Daffodils 2022 - page 2

 We have a delightful variety of daffodils.  In addition to the ones on Page One, we have these:

It is so bright and cheerful.

Daffodowndilly

 Daffodowndilly              A poem by A.A. Milne

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbour, 

"Winter is dead."

~:~

Would that were true. . . 

This is the view next to my desk on March 12.  It's 21º and has been snowing all day.  We will end up with about 9 inches of snow on the ground.  The winds were fierce, and much of the snow has blown off the trees . . . but not all.

It's time for this to end and bring on the flowers!

Last year, the first daffodil was March 31.

But that was surprised with the April Fools weather joke.

We were really ready for spring last year.  The gardens have the temporary fences to keep the rabbits and woodchucks from eating the tender shoots.  The fences can come down in mid-summer.

Last year, we picked some forsythia for forcing on April 7, and this was our first bouquet (April 10).

I guess I have a while to wait.  Sigh.

We did have lots of crocus against the house last year on March 13,

so there's still hope. . . 

In the FWIW category, the word daffodowndilly is an old one.

Collins Dictionary shows it as appearing 1565-75.

They spell it with an a:  daffadowndilly.

Garden at the End Of May

This is the view from the computer room window.  It makes me smile.

The tulips are lovely and the daffodils are mostly finished.

The late daffodils are often multiples.

We have put up the screen house, but so far, the bugs have not sent us sheltering.  The rhododendron on the right of the picture has not bloomed yet.  On the left are bits of scaffolding waiting for Todd to do the roof.

Isn't this the sweetest violet!  It is tiny - the fabric it is sitting on is a sweatshirt, so perhaps you can get an idea of scale.

This is the tulip that led to fencing the tulip garden.  Some critter (rabbit?) ate much of this clump of tulips - you can see the stem eaten down in the center.  They got some, but not all of these pink tulips when they were just emerging.  D put fences around the tulips and no further damage was seen.

One of the flowers that just appears is speedwell.

These are tiny, tiny flowers, about the size of a pencil eraser (for those of you who are of the age of using pencils!

Just as cute as can be, and lots of fun to find.

We have been seeing more bees this year than in ages.  Some look like honey bees.  If you are interested in knowing more about bees, here is an article about bees by the Honey Bee Conservancy.  It's a quick read.  There are about 400 different bees in New York.

This strawberry plant promises lots of berries!

Because of slug nibbling, it was decided to remove the mulch, to reduce the damp environment slugs love.   Check back to see how that worked.

If you were wondering how we got the plants started, D set up a garden area in the basement.  There are around 30 LED lightbulbs, 60-100 watt.  They are at variable heights, so that he can keep them as close to the plants as possible, and since they are LED, they don't get hot.  The plants in this picture are mostly brugmansia and tomatoes.

The zinnias, marigolds, basil, parsley are hiding somewhere.

The new plant to experiment with this year is Brugmansia.  It's also called Angel Trumpet.  It is not expected to bloom this year.

Here is a Brugmansia ready to plant out.  

Notice the root ball - there is almost nothing but roots.

It's a little hard to see through the gazing ball, but that kneeler has been wonderful. It is the standard foam pad, but it sits a couple of inches off the ground, and there are handles on the sides that make it easier when you need to get up and down and to pick it up to move it.  

Then, the entire thing can be flipped, and it becomes a seat.

This is the beginnings of a new garden.

This is the east side of the house.  You see windows for the master bedroom (with air conditioner), bathroom in the middle, and D's room on the right.  The house is well insulated, and that little air conditioner will keep it comfortable all summer.  My guess is that I was sitting on the new bench when this picture was taken.

Daffodils 2020

I wondered how many diffferent daffodils we have.  Since I don't have a great visual memory, I thought I would record them here.  The first pictures are from April 27, 2020.  The daffodils are at peak.

There is the traditional large trumpet yellow daffodil.  It's what everyone thinks of when you say daffodil!

Then there is the white with a flat trumpet.  This has a large, yellow flat trumpet.

The trumpet fades to pale yellow as the flower matures.

Here's an orange flat trumpet in a yellow daffodil.

There are two mutated trumpets.  

I don't know what to call them.  Do you?

The white/pink on the left is ???
The white/yellow on the right is ??

white/yellow is White Lion.

4/28/20 - another double opened - it's yellow/yellow

Here are two that are sold by Netherland Bulb Company.  We bought a mixture from them, so we assume . . .
white yellow is "White Lion"

White/white is "Obdam".

We are pleased with anything we

bought from Netherland Bulb Company. 

The bulbs were exceptionally large.

That's what we have as of April 27, 2020.

Now that it's May, 2020, we have a few more and different ones.

This one has a normal ruff and normal trumpet, but the trumpet is filled with petals.

We are definitely enjoying our bouquets.

The flower below, at 7 o'clock, is the same filled trumpet shown in the previous picture.

Such a cheerful flower!

Isn't this white with a pink trumpet just lovely?

Here it is growing in the garden.

After the woodchuck helped himself to a bunch of tulips, we had to fence the garden.

This flower is called "tête-à-tête".  

This is an ultra close-up shot.

Each flower is smaller than a quarter!

This has been an exceptionally cold and damp spring, and the daffodils love it.  We were surprised to note that we dead-headed the first daffodil on May 2.  That's very late for here.

Daffodils and the First Asparagus

Today was our first taste of asparagus.

There were 7 stalks - someone has nibbled. . . 

The daffodils are quite late this year.

And they will peak this week.

We haven't checked in a while.

At one point we had 18 different ones.

They are such a cheerful bloom.

They brighten the world after a long, cold, snowy winter.

The last to bloom will be the ones with pink trumpets and the multiples.  So there is still more to look forward to.

Finally it's Spring!
I thought the daffodils would never arrive.
They are very late, but welcome.


Today Henrietta brought her chick out to see the world.
It is the only survivor. Two others hatched, but did not make it.
The rest of the eggs were not viable.

After the kids left, poor Tommy was sad. Not as much fun without a kid to play with.