Big Bulb Planting Day

I think that bulb-planting week should be a provincial, if not national, holiday. I would even be willing to have it as an unpaid holiday. Just so long as I could always get the first week of October off of work to plant tulips and daffodils, I would be pleased. Instead, I crammed most of my bulb planting into this morning. At least the weather was beautiful. In the end, I concluded that I should have planted more bulbs, though I suppose there is some limit to the money I would spend on those papery little imports.

Raised bed in fall colors extravaganza:

This year's order from Botanus was large enough that they threw in a free DVD entitled "Passion - a documentary on the Dutch Bulb Sector". That sounds like one to watch on a romantic evening by the fireplace with RLM! I started watching it this afternoon, but the musical soundtrack was too emotionally intense for both the dog and the littlest gardener, so I had to turn it off.

Scabiosa caucasica "House's Hybrids": a purple bloom from the mix. This flower is always reliable for giving me nice October flowers.


Here is my new planting of Muscari armeniacum, the common blue grape hyacinth. I've read that planting them as "rivers" gives a nice effect. My river is narrow, but meanders gracefully through part of the raised bed.

Otherwise, I've planted various types of tulips including Single Lates, Double Lates, Fosteriana, Giant Beauty, Lily-flowered, and Triumph tulips. I'm also trying Allium atropurpureum this year, to add to A. "Gladiator" and A. Purple Sensation which did well this summer. I also planted a total of 100 yellow daffodils around the raised beds and I look forward to seeing those next spring. I boldly planted Anemone blanda, with the knowledge that it may well not survive the winter here. I'm living on the edge...the edge of my hardiness zone.

October Asters and My First Scabiosa

We still see people boating on the lake and we haven't had any snow that stayed on the ground yet. This is a bit later than the last few years. Of course, we've had several hard frosts and all the leaves are off the trees, but that doesn't stop the asters. There is not a bit of yellow or wilted foliage on these plants. The flowers are a bit small on this type, but there are many flowers on the rather large plant.

Aster dumosus "Alert"


I started Scabiosa caucasica "House's hybrids" from seed two years ago, but then transplanted the plants a few times this summer, slowing their progress. I was shocked to see a bloom out there today! I don't know when Scabiosa usually bloom, but I imagine this is late!