First Blooms and Buds

Despite this morning's fresh layer of snow, I was able to survey the progress of spring in the yard and garden. A few bulbs are coming up. The crocuses have started to bloom, though several flowers were obviously frozen and wilted from the -14 C temperatures and snow on the weekend.

The species/botanical tulips are starting to poke up in their shady flower bed:

My hardy ice plant, Delsperma nubigenum, is looking great after a winter in the alpine garden:

The alpine bed, a home for dwarf shrubs and low-growing alpine perennials:

Siberian squill:

Sempervivum (hens and chicks) in the alpine bed:

Sempervivum are very hardy plants and do well here. I've had one or two varieties die over previous winters, but most are fine.

The evergreen shrubs in the yard are all green and show no signs of winter damage this year. My successful hardy evergreen shrubs include mugo pine, dwarf balsam fir, and nest spruce. In the next few weeks, I'll be cleaning up the dead growth from the perennials, making room for the new growth. The indoor light garden is expanding to include dozens of pots of annuals and a few vegetables. It's feeling like spring, finally.

Planting Rocks in my Rock Garden

I decided to do some rearranging of the rock garden this week based on design principles I've been reading about. Besides that, I'd always been dodgy about calling the sloped flower bed a "rock garden", mostly for the lack of rocks. Actually, my real dream would probably require large mechanical equipment and aim for some small recreation of the rock gardens at Kew, so I'll stick to what I can do with my hands and a spade for now.

Principles in rearranging my rock garden:

• less "currant bun" effect, with rocks looking like they're just sitting ontop the dirt
  rocks should look like icebergs, meaning that nine-tenths of the rock is buried out of sight


• blasted rock looks more like natural stony outcroppings than rounded fieldstone (which can be better used for Japanese styles)


• align the rocks so any striations match directions


• use local rocks (resident-lawnmower-man hauled blasted rock in from a construction site)


• use similar-type stones, rather than a collection of novelty or multicolored stones
  
• plantwise, I removed dead or raggy-looking plants then moved some narcissus into the bed from elsewhere in the yard
  

Okay, so the picture shows that the little rock garden probably violates half those design rules, but settling of the dirt and planting a few more rock garden plants should help it out. Another gardener gave me some alpine Arabis, Gentiana verna and Gentian septemfida today! Within 2 weeks, the phlox and muscari should be in full bloom and should make the bed look beautiful. Or maybe I'll be out there tomorrow adding more rocks...

Flowers blooming now: Scilla siberica, a hardy bulb that produces these deep blue flowers: Muscari armeniacum "Dark Eyes" (Grape Hyacinth) , which is different from the regular bulk-purchased grape hyacinths in that there are little white rims on the bottoms of each "grape". The planting of this new variety really wasn't worth it in my opinion:
This is how far my single-flowered peony has come this spring. Yeah, I know those of you in warmer climates are probably staking their peonies to prevent their blooms from flopping over...and I don't really want to hear about it! But if you're growing peonies north of my latitude, please do tell.

Scilla siberica

Siberian squill or Scilla siberica is a fall-planted bulb that blooms early spring. It is naturalizing but as of yet, the tiny plants haven't multiplied much. The striking blue flowers contrast well against the early red leaf buds of the spirea. An affirming characteristic of Scilla is that it cannot be grown in very warm climates without spending a season in the refrigerator!