Getting Closer

I have been trying to spend a bit of time every day on Bulbhilla picking up sticks, big sticks, little sticks, straight sticks, bent sticks and thick layers of sticks, to get ready for the upcoming show. The forest is messy. The maintenance gardener in me must tidy it up.

In my circular rounds, the new clumps of daffodils I find poking up through the litter get a light cleaning to help free them from their burden so they may concentrate on other matters. The Hyacinthoides hispanica are on their own. There are just too many of them and the entire ridge top garden would have to be raked to free them all. I am not that tidy.

It can't be long now until the first daffodil blooms. The buds are swelling on what is likely to be 'Jetfire', one of the early blooming varieties. Still we are way behind schedule. According to the blog the first daffodils of 2009 were on March 9th. Thank goodness for the blog. My memory says it was in mid-February. So very wrong. The delay is not as long as I thought, but it is at 17 days and counting.



Spending a little time cleaning each day does have its advantages. I won't miss anything. Let's just say Bulbarella can plant things and forget where she put them. An extra pair of eyes has found things long forgotten. An extra pair of hands has unburied things hidden in the sticks.

Iris reticulata 'Harmony' was rediscovered last year and has returned for another season.



When I first arrived I was lead to believe there were not very many crocus here. I was told the varmints ate them, so Bulbarella stopped buying and planting them. Sort of. The crocus are like the tulips she doesn't buy, but some how show up in the garden. I think they were just never here to see them bloom and did not realize how many there were. An extra hand of tidiness helps expose them all to view. The odd locations of many make me think they have been self seeding to some extent as well.



Planting in cages was tried. One cage is doing fine. Another is empty and there was discouragement again.



Then a new method of planting the crocus right next to the poisonous daffodils was discovered and crocus buying has resumed.

How could there not be a daffodil reasonably near by any where on this hill? The whole thing is chock full of poisonous bulbs. Any sensible varmint would give up after a while of burrowing through the ground around here. Maybe one day there will be as many crocus as there are daffodils. It may be a goal worth pursuing.