The Last Sunset Of Winter

There is no doubt a nano second on an atomic clock or the exact moment in the earth's rotational tilt when spring arrives. I think that happened today. Sometimes I am doing good to just know what day of the week it is. It took seeing a few headlines for the idea that the official start of spring is here.

There is ample evidence to let me know this even if the official day happened to slip by me.



The tiny minor bulbs are starting to show themselves in greater abundance. The regular sized Chionodoxa forbesii is popping up from one end of the ridge top garden to the other. A matching blue and even smaller Scilla siberica with a downward facing bloom is joining in.



Drifts of Puschkinia libanotica can be found in several locations.



The daffodils just keep adding new flower types to the show.



The official arrival of spring is happening with lows below freezing for several days in a row.



That is a good thing. It may be spring now, but we don't need to speed things up and have a repeat of the Great Easter Freeze of '07'. The slow unfolding prolongs a good spring.

A Growing Yellow

A brown barren hillside comes alive with incremental splashes of yellow, purple and blue on top of an expanding green.



The Bulbapaloozathon gathers force.



This is not the traditional bulb planting style of the Keukenhof. This is a wild thing and several million bulbs fewer. 10,000 daffodils alone isn't shabby though.



The miniature early blooming 'Rip van Winkle' is scattered hither and yon.



Crocus are planted with poisonous daffodil guardians, a new strategy that is easier than cages.



It looks to be working. This clump of crocus has expanded from last year. The arrival of the Spots last fall may deserve a little credit too. There is a certain burrowing chipmunk family that is no longer seen.



The first of the split-cup narcissi joins the growing display.



And a big trumpet daffodil.



Chionodoxa forbesii 'Blue Giant' makes a nice bouquet along my driveway. I need more.



The roadside vegetable garden needs one more load of wood chips and it will be fully mulched and ready for planting. I could still use several full tree trimmer's truck loads of wood chips for the rest of the garden.



The Eremurus finally made their appearance a few days ago. I was worried that the wet winter may have done them in. I recall them being one of the first to show last year. Instead they came up later and are fully double in size and thickness with a few more crowns than their first year.



Every year the daffodils expand with a little help from Bulbarella.



Buy, divide, spread and plant. If it keeps up a solid carpet is inevitable. It only took about fifteen to twenty years to reach 10,000 and it becomes increasingly exponential, so much so that maybe 200 landed in my garden last fall.

Scenes From The Big City

Urban bonsai. It needs to be a little bigger in the big city.



Vine encrusted narrow courtyard wall.



It used to say something.



Obama nation graffiti.



Shrimp and grits and pecan pie for desert. I had a counter seat with a view of the orders up.



An eery urban fairy land.



Just part of real life in the big city with a lot of Bradford Pears.

The NC Arboretum In March

Three days of rain finally gave way to clear blue skies for a long planned visit to the NC Arboretum on St. Patrick's Day. What would be blooming down in Asheville at the lower elevations?

There were anemones. I have those blooming. More every day.



A nice Saucer Magnolia was blooming down there. The one up here struggles. Right when it wants to bloom, it seems another freeze happens and zaps the flowers. The entire tree got zapped once and the plant is mostly sprouts from the base.



It sure would be a nice addition to the garden. I wonder if there is any cold hardiness breeding being done on these?



Trilliums! It still looks pretty brown on the forest floor up here. I did see the very first Hepatica blooming. The trilliums will be along soon.



No hyacinth for you. Bulbarella says they shrink over time and spends her bulb slush fund on things that are more robust.



Daffodils of course and a nice paper bark maple.



The bonsai collection is always a nice thing to see. They must rotate the bonsai so I never feel like I am seeing the same specimens over and over.



The planted Japanese bonsai garden where the potted bonsai are displayed is an integral part of the exhibit.



More daffodils.



Magnolia stellata.



There were several nice specimens of these magnolias at the Arboretum.



And they are listed as hardy to zone 4. Yippee. I can have some.

That ends our March tour of the NC Arboretum which unfortunately and it was confirmed by the gate house dude, there is a 50/50 chance the state may cut off the funds due to budget cuts for this magnificent institution and close the arboretum. That state government officials would even consider such a thing just shows how stupid and out of touch politicians can be.

The Evening Sky

A view while the Arboretum post is loaded and dinner is made.

Real Life With Bradford Pears

WET

The Bulbapaloozathon Begins

On a forested hillside layered in mist an annual event has begun. 10,000 daffodils push up through the ground and a dense layer of leaf litter. Joined by a host of every imaginable bulb to be found in a mail order catalog, except the varmint food tulips, the Bulbapaloozathon is here. Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th of March or a date two days previous can be a marker for this great annual event.



In the next six to eight weeks you will be dazzled by the bulbs of Bulbarella.



You may even OD on the bulbs of Bulbarella.



So for this Bloom Day, which as always is headquartered in a Place called May Dreams, let's wander off to view some other garden's blooms.

A few pictures came north of a true southern garden's azalea spring show.



The old garden that has gone bad has been getting some major attention of late. Vines, trees and palms that have been trying to engulf the garden are being cut back and then killed with a strong herbicide painted on the cut stumps. Beds are being mulched and edges defined. An old garden is getting a new lease on life.



Lower down the mountain at Client #1's back in North Carolina, another Bulbapaloozathon is underway. Tulips prepare to bloom and I swear I planted more than that. The tunneling varmint that patrols these grounds must take its share during the winter. He likes tulips. I think I need to sneak in more daffodils.



Where are the tulips I planted out here? Have they just not come up yet? Good thing a gardener before me planted daffodils, crocus, hyacinth and iris.



A multitude of bulbs are nestled among the boulders. This grey and rainy Bloom Day was good light for taking pictures, but the crocus save their full open blooms for sunnier days.



A Magnolia stellata blooms above the koi pond and the freshly mulched perennial bed.



Now the *Bulbapaloozathon can really begin. *(Results may vary due to weather diagnosis and conditions.)