Miscellaneous spring bulbs 2012

Last fall I planted some winter aconites. Hope I'll get a large patch!
Scilla rosenii and daffodils are slowly spreading though :D

More sun today.
Some of the late crocuses are these sieberi-forms

and the last snowdrop ;)

The dark blue backs with the lighter blue petal top surface makes a very nice contrast, too.

Tim, your bulb bed seems very exiting! How do you keep grass from spreading into it?

I'll second that motion, what a nice idea to have a naturalized bulb bed with other plants included.  But I too wonder about maintenance of such a bed.

In the last couple years 3 different types of invasive grasses have taken a foothold in the garden.  Last year, with the new job that I have, and needing to work most weekends, parts of the garden, particularly my "Allium garden" are a disaster, the grasses with aggressive underground rhizomes romping far and wide in every direction, that I fear the only solution is to dig up the whole thing, extract the good plants from amongst the invading network of rhizomes, and rebuild the garden.  But given no change in my current utterly crazy job, and so far the inability to find a different more normal job, it looks like this year will be even more disasterous for parts of the garden.

Charles, I'm with you, I don't have the courage to try chemicals like that. 

The grasses are so intertwined with the plants, it seems hard to believe that a dousing of some chemical wouldn't also risk damaging the plants.  I think I'm going to use this unfortunate infiltration of grasses as motivation to revamp parts of the garden.  In year 2000, I did exactly that to my main "Allium garden", totally redid it after it was claimed by blackberries, tree seedlings and such, all due to neglect; available time perpetually denied by a demanding job and ridiculous daily commute that steals away my life.

Corydalis solida and other woodland Corydalis species are among my favorites.
Here are some colour forms of C solida:

Spring is nearly passing me by, just no time with my ridiculous work schedule, so I'm late in responding to topics on the forum.

Wim, I am certainly charmed by Erythronium dens-canis 'Charmer', the genus overall is such a wonderful one full of the most elegant bulbous plants ever, yet, aside from my utterly non-blooming running E. americanum, I don't have any of these beauties in my garden, something I need to remedy.  Also, I really like Corydalis solida 'Nimrodel', unusual to have a pale face to the deep color blooms.

Trond, nice variety to your Corydalis solida forms.

Here's one that I grow in full sun, where it has slowly built up into a large clump, Leucojum aestivum. I like that it blooms much later than snowdrops and L. vernum.  It's tall too, so makes an impression in the garden.  I didn't include an overall view of the plant, as the area is a weedy mess still awaiting spring cleanup :rolleyes:

McDonough wrote:

Spring is nearly passing me by, just no time with my ridiculous work schedule, so I'm late in responding to topics on the forum.

Here's one that I grow in full sun, where it has slowly built up into a large clump, Leucojum aestivum. I like that it blooms much later than snowdrops and L. vernum.  It's tall too, so makes an impression in the garden.  I didn't include an overall view of the plant, as the area is a weedy mess still awaiting spring cleanup :rolleyes:

Spring is definitely not over yet, not here anyway, as we have half a year spring, 1 day summer, half a year fall and a week of winter ;D

A weedy mess?! What's that! Sounds very familiar though ;D ;D
The L aestivum is still only budding here.

Lori wrote:

Does this qualify as a "bulb lawn"?

P.S. Apologies to anyone who may be horrified by the proliferation of Scilla siberica and Puschkinia in these photos, but I have to admit that this was the goal of planting many hundreds of bulbs in the past.  :)

Where is the grass?  ;)

Nobody can be horrified of this!

Lori wrote:

Hoy wrote:

Where is the grass?  ;)

Long gone (and not missed)!!   ;D

Hoy wrote:

Nobody can be horrified of this!

Glad to hear it!  Seeing this bloom, common though the bulbs are, is part of the whole magic of spring for us!

Common or rare - doesn't matter. One of my favorite spring plants is the "weed" coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara). However, it was more of a spring flower when I lived in Oslo than here. Still I am looking for it every spring ;D

I am only horrified it they are where they are not wanted.  In your "lawn", Lori, they are very nice!  But in the local woodland, competing with native flora, not so good. :'(

Wim, a most handsome Bellevalia, a genus totally absent from my garden, need to work on that :)

Roland, I guess I'm among the few that link Ornithogalum, I find it to be an intriguing genus.

Lori, nice seas in shades of blue (Scilla & Puschkinia), I think I'm heading in this direction; that is, larger expanses of realiable color.

Here's one of my favorites; a totally reliable slow grower, Brodiaea grandiflora ssp. howellii, in my favorite color, pale milky blue.  Got a couple bulbs from Jane McGary, 8-9 years ago, and it flowers every year, atop 16-18" tall stems that sway in the breeze (requiring holding the stems to have any chance at a clear photo).  I now have some in-place-sown seedlings coming along, yay!  I didn't notice the ant on the flower until I was resizing images tonight.

I do grow several Ornithogalums! And I try to establish some self-sowing ones in my garden. I wouldn't mind trying Bellavalia either - have tried one or two species though.
Brodiaea isn't easy here. Don't like the climate or the slugs (or the slugs like it too much probably) I assume.

However Muscari latifolia do self sow a little in the woodland but not alarmingly. Scilla liliohyacinthus also do spread. Have to remove some bulbs as they are  too crowded for maximum flowering now. Erythronium 'White Beauty' seems to like the woodland setting.

Yes, these are late bloomers. And here are my "bulb lawn" now: Just the leaves of crocus and snowdrops and dandelions and a few tulips!

Ice cream or lollipop? It is a sweet thing anyway ;)

Sometimes we garden according to necessity, and not in compliance with plant growth schedules: I decided I needed to rid this part of the garden of infesting Quack grass where Tulipa tarda was clearly not wanting to go dormant yet.  

           A pic taken of the tulips back on 24 April.
         

I was quite surprised (1 May) to see how much the new bulbs had already formed for the following year.  The flowers hardly had time to dry up, and next years sprouts were already well formed.

RickR wrote:

Sometimes we garden according to necessity, and not in compliance with plant growth schedules: I decided I needed to rid this part of the garden of infesting Quack grass where Tulipa tarda was clearly not wanting to go dormant yet.  
A pic taken of the tulips back on 24 April.
       
I was quite surprised (1 May) to see how much the new bulbs had already formed for the following year.  The flowers hardly had time to dry up, and next years sprouts were already well formed.

I've often seen it on the wild onion here (Allium vineale). They form new bulbs very early. I think they play safe and store energy for next year as quickly as they can in case the weather gets bad (drought for instance).

Just yesterday I cooked with our native wild Prairie onion, Allium stellatum (freshly dug), and my last Lilium davidii bulb held over in the fridge from last fall.  Too early for that allium to show new bulb growth.  It'll be a long time before it flowers in mid summer.  Trond, does Allium vineale  go dormant in summer?

RickR wrote:

Just yesterday I cooked with our native wild Prairie onion, Allium stellatum (freshly dug), and my last Lilium davidii bulb held over in the fridge from last fall.   Too early for that allium to show new bulb growth.  It'll be a long time before it flowers in mid summer.  Trond, does Allium vineale  go dormant in summer?

Rick, did you have the heart to eat it :o
And yes, A vineale goes dormant in summer. That is, the leaves wilt but the stem with a few flowers and lots of bulbils stays for all summer more or less green. When I was a child we played with it pretending it was real onions for dinner but we were never allowed to eat them. My grandma said they were poisonous.

More pictures of Scilla liliohyacinthus. I think I'll have some spare bulbs later if anybody is interested.

Hoy wrote:

Rick, did you have the heart to eat it :o

Of Course!  Many lilies, like L. davidii, are quite robust.  There is really no need to coddle them to get them to reproduce, and this species is very easy to clean if the bulbs are not too old.

Quote:

And yes, A vineale goes dormant in summer. That is, the leaves wilt but the stem with a few flowers and lots of bulbils stays for all summer more or less green. When I was a child we played with it pretending it was real onions for dinner but we were never allowed to eat them. My grandma said they were poisonous.

I wonder if that is true ???

I'd take seed of that Scilla, Trond, if you get any...