Garden Report: March 26

Lots and lots of flowers are opening up. Every day more of them. Once the daylight shifts they just start appearing in a great rush.

So let's start where the blooms are pretty well set, which is in the orchard. We have blossoms starting to appear on the apples; this is Summer Rambo, one of the new trees this year. I love how apple blossoms are like little analogs of the fruit: white inside and dark pink on the outside when furled.

We also have lots and lots and lots of cherry blossoms (which may or may not translate to lots and lots and lots of cherries this summer). Cherry blossoms are, of course, on little stems like the fruit will be, so they wave with a certain amount of exuberance in the afternoon wind.

Also, the sour cherry (Montmorency) has buds. Last year birds ate all of them, the little jerks. This year: a net.

And not a fruit tree but in the orchard is the lilac, which is opening out and being all lilacy. The scent is not as strong as the lilacs of my youth, but it is acceptable.

And in the pretty blue flowers category (I was noticing this afternoon that I have a lot of blue, bell-shaped flowers around), the blue Babiana is blooming.

E-mail yesterday from a friend: "How are the plants liking all that water?"

They are liking it a LOT. The hydrangeas, which usually struggle in our really dry summers, are going nuts because I've been watering them almost every day. It really is a lot of water. We just have a few minor kinks to work out of the system (tonight we're making our first run at letting the tank stay connected overnight because Noel got the automatic pump activator working).

In the meantime, we have pretty snowballs on the hydrangeas, and lush foliage that is managing to keep up with the snails.

In the same bed, the impatiens are mostly doing well, too. A few have really been munched, which irritates me. And makes me wish chickens would stay awake after dark so I could stake one out by the beds that get the worst of it.

In the native plants world, we have the emergence of the first lupine of spring. These are self-sown around the rainwater basin, and I let them go because they're not nearly ready to be pests.

Also, the various colours of California poppy are interbreeding. Most people know the state flower, the bright orange poppy, but they do come in all kinds of shades. This one is one I planted, I don't remember the name.

And this is one of the weird hybrids, made when the previous poppy interbred with the white ones. All sorts of streaky pink and white.

One of the original white ones.

And out of nowhere, what looks like a deep red poppy. I've never seen one this colour, so it will be interesting when it opens (the colour looks much lighter open, usually). I think this one is from some seeds I scattered that were in a mix.

Other scattered seeds (not by me): the Geranium Bill Wallis has sown itself in the ground near its pot. I may just plant the original plant in the ground there and put something else in the pot this year; I'm being kind of ambivalent about doing containers right now.

And my current problem: I planted the citrus together in high-intensity configuration, and it turns out they don't much care for that. I'm thinking I need to dig them out and move them elsewhere in the yard, but where?

Technorati Tags: apples, containers, flowers, gardening, hydrangea, lilac, native plants, poppies, springtime, trees, urban farming

posted by ayse on 03/26/08