Six on Saturday – 23APR2022 – Daffs, Tulips and a few other things

Chris Mousseau

Daffodil season in my garden officially started yesterday when, despite the below average temperatures we’ve had most of April, the larger narcissus started to open. I should have an abundance of daffs until the end of May now, so expect to see lots of yellow! To open this week’s Six on Saturday, the gardening meme hosted by The Propagator, here are a few daffs that opened in yesterday’s sun:

Also starting to open in the past two days are a few more tulip varieties. I’ve planted a lot of tulips over the years, but between chipmunks digging up the bulbs and natural loss of vigor with the hybridized types I don’t have that many this year. I need to start thinking of them more as annuals, like Cathy does, and buy a few new dozen every fall. The garden looked stupendous the year I had Exotic Emperor blooming!

Also starting to bloom are the Hyacinths I planted last fall – ‘Aqua.’ I wasn’t expecting them to be so blue, and I’m really loving them so far. Hopefully in the coming days the stems will elongate a bit.

Spring flowering shrubs have also started, beginning with Forsythia. I have two large bushes way down at the front of our yard and when in full bloom it’s a very cheery sight from inside the house. The overhang of the branches must create a tiny micro-climate because the lowest branches always start to bloom first; perhaps they’re sheltered a titch from chilly overnights.

My last two photos this week serve as cautionary examples for unsuspecting gardeners. The first involves Alliums. I absolutely LOVE alliums – all types – and I have a few hundred in my garden, seven or 10 separate species. Some of them are very generous with their seed! I like to leave the seed heads stand all summer because they provide a bit of height and interest, but this is what happens with no deadheading, and with a no-till garden. I know I could pull a lot of these Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ babies, but I keep thinking one year I’ll start a little Allium nursery…

The second ‘woe is me’ photo is with Vinca minor. It’s a lovely groundcover, evergreen even with our snow and freezing temperatures, and has loads of these gorgeous violet flowers all spring. It’s just a bit, well, a lot, too vigorous here. I planted three small pots (I actually purchased them!!) about 15 years ago, just for a small, specific spot, but of course they’ve spread. The above-ground runners root very firmly into the ground and if you try to pull them, if even a teeny tiny bit remains in the soil it quickly grows again. If you’re considering this plant, consider restricting it to a spot with stone or brick edging. Or just don’t plant it at all.

Have a great weekend everyone!

22 Comments

  3. That first picture of your daffodils in the sunshine is quite magical! It seems everything bursts into life at once in your part of the world… the emerging of daffs, tulips and forsythia is spread over a few weeks here. Have a good weekend, in the garden if possible!

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  4. I prefer to leave the vinca in the wood near my home where I will enjoy them when I go for a walk rather than add them in my garden. You’re right, they tend to spread everywhere!
    How many alliums! It’s going to be awesome…!

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  6. Beautiful daffs and Hyacinths. I’ve just been pulling up Vinca (possibly major). I planted it, it made it under the fence into the neighbour’s garden, I pulled it up on our side and now it’s made its way back under the fence from the neighbour’s side. Pretty flowers though!

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  7. I don’t think I’ve ever seen true aqua in a flower; that’s really unusual and attractive. I’m so glad you’re getting a burst of spring now. It’s going to be hard to keep up with it all — but what a joy!

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  8. Hmm – vinca just might be the solution for the “hell strip”. The combination of drought and being dug up for some sort of pipe/cable repair has left it a weed mess. On a happier note, daffs are finally peeping up. Yours are looking really happy.

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  9. Alliums are new in our garden this year. After years of delaying their acquisition, Tangly Cottage Gardening gave me two, Allium schumbertii and Allium christophii. I have since learned that they should be reliably perennial, and could eventually multiply a bit too prolifically.

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  10. Your spring is looking good. I can’t fathom daffs in May! Forsythia was always the thing that made my heart sing that spring had truly arrived. I am loving your aqua hyacinths – nice scent???

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