I received two of these in a trade last spring, so this is the first time I have gotten to see a bloom in person. It is a delicate looking flower, making it difficult to believe that it is one of the first of the season. It is also a short plant, I had to set the camera on the ground to get this picture. No matter, it is still nice to have growth and flowers again after what seemed like a very long winter.
I also have Crocus blooming. I am very surprised that the squirrels have not devoured them. I really love the color purple, such a spring time color that I love to see it the entire season.
The weather has been wonderful, in the 60's and 70's, allowing me to get out and get a lot of work done. My compost pile has grown to my height and hopefully will be cooking down real quick. I have put so much brush and weeds in it that I won't use it for a long time, maybe not until next spring.
I have winter sowing seedlings! This is
And also Bachelor Buttons. These seeds were also given to me last summer and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to sow them, but decided why not? With nearly 4 acres, I certainly have room to plant them.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
My first Hellebore bloom
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6 comments:
aha, you have seedlings from winter sowing. They are looking good. Your hellebore may seem small now but give it a couple of years it will get a little taller, fuller and have lots of flowers. Just takes time. I even have had a few seedlings pop up in the area around the hellebore. One year there were 12 but only about 4 lived. May have been my fault as I moved them to soon.
Congratulations! I never had luck winter sowing agastache rupestris... *sigh*
You've caught my attention with these. I've never grown a Hellebore but saw one at the garden show. If they're not finicky, I'll be looking for some soon. I have Agastache foeniculum / Anise Hyssop to sow. Last year I did grow bachelor buttons. I hope some (but not too many) self seeded. I did collect some seeds from each color. They bloomed for a long time and the bees seemed to enjoy them.
By winter sowing, did you plant them and then left them to come up when they choose? Do you have these protected but sitting outdoors? I've seend others talking about winter sowing in this manner.
thank you blackswamp_girl! Later in the day I went out and checked all my containers again and found a second container of them had begun to sprout too. I will keep my fingers crossed!
Petunia's Gardener- Winter sowing is a controlled method of direct sowing. In direct sowing, the seed is scattered or sowed directly into the ground. I have done this at every time of the year, even winter (when no snow is on the ground). With winter sowing, a plastic container is used to sow the seeds and placed outside during the cold months. This allows the seeds the cold needed for some to sprout and allows the seedlings to acclimate to the cool weather. With this method, there is little problem with some of indoor seed starting such as lack of light or wilt. I will do a post on how to winter sow for you, keep checking back. Here is a link to my first batch.
http://gardens-n-junk.blogspot.com/2006/12/winter-sowing-has-begun.html
Gloria-thank you for the encouragement with my itty-bitty plants. I hope they will spread, I have seen others pictures of much larger fuller plants. I hope this will look like that too. I will be sure to let any babies settle in before moving, just in case!
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