Phenology

[pameladean]

Bloomed while I wasn't posting

Crocuses

These were eaten by rabbits, but in order of color. I never saw the pale blue-white ones that are always first, because rabbits eat them before they bud. I saw the tiny gold snow crocuses briefly, because rabbits eat them as soon as they bloom. Larger yellow and large purple crocuses are let to bloom until they get limp and then eaten. White ones are not eaten at all.

Tulips

Rabbits ate the earliest ones, the red on the south side of the house and the deep purple in the bed under Lydy's office window, as soon as the leaves came up, and repeatedly thereafter. No flowers, unsurprisingly. Later red ones that were either growing in grass or had not had the dead leaves cleared away from them managed to bloom, as did the water-lily tulips that are growing in goldenrod. These last are starting to revert to standard, taller yellow tulips with plain rather than red-striped leaves, which is interesting to watch.

Daffodils

One flower. I expect they want feeding. Rabbits don't eat them.

Scilla

This was a banner year for scilla. They have spread all the way to the front yard, just a few individual blooms, and the back had masses, both of the wild ones that were there when we moved in and the more floriferous ones that I planted in the lawn.

Winter aconite

The plants on the south side of the house and on the north side of the house have disappeared. Nobody eats them, but squirrels like to dig them up and say, "Ewwww, poison!" The corms of winter aconite don't like being dried out, so that pretty much does them in, unless I happen to notice and cover them up in time. The ones in front that are growing in a mix of grass, asters, and bee balm came up and bloomed copiously with the scilla there.

Small purple violets

White violets with purple faces

Freckly violets

Actual violet-colored violets, as opposed to the standard purple




Blooming now

Canada violets

A few of the other kinds of violet that got mowed early or are in the shade

Dame's rocket

Shasta daisies

The neighbors' peabush hedge

Lilacs, though they are starting to go off and look soggy

Bleeding heart, which has been going forever

Columbine, both the double red and yellow and the straight yellow

Creeping thume

Moss roses





Thinking about blooming

Peonies

Mock orange




Might be blooming another year, but annoyed by the weather

All the roses




Encroaching

Japanese knotweed
motherwort
hairy bellflower
wild grapevine
Virginia creeper
ten thousand maple seedlings
plantain




And how does your garden grow?

Pamela