Update: Crocus, March 4

Well, after a day of sunshine and sub-zero temperatures, I could dig through the snow and pine boughs to reveal..... OK, they're not blooming. They're not actually even budded, yet (except maybe one of them). BUT, they are there. They are up above the frozen ground. I took that picture using the flash on my camera because there isn't quite enough light in the evening to capture them, but even though it's -4 and that's the hottest it's been all day, those sweet little crocuses are doing their damndest to herald the spring.

Who's next?

Traditionally, I think the pickwicks are up immediately after the zwanenburg bronzes. However, this is what the most mature of the pickwicks looks like.

And this is what I found in the front this morning. I think we've got a winning snowdrop, here. I should put snowdrops in the side; they'd be up and at 'em in February!

By the way, I took those photographs through sleet, which had previously been hail and will likely be snow later. Do I care? No. It is spring ... the crocuses don't lie.

Where does "up" begin?

The lovely little buds of the zwanenburg bronze crocuses continue their metamorphoses into cheery yellow-and-brown flowers.  I am wondering how I define "up".  Is it when the flowers open?  They were open yesterday afternoon, but not so much that I could see their innards; just enough to make a hole at the top.  Does that count?  What do I define as the start of the crocus season this year?  Paying attention makes new questions arise.  

I am enjoying the start of the season, though... it's still mostly below zero and so I love these tough little beauties for cheering me up so early in the year.  Sure, we'll still have snow storms and sleet and ice and rain but the flowers think it's spring so I'm not going to worry if our salt supply can last another 3 storms.  I'm not going to panic if I don't know where my walk-on-ice boot accessories (yak-trax for those of you in the know) are.  Winter's grip is loosening and I only need to step out my front door to remind myself.  

Hooray, I was wrong!

After yesterday's post, I realised that I hadn't actually pulled up the boughs above the zwanenburg bronze crocuses, and those were the absolute earliest crocuses last year.  This morning, I am very pleased to announce, I found the crazy early zwanenburgs nearly up and at 'em.  I would say that these aren't blooming yet, but they're not far from it.  

I'd like to add that I was braving -10 temperatures to take that picture.  Honestly, there is nothing to suggest that it might be spring even any time soon except for the early early early crocus flowers.  

That's some creeping thyme next to it on the left, muscling in on its territory.  I'll be cutting that back once the weather stays above freezing for a few days. 

This is what the bent crocuses look like.  It's not great, is it?  However, I do think that overall the effect of the boughs is positive, so I'm not changing my plans for using any and all christmas trees available in the same manner in future years.

I cannot WAIT for spring!  

Vertebrate Softie

I went out today and scrabbled about in the side yard until I had filled two buckets with organic junk and my fingers were numb.  I don't know what I'll do with or about all of those rocks that were heaved to the top.  It's clear it will have to be something.  Perhaps there is a ... riddler? ... is that what the soil sieves are called? Anyway, perhaps there is a soil sieve in my future. I had some positive reinforcement after all the work, though:  I saw someone walking by admiring the flowers.  

And how could they not, when they're looking so fine?  And when the hyacinths are so gamely giving blooming a try?

In truth of fact, the zwanenburg bronzes are starting to fade.  They didn't much like me pulling the leaf pile away.  Apparently it was a load-bearing leaf pile.  

I had a bit of a quandary when I was doing the clearing.  There is a plant that is taking over the patch and I'm pretty sure that it's a weed.  Basically, if it grows like that, it has to be a weed.  The thing is that I have put a few things in the earth that I know to be "aggressive".  I thought a patch of thyme would be more welcome than an empty rockpile.  I was sure some mint might be welcome, if only to do battle with the thyme.  I genuinely want some lavender to take hold.

Unfortunately, I haven't been the most meticulous record-keeper and I can't for the life of me remember what was deliberate.  

At any rate, I yanked up a fair amount of the stuff that looked like this:

I left in the ones that looked like these:

I didn't do much to improve the front, but these lovely little pale purple guys (nameless because I am clueless) are now poking through.  What heroes they are!  They are battling against seriously bad odds.  

Sunny Day

Wow.  Even after the snow on Friday night, the sun today makes it feel like spring for real.  

The snowdrops think so.  Actually, I have a thing to say about the snowdrops, lovely and spring-y as they are:  They are really dirty.  How does that work?  The crocuses are apparently not really dirty.  I know that one of them is white as white can be and so it will show the dirt, but the other ones look clean as a whistle, even on close inspection.  I don't get it.

The crazy zwanenburg bronzes think it's spring, but who can trust them?  It's been spring for them for over a month!

The lovely satiny no-name purple crocuses think it is spring.  They're starting to show their saffron cores.

The pickwicks know that it's a sunny spring day and they are therefore baring their sunny spring centres to the world.  They're so intricate!  

I know it's spring and time to clean up the garden, but I haven't yet.  The frost heaving heaved up last year's potato (it looks nastier and somehow more alien in real life.  This picture doesn't do it justice).

The tulips need to be re-buried, but they don't seem to mind being forced out of the ground and they aren't being eaten by hungry, bleary-eyed squirrels, either.

The daylilies are also baring roots (or whatever the horrible finger-like things are). I probably killed a good percentage of when I tried to split and spread them.  

Still, some remain and are showing a bit of green at the tips which gives me hope for daylilies this year.

Slow news day

The mint continues to be only one tiny plant, although it requires less squinting to see.  The marigolds are just starting to get their first true leaves.  The (surviving) beets are looking a bit bigger, and the potted-up peas are doing very well.  I think that probably the basil wasn't planted deep enough and the white hairy thing was a root.  There is, at any rate, a green stem-like thing above it in every case.  

Outdoors, the zwanenburgs look like they're still hanging on, the pickwicks are still looking fresh and new and a purple nameless bunch of crocuses are starting.  The snowdrops are struggling, but a few more are coming out to bolster the morale of the first ones.

Crocus-pocus

The zwanenburg bronze crocuses have survived a good number of snow and ice storms.  Furthermore, they've been out for a month now.  That's good crocus.

The lovely pickwicks were much more sensible and waited until now to come out.

The hyacinths are surprisingly far along.  In my memory, the grape hyacinths came out first, but this year the normal big-type hyacinths are well along already.

The snowdrops are busy being lovely and unloved in the front patch.  I don't know where I should have put them, but clearly they're in the wrong spot. 

The start of the year

The growth this year actually started ridiculously early, on about March 6th when the first Zwanenburg Bronze crocuses poked up their heads.  This blog is thus born a little less than a month late.  

It might safely be argued that the crocuses were born a month early, given that I first noticed them in late March last year.  Also, they've already had to withstand ice storms and snow storms with real accumulations.  Last year's date is not particularly good because we covered the ground with the remains of our christmas tree and when I took the boughs off, there were already formed and blossoming crocuses beneath.  It is snowing again today, and there is every reason to expect the plants to get buried completely once more.