Saturday, March 15, 2008

A Stormy Bloom Day

Before a cold steady rain accompanied by a rumbling thunder put an early end to the day, the morning was spent catching a few snapshots for Garden Blogger Bloom Day, headquartered at May Dreams Gardens.

It truly is amazing watching more and more life push through the leaf litter on the forest floor. The changes can be charted over the course of a single day. More amazing is that entire new sections of bulbs on different parts of the mountain have been discovered. There are even more bulbs now. Yesterday the crazy bulb lady exclaimed, "Oh I can't wait till fall!" Her assistant was like, "What? We haven't even done spring." I must have inherited the crazy gene. I knew what she meant. She was looking forward to dividing, buying and planting more bulbs come fall.

Two nice big clumps of another Cyclamineus Narcissi 'Jet Fire' are the first to approach full bloom.














Crocus keep appearing at random from one end of the ridge top garden to the other, much to the delight of the resident gardeners who rarely see them. Often they have finished blooming before their brief spring chores visit in March. This is the most Crocus they have seen on their mountain in years.

















The dividing of clumps has spread the bulbs far and wide. This Cyclamineus Narcissi 'February Gold' was the very first to bloom. It now appears in several locations.














Two long hillsides are covered and held in place by Vinca minor, Lesser Periwinkle. This groundcover is now producing flower buds and a few blooms in spots. I have been told it will put on a fairly good showing of bloom.














The excitement that comes from watching the entire earth come back to life in this new temperate climate is far different than the excitement I would feel back in the tropics when my Buttercup tree or the Orange and Avocado would bloom in the winter and when the Heliconia came into bloom in the summer. These events did mark the change of seasons and the passage of time, but the event was far less dramatic surrounded in an ocean of green foliage and a constant supply of bloom on many other less seasonally affected plants.

This lone blossom on the lone Hellebore is reason for excitement. It means the winter is coming to an end. The warm and green is soon to return. Despite the pitiful performance of this particular Hellebore, its survival means it just may be possible to grow them with some success in a more favorable location on top of this mountain.

















The moisture that drops from the sky, has for today, decided to come in its liquid form. The weather diagnosticians can't seem to make up their minds if it will turn to snow later tonight.

That I will take as a sign that my contributions to Garden Blogger Bloom Day will only increase back up to abundance in no time at all.

9 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Love the parade of blooms you had to show us on this stormy day in your neighborhood.

Carol Michel said...

I'm really enjoying reading about your discovery of gardening and plants in a temperate climate. Just wait, one day you will go outside and think, "WOW, it is all green again, where did it all come from?"

Are the snowdrops all done blooming?

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

Christopher C. NC said...

Glad you enjoyed my small offering Lisa. There is more to come. Much more.

Carol the Snowdrops are done blooming. Now I am waiting for the seed pods to ripen, which looks to be happening rather quickly.

Melanie Chopay said...

Daffodil Jetfire is just poking its buds up out of the ground now so I really look forward to seeing it bloom. Nice photos!

Frances, said...

That is so exciting and beautiful and awe inspiring at the same time. Will you be able to get a long shot of the hillside? We had that big storm here also while in Knoxville. Lots of thunder and lightening, kind of scary.

Frances at Faire Garden

Anonymous said...

That sense of giddy euphoria in spring is what makes surviving winter worthwhile up here in the "north" (Md/Va).
I went to a lecture once on hellebores in the mountains of Croatia so they must be able to do well where you are.
Great photos, keep 'em coming!

bev

Entangled said...

I surfed over from Chuck B's to visit your 39 and Holding post and stayed for Bloom Day ;-) The bulb show is great! I look forward to seeing more.

Annie in Austin said...

Christopher, I have a lump in my throat thinking about you experiencing the power of a real winter-to-spring transformation.
Austin's freezes mean we have some transformation here, but spring was miraculous when we lived in Illinois.
With each post you're showing us the miracle in Carolina. I want to be a crazy bulb lady, too!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

lisa said...

Great Bloom Day! Thank you for all the spring posts, it's fun to enjoy this with you...makes me appreciate the spring miracle we have in this climate even more!