6 on Saturday – 13APR2024 – Upon my Return…

Chris Mousseau

I was out of town for 12 days; unusual for me, as I don’t travel much, doubly so given the season, and the garden growth explosion that occurs in April. Although it’s been raining since my return, I’m told it was warm and sunny while I was away, encouraging bulbs to pop up and flower a week or two earlier than normal. The proof is in these photos, taken during a break in the rain on Thursday. Just in time to join Jim’s Garden Ruminations gang as gardeners around the world post six things happening in their garden. First up are the Hyacinths, including the delicious looking, purply ‘Woodstock’ as the featured photo for this post (not sure you can see it if reading from a smart phone or tablet…) and this clump of bright blue ‘Aqua’. Pleased that ‘Woodstock’ are still going strong five years after planting!

Various Muscari are also in full bloom now. By various I mean just the two varieties I have at the moment (well, three if you count the white selection of the common blue). I keep thinking I should try another species, just for fun. Interesting to note that while the common Muscari (probably M. armeniacum) tends to spread slowly by seed but quickly by bulb offset, the more showy M. latifolium have naturalized mainly by seed alone – I’m not seeing them clump up like the other.

M. latifolium
M. armeniacum, blue and white

Another small spring bulb that has slowly spread, by seed, through the wooded part of my driveway ‘Island Garden’ is Scilla siberica. I really love this dark blue ephemeral, and have long admired it covering lawns in some of the older parts of Toronto. It’s been so successful in Toronto, in fact, that the City saw fit this week to issue a statement warning about its dangers, labeling it a invasive plant that can not only choke out native spring vegetation but is also poisonous! A danger to dogs and children alike! (Of course they didn’t mention any of the other dozens or hundreds of plants that might also cause stomach upset if ingested…)

As I mentioned, a lot of bulbs are up and blooming a bit early this year, thanks to not only recent nice weather but also likely the overall warm winter we had. Here are the two earliest and shortest Narcissus to bloom in my garden:

Tete a Tete, contrasting nicely with some Chianodoxa
Jetfire

On to the shrubs. My recent trip was to Vancouver Island, on Canada’s west coast. Usually they’re way ahead of us, spring growth-wise, since their winters are usually much milder, with very few days below zero. This past winter; however, they had many days below freezing (causing a lot of damage to fruit tree buds, in particular) and I noticed daffodils and tulips, Chianodoxa and Hyacinth still in bloom or just getting started. Also Forsythia, like the one I have out front:

I didn’t see any kitchen gardens or rhubarb there, but mine is just a few weeks away from pie time:

Finally – something to look forward to – a promise of fragrant and colourful lilacs for mid-May. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

24 Comments

  1. I have a scilla here but I’ve never had any flowers for 3 years: only leaves,… maybe too buried?
    Hope you can enjoy lilacs in bloom, it starts here.
    Were you able to enjoy the eclipse experience? Our friends in Montreal were in the right place at the right time

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    1. I was on the west coast for the eclipse so missed in entirely – but even if I had been at home, it was quite cloudy and most people here didn’t see much. We were all watching on TV though – Quebec, New Brunswick and the east coast had a really fabulous experience, with clear skies!

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  2. Lilacs, forsythia, and rhubarb — all favorites of mine from the increasingly distant past. What’s interesting about this collection is that I found the Muscari — what I know as grape hyacinths — quite attractive. They don’t usually appeal to me, but yours are different somehow. Maybe it’s the numbers, or the setting, or Canadian garden magic, but they’re very pretty!

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  6. Lots of lovely spring bulbs there Chris. I once had Woodstock (such a great colour) but since planting it out in the garden it seems to have disappeared. Both Jetfire and Tete a tete are favourites of mine and I love your Scilla in the grass. I have some in my shady border and they haven’t flowered at all well this year.

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  8. My rhubarb is the same that I got from my great grandfather before I was in kindergarten. It is gratifying to know that some of us still enjoy growing it. Not many know what it is here. Now that I think of it, my grape hyacinth has been with me only five years less than the rhubarb. I met it when I was about nine. I just got my white grape hyacinth two years ago from Tangly Cottage Gardening. ‘Woodstock’ still reminds me of Snoopy’s friend.

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  10. My rhubarb has finally begun to move. The wrinkled yellow green leaves were in a holding patter for weeks, but finally they are green and the stalks begin to lengthen. I will make a crumble and be very happy!

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  11. So many plants are posionous, but who would eat them anyway! LOL! Good to see your spring is now unfolding. Ours has been doing so in leaps and bounds and some lilac is already opening!

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