Why I Oughta...

Right around one month ago today, I posted photos of the inherited daffodil bulbs that were showing their annual strap-y foliage that had emerged for the year .  Today, they're in bloom.  Well... *some* of them are in bloom.   Below is a look at the colony of daffodils and a close-up of the yellow bloom that are on these.  (Note: to the top, right of this photo is the pile of material that I excavated for the pizza oven and tried to smother with arborist wood chips .).  By my count, I see just six flowers this year.  More than 2021 .  This spot in the garden has not been addressed yet, so I see NO reason to do anything other than enjoy these yellow blooms.  For now.  

Last year, we planted a pair of heart-leaf brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla) from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin and planted them in the understory garden of our backyard.  This is the little section that my middle child has been planting with various low and mid-height perennials.   These managed to avoid the rabbits last Fall and then went dormant.  They've sprung up this year - a bit behind the other cultivars like Jack of Diamonds  and Queen of Hearts - and have their small flowers putting on a little Spring show.   Here, below, are both of them showing up for their first Spring: This one below is interplanted with tulips:

We have our first bloom of the year:  an inherited (and...I'm pretty SURE naturalized) Snow Crocus.  The purple petals stand out against the brown mulch and other decaying matter in the far back of our yard.  You'll notice some green tips in the photo below.  What are those?  Pretty sure they're Wild Onions.  But, I'm not letting those rain on my parade here.  Snow Crocus (Crocus sieberi) is here for just a brief bit - a Spring Ephemeral. I haven't posted about this Snow Crocus on the blog, but I know it has been here since we moved in to Downers Grove.  Not sure how it got here, but glad it is here.   This U of I extension explainer is a pretty good read on Snow Crocuses .  From Ryan Pankau who writes the Garden Scoop Blog says that Snow Crocus is the first sign of Spring in his yard.  And, he talks about how they arrived: So, how did this beauty of spring wind up randomly dispersed across our yard? They have come to occupy my yard (and many others in North Ameri

I planted a (new-to-me) variety of Allium last Summer with Serendipity Allium in the IB2DWs bed - in a little colony of three plants .   I've had a lot of luck with Allium Summer Beauty and these are similar, but are a little bit more 'strap-y' in their foliage, so when I found them, I knew I could put them to work in the garden.  When I was out looking for tulip tips coming out of the mulch, I came across some green shoots - from these Allium.  See below, a photo showing the little green foliage that has emerged for the first Spring on these in this bed next to our driveway . This past weekend, we had what is known (around here) as False Spring.  Where we get temperatures up in the seventies.  That makes gardeners like me what to get out and start Spring clean-up.  But, I also know that we'll get more snow (and we did...on Monday).  So, you have to resist the temptation to pull any of last year's dead material away from these tender, green shoots.