Crescent Moon

Photo from last night's moon just after sunset:

'Pueblo', 'Pappy George', & others

This is the week of the white jonquil. I've never grown white jonquils before this year.

'Pueblo' was given by a kind member in Indiana when I joined the American Daffodil Society. It appears similar to 'Trevithian' or 'Sweetness' (see earlier posts), except it is white and the flower stalks are shorter. It has a nice fragrance.

Narcissus 'Pueblo' 7 W-W

There was another white jonquil given to me by the American Daffodil Society. 'Nancegollan' is the name. Only one bloom has opened so far, but it withered in a day, so I didn't photograph it. It looked similar to 'Pueblo', but was a little smaller and narrower.

Next up is the white jonquil 'Sailboat'. It also looks similar to 'Pueblo', but is it smaller, shorter, more reflexed, and more spidery.

'Sailboat' 7 W-W

'Sailboat' up close

Another yellow/orange jonquil opened, too. 'Pappy George' is the name. It is similar to 'Kedron' but with more saturated colors and with more yellow petals. There was some mottling in the colors in the only one opened so far.

'Pappy George' 7 Y-O

An all-yellow jonquil opened, 'Quail'. I really like this one. Though smaller than some, it has multiple flowers per stem on all stems, and nice ruffling. It has also won the prestigious Wister Award, which means it does exceptionally well in gardens.

'Quail' 7 Y-Y

Next up is another daffodil, not a jonquil, but a Triandrus daffodil (the only one I have in my garden, though 'Silver Chimes' has some Triandrus ancestry). It is 'Thalia', also known as the orchid daffodil. This name is apparent from the blooms. They have a nice fragrance, and come back reliably every year. 'Thalia''s white is a more pure, crystalline white than the white jonquils, which have hints of yellow.

'Thalia' 5 W-W

I got a package yesterday from my friend and fellow gardener, Br. Placidus (see his blog here). He was kind to send more canna tubers and seeds from his garden. I'm looking forward especially to trying the Hyacinth bean. I've never tried it before.

Canna tubers

Cool seed packets

Speaking of seeds, I've collected my first daffodil seeds of the season. These are from the Narcissus jonquilla I posted photos of several weeks back.

N. jonquilla seeds.

Granny's House

Yesterday, I left town to visit Birmingham and make some stops along the way. I got some plants at Petals from the Past, and then stopped nearby at my great grandmother's homeplace, Granny's House. The site hasn't been lived in for nearly two decades. My distant cousins live on adjacent properties and look after it for my grandmother. It seems they had been hunting there.

This place, though it now looks so poor, was the place of so many of my great childhood memories. It's hard to believe that most of the people who once called this place home are now gone from this world. Only my grandmother is left.

The house. My great grandfather assembled it from an older house in the 1930s and added rooms.

The well house. This is where Granny kept most of her potted plants. There's an old well beneath the table. I remember it mostly because my Aunt Dot broke her leg when the swing broke and fell on it.

I walked back in the woods to the far edge of the property, where my grandmother says an aunt and uncle of hers used to live. I love this area because there's a huge swath of daffodils. Sadly, they no longer bloom, but there are thousands of them. I think they're the heirloom variety 'Twin Sisters', based on memories of blooms I saw when I was younger.

Daffodil foliage and Uncle Charlie's old deer blind

More daffodil foliage

I have no idea if they planted these many daffodils or if they spread like this.

'Lady Jane' tulip

The 'Lady Jane' tulip is blooming here. It's a cultivar of Tulipa clusiana. It not only blooms every year, it also increases. I've found plants all over the garden, probably due to me accidentally digging up bulbs and moving them elsewhere. Compared to modern hybrid tulips, this one is very delicate and small.

Tulipa clusiana 'Lady Jane'

'Kedron' & others

A number of new daffodils began opening yesterday. These are opening later than I thought; I hope that they have time to develop fully before real heat sets in. It was nearly 90 degrees earlier this week.

A jonquil I haven't grown until this year is open. 'Kedron' is the name. An American daffodil, it was hybridized in Virginia. I haven't grown a jonquil of its color before. The petals are yellow and the cup is orange. The flowers are pretty small compared to standard daffodils but are above-average for a jonquil. It has a nice fragrance. More flowers should open tomorrow or this weekend, so we'll see how they turn out.

Narcissus 'Kedron' 7 Y-O

Next up is 'Barrett Browning', an award-winning small-cupped daffodil. This is my first year growing it. I haven't grown a small-cupped daffodil before, either, so it will have to be seen how it does in the South. One odd thing I noticed about it is that it sent flower buds above ground before leaves. All other daffodils I've grown send leaves up a few weeks ahead of flower buds. It's visually stunning; larger than a jonquil, and smaller than trumpet or large-cupped daffodils. Has some fragrance, too.

Narcissus 'Barrett Browning' 3 WWY-O

Finally, there's 'Sir Winston Churchill', a double-flowered Tazetta. I read that it's a sport (chance mutation) of 'Geranium'. I first planted it about ten years ago, and it has flowered since. It is now a nice clump. However, oddly, the clump is several feet away from where I planted it, in the middle of the lawn. I don't know how that happened. It's very fragrant.

Narcissus 'Sir Winston Churchill' 4 W-O

Sunny Views

I've never been satisfied with many photos I take in full sunlight, but sometimes these photos are just as good for showing what a thing really looks like. Yesterday, I took some photos of daffodils 'Trevithian' and 'Silver Chimes', both coming into full bloom.

'Trevithian'

'Trevithian'

At the wide spacing I planted these, they don't seem as floriferous as last year, but this spacing is ideal for increasing stock, I think, and about half of the buds haven't opened yet, either. Plus, there's something charming about the kind of "gems among the grass" look here.

'Silver Chimes'

'Silver Chimes'

'Silver Chimes' is as prolific as ever. There are still many unopened buds on it as well. As you can see, I have a bit of a weed problem in this bed, which would be difficult to correct without hurting the daffodils. Since its mostly vetch, which fixes nitrogen, I'll just let it stay.

'Lilac Wonder'

We're having another taste of winter here in Alabama. All of my potted plants are safe in the greenhouse and the others are doing fine outside, even though it dropped to 29 degrees. A tulip that I had planted in the ground for the past ten years is now in a clay pot. Tulipa saxatilis 'Lilac Wonder' is the one. It comes back and flowers every year, but it has never divided or increased, unlike T. clusiana 'Lady Jane', another tulip that reliably perennializes in the Deep South, that now pops up all over the place.

I love the 'Lilac Wonder' tulip, even if it is small. The flowers kind of look like lotuses or waterlilies. The leaves are glossy and waxy. They are only prominent for a few weeks and then go back to obscurity until next spring.

You will often (usually, rather) find this tulip sold as a cultivar of Tulipa bakeri, but this is now considered incorrect, as far as I have read.

Tulipa saxatilis 'Lilac Wonder'

'Lilac Wonder'

My seedling jonquils

The first generation Narcissus jonquilla seedlings I started 8 years ago are in full flower. The second generation hasn't flowered yet. There's something wild, almost weedy about them. I adore it. The fragrance is fantastic, also. I left a pot of them in my truck for a few hours and the fragrance lingered for more than a day afterward. My dad loves them, too. He says they're like the daffodils the old timers used to have before "them big fancy" ones came along.

There is variability in height and bloom time, and some plants have flowers that look more spidery than others. They are genetically diverse, after all, but not too much, since they're siblings.

My N. jonquilla strain from seed.

Lately I've been taking macro photos with a silver foil reflector as a backdrop. I like that it eliminates background distractions, creates a neutral backdrop, as well as reflects ambient light back on the flowers. I think it makes for better lighting and more accurate color-rendition. However, unless the photo is taken really up-close or wide-open, you can clearly see the details of the foil, as in these photos.

My N. jonquilla strain.

A close-up:

My N. jonquilla strain.

Also blooming is Narcissus 'Hillstar', a fertile tetraploid Jonquilla daffodil. Essentially, this means that this daffodil readily pollinates or gets pollinated by the larger modern daffodils, making it very useful in breeding.

Among the 'Hillstar' was a sport with only five petals and more white than usual.

5-petaled 'Hillstar' sport.

Also, I got another shot of 'Gigantic Star'

'Gigantic Star'

What's Blooming

I've had a busy weekend; I cooked collards from the garden and made cornbread for my family. I went to a Communio study group, I caught up on sleep, I went to Mass, and sandwiched in between these, I played the new Legend of Zelda game, Breath of the Wild. It's pretty amazing. I also got out in the garden Saturday afternoon and went for a walk in the arboretum at Auburn University yesterday. I took some photos.

Many daffodils continue to come into flower. The multiflowered 'Silver Chimes' has had its first blossoms open and perfume the air, though the main group has yet to flower.

Narcissus 'Silver Chimes' 8 W-W

"Silver Chimes' is a somewhat complex daffodil hybrid with N. tazetta and N. triandrus ancestry (these are widely-separated species). Daffseek says it was registered before 1914.

'Silver Chimes' close-up

Daffseek also lists this as a late-bloomer. It's crazy that it's the first week of March and all these late flowers are blooming.

Another daffodil which is new for me this year is 'Gigantic Star'. This is an early-to-mid-season large cup daffodil. I suspect it's flowering late because it hasn't acclimated to my climate yet. The blooms on this one are enormous, though the stems are short, which may be another acclimatization issue.

N. 'Gigantic Star' 2 Y-Y

Some more jonquils are blooming. 'Bell Song' is a reliable, fragrant bloomer with white petals and a salmon or yellowish-pink cup.

N. 'Bell Song'

Here are some photos I took in the arboretum:

Rhododendron austrinum, Florida flame azalea

A lovely native azalea hybrid

A Trillium.

More Trillia

Obsessions

In mid-daffodil season, I've been struggling to fend off obsessions over other plants. The problem is that all the spring-planted bulb catalogs are in full swing right now. I've found that the plants I love most are the ones Granny, Aunt Dot, and grandfather loved, whose gardens I used to wander around as a boy. They were: irises, lilies, daffodils, roses, salvias and daylilies. Granny loved impatiens and gladioli as well, but I haven't gotten into them yet, though I do have some Byzantine gladioli planted at my mom's.

The problem with other bulbs, such as lilies, are the expense. I bought 15 lily bulbs for almost the same price as 50 daffodil bulbs. The irises I want to grow cost $10-15 per plant, plus shipping. I could get a second job to fund my gardening desires, but then I'd probably not have time to garden. Oh well, restraints are good.

The lilies I bought are 'Fusion', a wide hybrid of the Easter lily with a lily native to California, and Lilium regale, a lily my grandfather grew along his driveway. I also bought some Nerine bowdenii bulbs. They look like Lycoris but are pink and fragrant. They don't like our wet, humid summers, so I'm planning on planting them in pots and keeping them out of the rain all summer.

Lent Lilies

On the subject of daffodils, did you know that a historic name for them is lent lilies? Specifically, this name refers to a wild daffodil of Britain and northern Europe, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, which looks like a primitive version of the modern trumpet daffodils. They have naturalized and grow in roadside ditches and abandoned lots here in the South.

On another note, I've read that the word "lent" used to mean simply "spring" and did not necessarily refer to the Church season of quadragesima. So, we might think of these rather as "spring lilies."

Hoop-Petticoat Daffodils

The hoop-petticoat daffodils continue to send up new flowers. They are not quite loaded with flowers as I have seen in some container-grown bulbocodiums (or, bulbocodia, I suppose), but then again they only get part-sun where I have them.

I took some photos of the entire clumps, to give an idea of their overall form. I have them growing in zoysiagrass, which is not ideal either, but the size comparison shows how tiny these things are.

As for fragrance, they aren't as fragrant as jonquils but it's there.

Narcissus bulbocodium subsp. bulbocodium var. conspicuus - unopened, opening, and fully-open flowers.

Narcissus bulbocodium subsp. bulbocodium var. conspicuus

These will probably always be horticultural curiosities for the collector or connoisseur, rather than a mainstay of gardens. Still, they always charm me in the years that they bloom. I'd love to go to Spain and Morocco and see them in the wild.