Tuesday, February 19, 2008

129 Clumps

The world's done froze up solid again and big fat flakes are whipping through the air. The view through the kitchen window to the ridge top gardens still looks firmly entrenched in winter greys and browns, but I know better.














Just before the arrival of the thickening curtain of large dry frozen flakes of cloud bits, in the strong chill wind, I went to go take a census. To the best of my ability crisscrossing the ridge top garden and not taking the same path twice I counted 129 clumps of mostly Daffodil/Narcissus type bulb foliage coming up through the leaf litter on top of the crunchy frozen ground, so far.

So far. I know there is another whole collection of summer bulbs, alliums and lilies that will appear. The iris and daylilies that are valiantly trying to turn green don't count as bulbs. I have heard talk of grand numbers of Wood Hyacinth or Spanish Bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica that grace this mountain ridge top. Maybe this other more rosette looking foliage arrangement I have been seeing belongs to them. Then again there are bound to be any number of lesser bulbs that are not tasty to squirrels, chipmunks and voles packed into the ground up here.

On a low average of 20 bulbs per clump at 129 clumps, so far we're looking at 2580 bulbs.














Then I wandered off to go look at rocks, particularly the ones in the piles of dirt left from the digging of the pits for the perk test and I discovered this odd looking red eyeball staring up at me from the ground.














Now how odd is that?

8 comments:

chuck b. said...

Weird! Did they smell bad?

Wow that's a lot of bulbs... I imagine you have some interesting heirlooms. You might have another big project on your hands tracking them down this spring.

Christopher C. NC said...

I'll smell them tomorrow, but it may be too cold for them to smell.

I'm a lot like the resident gardeners. It's a daffodil. Beyond that, the total name, class, category, ect isn't of much interest.

Now I did meet a Daffodil show judge at a seminar I went to and invited her to come visit this spring. She was very curious to know if there were any rare ones up here. I just said there were a lot. I could follow her with a pen and notepad taking down names if she actually comes to visit.

I should call her. Can't forget the last name. It was Bankhead. Yes those Bankheads.

chuck b. said...

If I had 129 clumbs of old daffodils I would be very curious about their names. It could be fun.

Kylee Baumle said...

That's going to be a sight to behold! You WILL post pictures at the height of its glory, won't you?

Christopher C. NC said...

Kylee that is certainly my hope if the good Lord is willing and the weather don't mess things up.

deb said...

Check out the eyes at Fen fungi...scroll down

Christopher C. NC said...

That would be it Deb, a Scarlet Elf Cup, Sarcoscypha austriaca. There is a pretty big patch of them. The elves must have been partying down big time.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Such interesting fungus. I bet that red did catch your eye. A color I wouldn't expect around here until flowers start blooming.

Can't wait to see your daffodils blooming. It will be a beautiful sight.