Bearded Iris in March

Wow! Bearded Irises in March! The first day of spring doesn't officially arrive until tomorrow, but....
 on Saturday March 17th, I discovered that the Bearded Irises, (which I had planted against the house on the south-east side), were starting to bloom!

By today..Monday...even more were coming into flower!

Last year they started to come into flower around mid April, and continued to put on a show through the middle of May.  Click here to view the post from last year on the Bearded Irises.

It's March and looking like April around here. According to a recent news report, this area is approximately 3 to 4 weeks ahead of schedule for spring flowering.

Daffodils in February

We are a month away from spring, but due to a mild winter and warm sunny days of late, my daffodils are starting to bloom. It's too early for daffodils!

In my opinion, the only way to enjoy daffodils in February is to bring them indoors as they open up.

 

The day after I brought these daffodils indoors, the temperature dropped, the wind blew, and snow flew about.

I am also experimenting with indoor hyacinths. Around the first week of January, I acquired some clearance priced hyacinths. At that time, the ground was frozen, and it was too late to plant outdoors. However, the price was excellent, and I got a 'I would like to try them indoors' urge. So, I'm experimenting. My inspiration was seeing, (at a store in the area), a hyacinth bulb in a small clear hour glass type vase being grown in water. Which got me to thinking that I already have vases that I like better, and could use decorative rocks to keep the bulb out of the water. So, I ever so gently placed decorative rocks in the bottom of the vases, placed the bulbs, and added water, so that  it barely touched the bottom of the bulbs until they took root. Now only the roots are under water. 
My discovery so far is that I should have kept them in cold storage longer, ...and perhaps treated them at that time with a little bloom boost fertilizer. Also, they do best placed in a south/east indoor location, where they receive the most direct sunlight.

All in all, I am enjoying the experience, and will probably try this again.

Mother-Daughter weekend

Daughter Jenn received a Birthday & Christmas gift certificate to the Peaks of Otter Lodge. She could have asked any one of her numerous friends to join her, but instead, she asked me! She chose to make it a Mother-Daughter weekend outing. I was honored! She even planned the outing with things I like to do. Things like photo opportunities to practice with my camera, antique & flea market browsing in Bedford, and time spent walking and hiking...just enjoying the outdoors. Saturday was a warm (for February), sunny day to do just that! 

The Peaks of Otter Lodge consist of a main building, with a dining room view of Abbott Lake, and  the Peak, and three, two story units, each with a view of  Abbott Lake, and the Sharp Top Peak.
This is a view of the lodge units from the loop trail on the other side of Abbott Lake:

To get to the lodge, we took the scenic, Blue Ridge Parkway route. That is we took it as far as we could go, before encountering a road closure, and having to back track to the nearest exit.

One of our stops along the Parkway, was Otter Lake:

Which included this man made water fall:

A view of the Sharp Top Peak from the loop trail around Abbott Lake:

The Loop Trail around Abbott Lake:

We also took a hike up the 'mountainside' to the Johnson Farmstead. The house was closed for the winter, but we were able look around outside:

After enjoying dinner at the lodge dining room, we retreated to our room for the night.
But we were not alone. We discovered that we were sharing the room with stink bugs! By the time the lights were turned off, we accounted for nine... two dead, five evicted, and two on the ceiling out of reach.

While Saturday was sunny and mild, Sunday morning was cold and snowy.Before checking out, we enjoyed a window side view of the snow fall while eating breakfast at the lodge. ...Jenn probably enjoyed it more than I did, as I was somewhat anxious to be on our way before the roads became snow covered.

It was a most enjoyable weekend spent with my daughter!





planting bulbs

It was the last week of November, while Thanksgiving was being celebrated, and Christmas preparations were under way. That time of the year when the buzz words were 'Black Friday', and 'Cyber Monday', I found myself planting spring bulbs. I hadn't planned on planting any bulbs this fall, but while shopping for mundane household stuff, I took a detour to the garden center to browse in the Christmas shop. A look about to see if there was anything out of the ordinary being offered this year, and check for decorating ideas. I didn't find anything all that  exciting. However,  instead of exiting, I found myself drawn to the non Christmas section. There it was. The spring bulb display with clearance price tags! Wow! Packages of bulbs that retailed for $6.98 were marked down to $1.75.  Hummm...the planting time range is from October to November for our area, and it was still November with nice fall weather.  The temptation was too much!

Time to plant! It was a wonderful therapeutic afternoon spent digging in the dirt.

All the packages came with this 'Guaranteed To Grow' label. Of course that is only if those small printed details on the back are followed. Hopefully, planting the correct depth, amending my poor soil, and using a bulb fertilizer will bring good results come spring.