Six on Saturday: March 27

The Front Door Pot

Greetings on this sunny Saturday, amazingly, the final Saturday of this rapid month! For our SOS, let’s take a little walking tour this morning, beginning out the front door, where the traditional (1) Front Door Pot finally has a new look. A necessary trip to town gave the opportunity to purchase the first plants of the season, just as they were coming off a truck at my favorite local plant place. Fortunately, they included some of my favorite plants: 3 orange pansies and 3 different primulas. These selections work well in a pot that only gets sun in the very early morning hours and shade the remainder of the day. In the center is the “Autumn Bride” coral bell that has graced this pot for the past six years or more. It will fill up the center with tidy foliage that looks great all summer into autumn, when it sends up spires of dainty white flowers. Next stop, (2) the Front Garden.

My how it has changed this week!

We had a bit of rain (a LOT of thunder, but just a bit of rain!) mid-week, and suddenly the tulip leaves are emerging in abundance, covering lots of formerly empty mulch spots. The big patches of purple crocus and dwarf blue iris are gone, but the daffodils are just emerging. The golden shrubs are brightening in color to repeat the colors of the 8 varieties of daffodils in this garden. A few of the “Vernal Jewels” crocus are opening. For some reason with a name like “Vernal” I assumed they would be very early, but happily they are late and extend the crocus season a bit. Looking at this garden, I’ve decided it needs a patch of the golden “Angelina” sedum on the bottom right corner, where the bed meets the sidewalk. It will love that dry, hot spot and repeat the golden color again. Around the house to the (3) Deck Garden.

There was already half that much water in the birdbath before the rain!

Here you can see(bottom to top) the repeating gold of tiny Tete e Tete daffodils, the “Gold Moss” feverfew, more daffys, and the “Angelina” sedum. All the crocus, snowdrops and dwarf iris are gone, but over a hundred tulips are emerging. Around the gazebo, we’ll pop into the basement to see what’s just sprouted.

The recently potted dahlia tubers are beginning to sprout!

Still waiting on the arrival of new dahlia tubers, but the ones dug and saved from prior years were potted and are beginning to show life. This is always a relief! (4) These are “Sylvia”, which is currently my favorite dahlia, a lovely soft orange in a size that’s good for bouquets. Last year I was a little late getting them started because the weather just didn’t cooperate. Thankfully, this year is different/better. There was room to pot these because the (5) big move began this week.

The first flats of 2021 have “moved on up!”

Five hundred eighty plants are now residing in the greenhouse. That’s not as many as usual for the first round, but remember I decided not to grow 500 violas and pansies this year. I have to admit the workload has been more comfortable. And finally, (6) my plan to grow and cut more flowers to give away has begun, modestly with just one bouquet to a friend who has no daffodils.

The first give-away bouquet of 2021!

All of these 20 daffodils (there are 8 varieties) were cut from the Front Garden before the (2) photo was taken. You didn’t even realize they were missing, did you? That’s one of the lovely things about daffodils, they are so prolific and so showy several flowers can be cut from a clump and it still looks cheery! And they show up from a distance, but up close one can see the intricacies that make each variety so different. Hopefully, this is the first of many, many give-away bouquets to come.

So that’s my Six. To see what other gardeners are doing this Saturday visit The Propagator, who hosts this meme.

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