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Saturday, February 9, 2013

BREAKING ALL RECORDS

After such a ridiculously warm spell, for nearly three weeks, it was inevitable that things in the garden would be not what they should be. First it was the iris.....


This unknown, fragrant peach, bearded iris has just been stunning this year. I had picked three open flowers due to the threat of frost, but the unopened buds surprised me by surviving the brief, cold night and went on to put on a stunning show. Then the purple iris started. The first ones were on very short bloom stalks, possibly due to the dry winter.


I gave the garden a good watering a week ago and now the plants are sending up the odd longer bloom stalk. Their color is deeper than last year.


It has always been a mystery to me why these are called summer snowflakes, Leucojum aestivum. In Texas their bloom is over long before summer begins and this year even before spring. I began to wonder if mine were not the Leucojum vernum, which are also known as Spring snowflakes. However, I discarded that idea when I realized that a characteristic of L. aestivum, is an umbel of 3-7 flowers on one stalk. Mine certainly have that. These flowers bloom in the very poor and much neglected soil of my English garden. I'm wondering why I haven't added more of these beauties. Next year they must be top of my list.


And here comes the first larkspur of the season. Once again a miniature of its usual self at only one foot. I am sure this is again attributable to dry conditions. As I write a fine drizzle is bringing relief to the parched landscape. I hope the plants are drinking up every drop-it may be all they get.

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful blooms! Love the summer snowflakes. I need to find a place for them in my garden. Hope you are getting some rain this weekend.

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  2. It is a beautiful rainy day in Austin, and your blooms look beautiful, too.

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  3. Just lovely! Here in Sweden all our flowers are still under a foot of snow. But spring is coming, I just know it...

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  4. Jenny, your garden is easily 6 weeks ahead of mine - such a difference yet you are only about five miles from me. I hope my Iris do well this year - last year they didn't bloom, at least this year we had a few more cold hours for the bulbs. We sure need rain, don't we? I wonder if the lakes will ever fill again?

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  5. Jenny, I have Leucojum to spare ... I'd be happy to dig you some. I had some blooming in early January but others were just poking their tips out of the ground then. Weather weirdness abounds in Texas!

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    1. Oh! Cindy I would love some. I imagine you would have to wait until they have renewed the bulb. Is that right?

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  6. Beautiful blooms.
    Nothing's going on here. Some spring growth showing up. But, certainly no blooms.

    We only got some heavy mist. Nothing to get excited about. But, I guess we'll have to take what we get.
    Hopefully, better luck next time.

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  7. So why is your garden blooming so early when your garden gets so much colder than mine or many other Austin bloggers? I wonder what that's all about? Maybe the concentrated heat and sun in your open, rock-paved garden?

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    1. Another garden mystery. The peach iris is in a more protected spot and we haven't had very cold temperatures this year but I do think the very dry winter may have something to do with it: especially the shortness of the stems. The other bulbs are always early but not usually this early.

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  8. Irises are among the flowers I could look at forever in close-up.

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