Here's the Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea that I overwintered dry, in light, in garage. I moved it outside a week or two ago, cleaned it up, and started watering.
I haven't looked at the ones that I left in the ground over the winter. The plants that I left outside in a container dried out and died.
These are nice plants. I hope some of the others survived too.
Here are some daylilies that I bought at Costco last month.
Here they are before planting. I could have planted them any time during the past few weeks. They were sort of "out of sight / out of mind" in the garage. They have been growing, some upside down. I tried to unbend them a little and plant focused on having the roots pointing down.
Daylilies are resilient. I think they'll recover fine. With those root masses, they might even bloom this summer. Might.
For now, they are just North of the house. Today is chilly, rainy and overcast. Ad they grow and the chlorophyll fills in and darkens, I'll gradually move them to sunnier locations.
Think about what plants had to survive during the great era of botanical explorations, during the 1500s to 1800s. I imagine some of the survivors of those sailing ship journeys were the ones capable of enduring all sorts of difficulties. Maybe some of those passed their resilience to their descendants (as mine did, to me).
These were in the unheated, attached garage. They were in a west window, and not watered during the winter.
These include two potted, dwarf Alstroemeria, a Dorotheanthes "Mezoo", two Lycoris that I planted last fall, and a dried out burgundy leaf oxalis.
I watered them. Next they need cleaning up. They might not grow. I think they will.
I planted the first row of onion seedlings. These were the yellow long-keeping hybrid, Patterson.
I started the seeds in January. They are ready to plant. These also, are in a high raised bed. I can sit on my garden stool and plant them. The soil was prepared last fall and covered with tree leaves, so it is soft, moist, and weedless.
I covered them with fencing tunnels. Without those, Jays pull up the onion plants. Sometimes they do, anyway.
I have five more pots of onions, and two of leeks. I will see if I can plant one pot a day.
Three of the new David Austin Rose bushes look pretty good. They have plump buds with red or green growth.
I forgot to photograph Silas Marner. It's about the same.
Give Me Sunshine had the longest, palest shoots. I had hoped that shade and cool weather would protect them. Instead, they have dried out and wilted.
I'm still hopeful that new buds, not yet emerged, will grow and form the new bush. The stems themselves still look good.
Today must be rose update day.
Here are some of the rose cuttings, starting by the "cut a stick in early winter / push it into the ground / mulch / forget it method".
They seem to be taking and growing well. Without roots, a bud might swell and make a leaf or two, but eventually it will dry out and die. They are safer during the chilly weather of Spring, but they can only grow so much without roots. These seem to be nearing the point where, without roots, they will wither.
Really, I think roses start almost as easily from hardwood cuttings as forsythias, willows, and figs.
Today I harvested scallions. These were from single clump of Egyptian Walking Onions. They need a little more cleaning up than regular scallions, because they emerge from last year's bulb. That needs to be removed, and the scallions washed.
It feels amazing, having a crop on 19 March. I could have earlier, had I looked.
The row looks like this. I think it's about two years old.
Without going into detail, I'm a lot more physically limited compared to last year. I can't do nearly as much as before. Over the years, I've been building a garden that is focused on accessibility. Now, even though I can get up a bit, a lot of my gardening is done while sitting. This row of Egyptian Walking onions is in a high raised bed. That format helps make it possible to garden, for the physically challenged like me. It helps so much.
The onions also work that way. Egyptian Walking Onions are perennial. If you don't harvest, the clump will just keep growing larger. Every couple of years, they should probably be dug out and replanted. It doesn't matter much, when. I'll try covering the ground with leaves from my pile, to keep weeds down better too.
Here's one from the first group (yellow flower) that came from a pot that had crispy leaves and dead flowers. I had cut them back, removed the dead leaves, washed off the original crummy soil, and repotted in good quality potting soil. That was 21 Feb, so one month. They get watered with dilute Schultz houseplant fertilizer (7 drops per quart of water) and are now outside 24/7. I move them into full sun all day long.
This is the first with a flower bud. It's interesting that happened so quickly. The new leaves are larger and a richer color, compared to the few remaining original
I dropped both 8-packs planted with dahlia seeds and spilled most of them. So I replanted.
I could see that a number of seeds had germinated. One seedling remains. I just put the potting soil back into the eight-packs and replanted with fresh seeds. Not that much time was lost.
The genetic dwarf peaches are blooming. I think this one is Garden Globe.
Half of the cover blew off. I don't know if that will result in peach leaf curl disease. It was protected for part of the winter. Now that it's blooming, I should select branches to prune. I don't want it to be any taller than it is.
This is El Dorado. A lot smaller. Might have peaches this year.
