Warm and Wonderful

Like many others, we’ve been having unseasonably warm weather. Although below snow level, I’ve usually had at least three or four snowstorms by now – but not a one. We’ll be worried about the snow pack and spring water levels if the pattern doesn’t change very soon. Ever the optimist, I have to appreciate gifts of the warm weather. I’m still enjoying my sweet Pak Choi discussed in my pre-germinating seed post (and there’s more on winter sowing in that post as well). The daffodils are well on their way to blooming soon.

This mountain area is USDA gardening zone 7, and look at my lush Echeveria glauca. Spring and even warmer weather will be the perfect time to create more plants from all these lovely little rosettes.

I’ve been waiting on the cold before going gung-ho into winter sowing. For winter sowing, you use containers like milk jugs, put in dirt and seed, water and place somewhere that they will experience the cold and snow. This mimics the natural season while protecting the seeds from birds or being washed away. It also creates a mini green house environment where the seed will sprout and grow earlier than usual in your zone. The same system works for spring sowing, you just wait to put out your warm season seeds until later in the season. The Winter Solstice is the usual start for the cold season sowing. Yet here I am mid February deciding to “just do it”. The seed may germinate too early without the proper cold and late in the season cold spell could kill them. Taking my chances – have 24 jugs of flowers planted, just need to move them to a colder spot in the garden today.

 

All those pots are my spring bulbs.

The other unusual bit is that the cuttings I started in early fall are alive and growing on their protected shelf (they should be dormant).

    

I’ve even been able to harvest my garlic chives continuously all season.

The weather folks haven’t yet begun their doom and gloom predictions a.k.a. not enough snow pack  = drought, so for now I’ll remain optimistic and enjoy the gifts of the season.

This post is participating in Sundays in My City at Unknownmami.com. Stop in and see what others around the globe are up to.

Daffodil Dilemmas

 

Narcissus Bell Song

So, after deleting the blurred and the horrible, here I sit with 188 pictures of Ironstone’s gardens and their daffodils (it’s a good time to visit folks). What to do, what to do. Work and life has interfered with my ability to keep up with Sundays in my City as much as I’d like. From this hoard I could compose a few posts and be set for the near-term. I’d like to post a picture of one of each of the different daffodil types that I captured. Although my new(ish) home is not yet landscaped, my gardening obsession is fed by growing things in pots. Gardeners have differing passions; there are some whose excesses are triggered by the genus narcissus. 

Narcissus Modern Art

A friend in the Santa Cruz Mountains was one of these addicts. At the time, I didn’t appreciate her fixation or her insistence that nothing would grow for her throughout the summer. She’d scour the web and gardening catalogs for different varieties, backpack her toddler and go planting them across her hillsides. Now that I live in a similar environment with scorching dry summers and hungry foraging wildlife – I understand. Poisonous spring bulbs like narcissus are so rewarding in the face of all those summer disasters. I haven’t given up my attempts to grow something, anything, over the summer. But each spring in my mountain home finds me more determined to be crawling the hillsides populating my environment with the beautiful bulbs that actually adore the climate here.

Narcissus Flower Record

No worries, working on a satellite, the passages of time involved in uploading too many photos is not something I’ll undertake. Even so, my dilemmas around how to post pictures I want to share are difficult to resolve. What makes the most sense is what WordPress calls the static page – pages you see on the header bar other than home and these blog entries. I’d sprinkle this post with a few photos and link to a gallery on that page. Come fall I’d have a record on which to base my orders and something other gardeners can peruse. The issue I believe with static pages is that search engines don’t seem to find them. WordPress static pages don’t have categories or tags. Someone looking for a photo of narcissus Modern Art, may not be able to find mine. Yet I don’t want to do multiple posts on narcissus and, without effort to the contrary, this post will turn into a dissertation. Imperfect as it is, I’ll just do one post with all the individual photos. See previous post, Differing Daffodils, to view a sampling of what’s available.

Narcissus Dick Wilden

As far as suppliers, the big box stores offer reliable performers in varying tones. You should be able to find yellow, white and pink varieties easily. However, if you’re bitten by the addiction, you may want to check out Dutch Gardens, John Scheepers or Van Engelen Inc (the wholesale side of Scheepers, they tell me their website will be updated mid May with the fall catalog out in June). I’ve also heard good things about Brent and Becky’s bulbs, but I’ve not used them. Some websites take fall offerings down until the season for ordering; you have to wait for mark your calendar to check daffodils in late summer.

Professor Einstein seemed to be a favorite of the folks at Ironstone – it was everywhere you turn. It’s in the truck bed – so big, bright and clean – looks as though it can’t be real. Certainly striking. As we get a lot of rain through daffodil season, mid size height and smaller blooms enable the flowers to recover more easily from the battering. Thinking I may have to fill two pots for a protected front porch spot as Einstein is certainly a punch of cheer for those dreary days.

Ironstone Vineyard's Daffodils

Narcissus Kedron

The other thing you won’t be able to tell from the photographs is the substantial size (they are huge) of Holland Sensation and Mareika.  These may be perfect for a few places on the hillside as their size will make them more visible from a distance. However, the first order I’m placing is for Kedron as that orange on orange is a nice counterpoint to the yellows, whites and pinks I have. 

Just so you know daffodil is the common name for narcissus; some folks use the name jonquil for the same flower.

This post is participating in the Gallery of Favorites at Alea’s Leftovers.

Narcissus Pink Charm

Differing Daffodils

What to plant for spring color? Narcissus – So Many Choices! Photos taken at Ironstone, Murphys California. (plant bulbs in fall). 

Narcissus Accent

 

Narcissus Actaia

 

Narcissus Barrett Browning

 

Narcissus Bell Song

Narcissus Canaliculata

Narcissus Cassata

Narcissus Cheerfulness

Narcissus Cotinga

Narcissus Delnashaugh

Narcissus Dick Wilden

Narcissus Flower Drift

Narcissus Flower Record

Narcissus Grand Soleil D’Or

Narcissus Holland Sensation

Narcissus Ice King

Narcissus Jack Snipe

Narcissus Jetfire

Narcissus Kedron

Narcissus Kokopelli

Narcissus Loch Hope

Narcissus Mareika

Narcissus Matador

Narcissus Minnow

Narcissus Modern Art

Narcissus Mon Cherie

Narcissus Orange Petals

Narcissus Orangery

Narcissus Pink Charm

Narcissus Pipit

Narcissus Precocious

Narcissus Professor Einstein

Narcissus Rip Van Winkle

Narcissus Slim White Man

Narcissus Suzy

Narcissus Tahiti

Narcissus Tete a Tete

Narcissus Thalia

Narcissus Toto

Narcissus Verona

Narcissus Westward

Narcissus Winston Churchill

Well, I’d posted a few daffodil posts back to back and never linked this one out to my friends, so, I’m pulling it up to link to Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City and Alea at premeditated Leftovers Gallery of Favorites.