Lychnis Year One and Year Two

April 16, 2011

One of my blogging contacts who lives in a more northern zone than I do, was asking me about the Lychnis 'Rose Campion' and getting it to bloom every year.   It's a biennial and each plant blooms once, copiously spreads it seeds, which will grow into 'year one' plants the next year, then wonderfully bloom and spead copious amounts of seeds again the year after that! 

The trick is to keep some of the seeds from the flowers and throw them, unceremoniously, on the ground where you want them to bloom two years hence!   The seeds keep just fine in the cupboard for over two years, so you can make sure you plants some each year. 

Or you could just buy them from nurseries and plant them two years in a row!

My contact was asking me if the seeds might stay dormant in the ground for more than one winter, and this I do not know. 

But in case they do, the second picture is what the year one seedlings should look like when the snow is off:




Lychnis 'Rose Campion' Year One
(those little seedlings in the middle, will grow and bloom year after next)









Lychnis 'Rose Campion' Year Two
(will bloom grow tall stalks and bloom this year)

 





Rose Campion blooming beside Evening Primrose.



The lychnis that I have always grown is a beautiful magenta pink. It's just one of my very favourites and was the first one of my plants that my husband ever commented on.


A friend of mine from Oregon sent me some seeds for white Rose Campion two years ago.  She is a Master Gardener and she told me to plant it as far away from the pink ones, as I could, as sometimes they will cross-pollinate and all become 'light pink'.   I planted half the seeds when I got them (in 2009) and the other half of the seeds last summer (2010), so I should have my first flowers this year and every year after. 

That's according to my 'master plan' anyway! 

Happy Gardening. 

I like rabbits and squirrels, but.............

April 13, 2011

Some kind of little furry snaped the fresh growth off of some of the crocuses.   Tough as the crocuses are, they bloomed anyway, but as you can see in the foreground, some of the flowers don't have tops!  (You can see the damage in the three flowers at the front left side of the photo.)

I have sprinkled some blood meal around all my spring bulbs now.  That's the only remedy I know of, that seems to work.  I have to replenish if often, especially after it rains.

If any gardeners out there who read this know of any other tricks to get the critters away, I'd love to hear it! 

Rita's Spring Garden

April 9, 2011

Those of you who followed my blog last year, know about my dear friend Rita.  She is my garden mentor as well as friend.  Rita has taught me many things about gardening perennial flowers and given me many, many divisions of her beautiful treasures. 

This is a mosaic of photographs I took in her garden yesterday.

The First Bloom Arrives!

April 8, 2011

One of the happiest times of the year for me, is the day my first flower opens.  It's like a celebration of the first day of the season.  Today my first little 'Remembrance' crocus opened. 

Special photo credit to my long-suffering husband for shading the crocus from the sun, with his body, so that I wouldn't have to find the patience to wait until late afternoon to take the shot! 

And next up.........

Welcome Spring 2011!

April 2, 2011

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my 2011 Garden Blog.   I've been excited to start posting again.  A few people asked me why I didn't continue blogging over the winter, but my garden is literally under a thick blanket of snow during those months. 

We've had nice weather during the last couple of weeks (getting up to plus five or so celcius during the day but going below freezing during the night.)  We still have a fair bit of snow, especially in the shadier areas. 

The photo to the right is of the very first growth in my garden!    They are a couple of crocuses coming up and I bet it won't be too long until they are blooming.  I have planted snowdrops in the past, but they never come up, so the crocuses are always my first blooms.   This garden is the little bed we have around the pool.  It faces south and has the white side of the pool behind it - so definitely the place to plant things that bloom early.

This photo is what's left of the purple coneflowers!  (The same purple coneflowers shown in my last post of 2010.)  I used to cut them 'down to ground level' in the fall, until I read on someone's blog that you should leave the seedheads for the birds. 

I'm not sure who that blogger was, but it was great advice.    Behind the empty pod are the sedum 'Autumn Joy' which I just leave because they are pretty.