Friday fabulous flower - Harbinger of spring

The weather is not exactly warm, but all things being relative, it's a cool, sunny day.  Just the right sort of weather for early spring bulbs.  Little patches of spring flowering bulbs pop up all over our gardens in a very delightful way and most were sort of volunteers anyways in that we didn't plant them, but there they are.  Since our little patches are all asexually propagated from an original progenitor, they all have the same flower color within the patches.  These are very early Crocus, a name derived from and old middle eastern name for saffron which comes from the three branched orange stigma of a fall blooming crocus.  Such bright clusters of color are terribly cheerful as spring slowly arrives.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Crocus

Crocus just sort of appear in our gardens.  Two types, the very early little snow crocus, and it has invaded our lawns and garden beds in many locations.  Cute.  A larger variety of crocus lives in a couple of different garden beds and flowers a bit later.  No idea how they get around. But they are very cheerful.  Here you can see the three anthers spaced around the three-lobed stigma (a bit oranger), and the two whorls of perianth.  By the time the lawn needs cutting, they will have died back for the year, so they can easily naturalize should you desire it.  

It must be spring - tell tale signs

After a long, cold winter, the human spirit just loves signs of spring, those little tell tales that let you know the season is changing.  Here's a mess of crocus that occupy space around and under some hydrangeas the still need pruning.  These crocus are basically volunteers that have prospered in some borrowed space, and they are so cheerful. They used to be in the lawn, but then that area was converted into  garden (grass to garden good, garden to grass never), and they were not overly disturbed in the process and unbothered by the hydrangeas. It not only looked springy, but this Monday morning had a distinct springy feel to it. But what let TPP know it was spring was the sudden appearance at our house by contractors, who have been starving all winter waiting for the weather to warm. Oh, it's just like the turkey vultures returning to Hinkley, Ohio, but that's not to say all these people who help keep our residence from falling down are vultures, they just appear suddenly.  A painter showed up at 9 am, and she was no sooner getting going than the chimney flashing/caulking contractor shows up to put up their scaffolding. Without even get a swallow of coffee in between, the carpenter who's fixing up the garage and putting in a new door appeared to get some measurements and discuss the job again since it had been quite awhile since we had gone over the details. Us old house owners understand that keeping entropy at bay has a cost and that money keeps contractors alive. In fact they all love our neighborhood!  And it was also cleaning ladies day, but they were on their own in terms to trying to find a space in the drive.  Unlike the starving contractors, our checking account that fattened up over the winter while  hibernating will now start slimming down. So, it must be spring! Of course some garden expenditures may be coming soon too, and if TPP didn't hire these wonderful people, he'd have to do these jobs and not have time to garden. Keep your priorities straight, people!   

May Day! Gorilla gardening day!

OK, OK, TPP knows it's guerilla not gorilla; thank Captain Ron and Martin Short for somehow implanting that transposition in my head. Elected morons are also trying to declare May 1 Unconstitutional Day of Prayer in the USA, and our nation and the world would be a much better place if only they would embrace May first as Guerilla Gardening Day.  To celebrate you only need go plant something nice on some unused little plot of public land.  Years ago TPP up dug some bulbs while planting something else, and the bulbs, done for the season, were planted along side of a jogging/biking/walking trail, and still they bloom there every spring (they be crocus).  So get with the program and make the world a greener place. This year the Phactors are relocating several dozen old standard hostas that thrived in the shade of several old spruce that were just recently basal pruned, so shade they give no more. Some friends have volunteered to plant some along side a different section of the same trial, and no gorilla could do that.