, Spring, Tulip, Tulip ‘Van Eijk’, Tulipa
Comments Off on Tulip ‘Van Eijk’
Tulipa acuminata
Tulipa acuminata
The fireflame tulips (Tulipa acuminata) are coming into bloom. These interesting tulips are listed as species but they are not actually known in the wild and are probably some very old hybrid whose origin is lost in the mists of time. Either way, they are quite beautiful, with the pointed petals. They generally have mostly red petals with yellow towards the base but this variety, from McLure and Zimmerman, are almost entirely yellow with a little green running down the spine of the petals. Every year I wonder if they will come up and so far, they’ve not let me down.
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Bulb, Bulbs, Fireflame Tulip, Spring, Tulip, Tulipa, Tulipa acuminata, Yellow
Comments Off on Tulipa acuminata
Allium moly
Allium moly
Allium moly, commonly known as golden garlic, is a pretty, ornamental flowering onion with bright yellow flowers. I have this growing long side our front walk, although it has been surrounded by other plants so it isn’t as prominent as it was when it was first planted. I really should have more of this. It blooms after the majority of bulbs are done, so helps fill a gap in the blooming cycle. It’s also a lovely, bright yellow, which is hard to miss. I have it growing next to a small Siberian iris called ‘Eric the Red’ and the two go very well together, with purple and yellowing being a really good combination. They are also on the small side for their respective genuses. Highly recommended.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Allium, Allium moly, Bulb, Bulbs, Garlic, Golden Garlic, Hardy Perennial, Yellow
Comments Off on Allium moly
Lilium lancifolium (Tiger Lily)
Lilium lancifolium (Tiger Lily)
The tiger lilies are blooming and they are really spectacular this year. My dad had these growing in his garden and from time to time we would take the little bulbils that form in the angle between the leaves and stem on these plants and we’d put them in our garden. We continued that process, with bulbils from our own plants and now we have a pretty good number of them around the yard. These are growing in the small bed where an oak tree once grew. That tree was dying when we bought the house and has since been removed. There are daffodils there and Cathy often puts annuals in the center of the bed, but these lilies are growing towards the back (the house side). They are over six feet tall and quite striking, with racimes of large, orange, downward-facing flowers.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bulb, Bulbs, Hardy Perennial, Lilium, Lilium lancifolium, Lily, Orange, Tiger Lily
Comments Off on Lilium lancifolium (Tiger Lily)
Ranunculus asiaticus
Ranunculus asiaticus, Persian Buttercup
While she was in Alaska from July to December, Dorothy got a job at a florist shop. She’s been exposed to flowers and plants to one degree or another all her life, having been dragged to various botanical gardens and arboreta. More recently she has come to appreciate them more than she did as a child. Nevertheless, her time at the florist has served to increase her love of flowers. This is a Ranunculus asiaticus, the Persian buttercup, and Dorothy brought home a bouquet of them for the dining room table. They are quite beautiful and I love the many overlapping petals of the deep crimson blooms.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bloom, Blooms, Bulb, Bulbs, Ranunculus, Ranunculus asiaticus, Red
Comments Off on Ranunculus asiaticus
Ranunculus
Ranunculus
The Ranunculus that I photographed on January 17 continues to deliver. The flowers have opened up and are bright orangy-red with interesting centers. In another day or two they’ll be finished, I think, but we’ll get a little more enjoyment out of them. This time of year, flowers on the table are a nice extravagance. It’s actually getting a bit warm for this time of year and the forecast is for warmer still for a little while. I have no doubt that winter will return before long, though, and we’ll want to stay indoors.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bloom, Blooms, Bulb, Bulbs, Ranunculus, Ranunculus asiaticus, Red
Comments Off on Ranunculus
Pink Hyacinths
Pink Hyacinths
The hyacinths are in bloom. These were planted pretty soon after we moved in and they didn’t really thrive but every year they come up. There are three little clumps of them, one purple, one white, and this pink one. They are growing in a bed of Vinca minor, also known as periwinkle, and lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis). You can see a little of the periwinkle color in the background. It’s nice to see them out our kitchen door. I’m not a fan of their fragrance, so I like they more at a distance than close up.
Daffodil
Daffodil
This is one of my unknown daffodils. The fall when we moved into our house I took some family pictures for some friends and they gave me a bunch of bulbs as a thank you present. They either were not marked or, more likely, I didn’t write down the names, but they bloom every year. This is one of them. There is another, very double daffodil as well and the hyacinths that I posted a picture of a couple days ago. The daffodils are between our front walk and the house and put on a really good show.
Chionodoxa forbesii
Chionodoxa forbesii (Glory of the Snow)
I think this is my absolute favorite of the spring ephemerals. It’s called glory of the snow in honor of it’s generally very early blooming time, sometimes when there is still snow on the ground. The genus Chionodoxa comes from the Greek words chion meaning snow and doxa meaning glory. I think it’s the color that I like best about it, along with its dainty habit and it’s remarkably easy care. It is hardy as far north as USDA zone 3. In a few short weeks it will be done and gone for the year, sleeping away both the heat of summer and the cold of next winter.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Blue, Bulb, Chionodoxa, Chionodoxa forbesii, Glory of the Snow, Hardy Perennial, Spring, Spring Ephemerals
Comments Off on Chionodoxa forbesii
Dried Amaryllis Flower
Dried Amaryllis Flower
This is the same amaryllis flower that I posted a photo of a week an a half ago (see Thursday, March 12, 2020). As you can see, it’s dried out but interestingly has retained some of it’s color. Since taking this photo, I’ve cut the stem so we won’t get any seeds. They are so easily available in bulb form late in the year that we buy one most years. This one came back into bloom, a little later than expected but without much of any attention having been paid to it in the meantime.
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Amaryllis, Bulb, Dried Amaryllis, Dried Flower, Houseplant, Red
Comments Off on Dried Amaryllis Flower
Daffodil ‘Falconet’
Daffodil ‘Falconet’
One nice thing about being home as we all are is that it means I can get out into the yard during the day. That’s offset by the fact that we can’t go a lot of other places, of course, but we are fortunate to have a pretty nice yard. There’s a huge amount that needs to be done but right now, with the daffodils blooming, it’s quite nice. This little daffodil, one of the Tazetta types, has multiple fragrant flowers on each stem. They were planted in 2014 and are on the edge of the bed that used to surround the spruce tree, which is gone, so they will get a lot more sun now.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bulb, Bulbs, Daffodil, Falconet, Hardy Perennial, Narcissus, Spring, Yellow
Comments Off on Daffodil ‘Falconet’
Scilla siberica
Scilla siberica (Siberian squill)
Blooming shortly after the beautiful, blue Chionodoxa forbesii (glory of the snow), the Scilla siberica (Siberian squill) are starting to come out. They are a darker blue with down-turned flowers but quite similar. In fact, “some experts have merged Chionodoxa into the genus Scilla under the belief that the differences are not significant enough to warrant separate genus status.” (Missouri Botanical Garden, Plant Finder). I don’t really care one way or the other and just enjoy them both as spring ephemerals. I look forward to their bloom every year and don’t think I could have too many of either.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Blue, Bulb, Bulbs, Hardy Perennial, Scilla, Scilla siberica, Spring, Spring Ephemerals
Comments Off on Scilla siberica
Daffodil ‘Actaea’
Daffodil ‘Actaea’
This is a daffodil called ‘Actaea’, which is in the poeticus division (division 9), which are distinguished by their large white petals and small, dainty cups in contrasting colors. I think they are fairly posh, compared to their more boisterous cousins but they are similar in their hardiness. They are a bit slower to produce large clumps, though, so if you want a lot of them in a hurry, you’ll want to plant more of them up front. The stems on these are a little less rigid than the others, as well, and they have a tendency to droop even more when it rains but in the sun, they are hard to beat.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Actaea, Bulb, Bulbs, Daffodil, Daffodil Actaea, Hardy Perennial, Orange, Red, Spring, White
Comments Off on Daffodil ‘Actaea’
Ornithogalum umbellatum (Star of Bethlehem)
Ornithogalum umbellatum (Star of Bethlehem)
The Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) is a pretty, little, but invasive bulbous plant native to Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. It’s coming up in our back yard and we really should do something about it, although it’s hard to want to pull out something as pretty as this. I’m not sure where it came from as we only have it growing in our lawn and not in any of our garden beds. This time of year they just appear in the lawn. Our mower is out of commission until I get a new carburetor so the grass is getting long but once that’s running again, these will be mowed along with the grass.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bulb, Invasive, Non-Native Plant, Ornithogalum, Ornithogalum umbellatum, Star of Bethlehem
Comments Off on Ornithogalum umbellatum (Star of Bethlehem)
Allium moly (Golden Garlic)
Allium moly (Golden Garlic)
I really should plant more of this as well as other ornamental onions. This is Allium moly, often called golden garlic, and it’s a lovely little bulb, blooming later than many of the spring bulbs. Its flowers are smaller than daffodils but it makes up for that by being one of the few things in bloom right now. In theory it spreads and needs to be controlled when growing in ideal conditions. Clearly that’s not what it has here, but it seems happy enough. Another Allium that I’ve had but don’t now is Allium caeruleum, which has pale blue flowers. I think I’ll order some of that, too, this fall, along with a bunch more deffodils.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Allium, Allium moly, Bulb, Golden Garlic, Hardy Perennial, Non-Native Plant, Onion, Yellow
Comments Off on Allium moly (Golden Garlic)
Amaryllis
Amaryllis
When I was helping Dorothy take pictures of the farm’s produce a week ago, Janis gave me this amaryllis to bring home for us to enjoy until it is finished blooming. It has huge, double flowers and it’s really amazing. This is the third bloom and it’s going strong. When it’s done, Janis asked that we bring it back so she can tend it for next year. What a treat. We grown them fairly regularly but don’t generally get a better flower the second year. This one has clearly been treated right.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Amaryllis, Bulb, Dried Amaryllis, Dried Flower, Houseplant, Red
Comments Off on Amaryllis
Chionodoxa forbesii
Chionodoxa forbesii
It’s been more than a couple years since I planted any new bulbs but of course, one of the beauties of bulbs is that they come up pretty reliably every year. Tulips aren’t that long lived, but daffodils and some of the smaller, more ephemeral blooms will likely be coming up long after I’m gone. This is one of my very favorite blooms, Chionodoxa forbesii, also known as glory of the snow. I like the fact that it blooms so early but I think my favorite thing about it is the amazing blue color. I really need to plant more of this.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Blue, Bulb, Chionodoxa, Chionodoxa forbesii, Ephemeral, Glory of the Snow, Hardy Perennial, Spring, Spring Ephemerals
Comments Off on Chionodoxa forbesii
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’
We’re back home from our grand Alaska adventure (or whatever you like to call it) and I thought I’d photograph the various things blooming in the yard. One of the best is this Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’. There are something like 7 species in the genus Crocosmia that come from the South African grasslands. The variety named ‘Lucifer’ is a hybrid by Alan Bloom (Crocosmia x Curtonus) which has flowers and foliage that are similar to gladiolus. As you can see, it has scarlet red, tubular, one-sided flowers borne along arching flower scapes. It’s one of our favorite summer blooms and every year I mean to do a little better at giving them support, although they only barely need it. We started with one or two plants and I’ve added a few more over time, so we have a nice clump of them in our front bed. We’re glad we got home while they were blooming. They attract hummingbirds, as well as the more common pollinators, which is an added treat.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Bulb, Corm, Crocosmia, Crocosmia Lucifer, Hardy Perennial, Herbaceous Perennial, Iridaceae, Non-Native Plant, Red, Summer
Comments Off on Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’