Six on Saturday – 15APR2023 – Yes, it’s Spring!

Chris Mousseau

A week of sunshine and above seasonal temperatures has sent the garden into overdrive, with dozens of spring bulbs shooting up and blooming almost hourly, it seems. One of my favourites are Hyacinth, both for their colour and their fragrance. Here are a few of the earliest bloomers:

Also starting to bloom are Muscari – grape Hyacinth. I have several species but my favourites are the earliest bloomers – M. latifolium, with their solitary wide leaf and two-toned flowering head:

Native spring ephemerals have also started to show up, including these woodland Trillium. The flowers are a deep red and don’t open fully like the more common, white blooming, Trillium grandiflorum. For me, the big attraction here are the mottled leaves.

The garlic I planted in four raised beds late last year sprouted during our long, mild autumn, but they’ve started adding leaves already and I’m anticipating a bountiful harvest ion July.

Also in the kitchen garden is the rhubarb, starting to unfurl its huge leaves. It takes up more space every year…next year I’ll likely divide it.

Finally, I brought the Dahlia tubers up from the basement two weeks ago and didn’t hold much hope for them – they were shriveled and dry and it looked like a mouse had nibbled through the plastic wrap I had tightly covered each tuber with. But look! I think one of my tasks this weekend will be to pot these up…there a good month to go before I can safely bring them outdoors but I’m thinking I may have dahlia flowers earlier than ever this year.

That’s my Six for this Saturday – I’ll be busy cutting back perennial stalks today, setting up the rain barrels again plus planting lettuce and snap pea seeds. So nice to be gardening again! Every Saturday, Jim hosts this Six on Saturday meme on his site, Garden Ruminations. Have a great weekend everyone!

22 Comments

  1. Hi Chris,
    My rhubarb has green green leaves now, looked like yours a week or so ago. Tell me, how often should it be divided – I never gave that any thought, but mine have been in place since 2018 I guess. What happens if one does not divide them? I just give them manure every year and eat as much as I can! The trillium leaves are striking!

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    1. I don’t think rhubarb ‘needs’ to be divided, except when it outgrows the spot it was planted in 😁. I’ve known rhubarb to grow undisturbed for decades in the same spot….mine happens to be in the middle of the asparagus patch, for some reason…😏

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      1. Haha! well, mine cannot easily grow into the log t is next to, but it can grow out from where it is. Everything is popping out there! I want to go outside now – just finished my exam so I can play a little! Before second winter…

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  3. Ooooh, I saved dahlia tubers last fall for the first time; I was going to plant them directly, but I think it is a great idea to give them a head start indoors, thank you!

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  5. When I was growing up, we had both asparagus and rhubarb, and they grew together, too. Whether it was intended, or just happened, I don’t know. I wonder if at some time the practice of growing them together was common?

    I’m so glad you’re finally seeing your flowers — and a tulip! That’s really fun. It must be great to be out in the garden again.

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  8. Hey, I just saw some of these in the Pacific Northwest. Hyacinth and grape hyacinth bloomed late here this year, but were even later there. A neighbor had hyacinth of the same color as both of yours. Rhubarb was a bit more leafy, but not much.

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