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Digging dandelions? Salad anyone?

  Dandelions (Taraxacum) are the bane of the neat gardener. In the spring they grow fast using the energy stored in their tap-roots. Before you know it they will be cheerfully flowering and then quickly producing many wind blown parachute-like seeds. After the snow melt and spring rains the soil is moist enough to easily…

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‘Snow Bunting’ Crocus

This dear little white crocus called ‘Snow Bunting’. It is the only crocus bred by E.A. Bowles that is commercially available. Check out the web site for his former garden in England. These corms were planted in a terracotta pot sunk into the ground to try and stop the voles and mice from eating them.…

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The Spring Garden at Northview

This is the Spring Garden at Northview on the first day of Spring 2014 (Compare to previous post). The snowdrops are out – Galanthus nivalis – single, double – Flore Pleno and Viridapice with green on the outer segments. Look out for future post about the different types of snowdrops.

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Tommie crocus shocked by a St Patrick’s Day snow

Even though Spring is only a few days, away an early morning snow shower surprised the Tommie crocus (See yesterday’s post). Luckily the early spring blooming flowers are adapted to changing environmental conditions as the mostly come from mountains where the weather changes rapidly. The flower is closed tightly to shed the falling snow. Photo…

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Crocus tommasinianus (Tommies)

At only two and a half inches tall, this fragile ephemeral beauty is commonly known as a “Tommie” crocus (Crocus tommasinianus). The great English horticulturist, E. A. Bowles, called these crocuses “Tom” for short, but I am more inclined to call them the more feminine “Tomasina.” Bowles described the “chief charm” of a Tommie, as…

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Before You Garden...

English gardener transplanted into American soil

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