A Cold Climate Gardening Journal

It's a Girl Gone Gardening, brought to my attention by Hands in the Dirt. I am way behind in my garden blog browsing. Well, I am way behind in a lot of things.

This is eleven-year-old Evan with one of the two pumpkins he grew this year. Of all my children, Evan showed a botanical aptitude the earliest, learning the names of flowers as a toddler and impressing my garden buddies when he came along to visit their gardens. At the moment he's more of a vegetable man, but he's been helping me plant my recent colchicum acquisitions.

First, some more plants in lawns: tansy, yarrow, prickly lettuce and a green flowered knotweed. Also, in Peterson's Field Guide to Wildflowers, pigweed and lamb's quarters are interchangeable common names. That's the joy of common names. The scientific name is Chenopodium album.

We're still having a slow year. Usually the leaves are well on their way to coloring up, but only a few have any color, and I think that may be due to them being stressed in some way. Perhaps the extra amount of rain has kept the trees green longer.

This is a photo of my Forsythia 'Meadowlark' blooming--sparsely, I grant you, but nevertheless blooming--in September. If I hadn't been checking for signs of the colchicums recently planted in this area, I'm sure I never would have noticed the yellow blossoms, so it is entirely possible this shrub has done this other years without my being aware of it. On the other hand, dinner table consensus was that it had bloomed pretty poorly this spring, so maybe these were flower buds that didn't "get it" this past spring. Worse, these could be next year's flowers jumping the gun, in which case there may well be another sparse flush next spring. I'll keep you posted. And if anyone else knows of a fall-blooming forsythia, I'd love to hear about it. [Photo taken 9/14/04]

Colchicum 'Autumn Herald' finally made an appearance, kind of late to be a herald, but a relief to me. Only one blossom so far--perhaps it's not thriving? Or perhaps I'm too impatient. After all, this first blossom has scarcely colored up yet. The first of the transplanted 'Lilac Wonder's is blooming, and doesn't look floppy like it did in its former location, so now I'm wondering if it flopped because it didn't get enough sun. But it's not a leaf or a stem, so does it even have the potential to lean towards the sun? Beats me. Wait and see, Kathy, wait and see. It's only one of ten bulbs, after all.

The first two flowers of all the bulbs Collin planted in front of the lilac hedge are coming up, and they're not as noticeable from the house as I had hoped. For one thing, Lachlan made a point not to mow there this last time because he was afraid of harming them, so they are a bit lost in the grass. For another thing, they are going to be blooming singly this year because of being divided, whereas next year each singleton will (hopefully) be a clump. For another thing, two blossoms do not a mass planting make. Most of them haven't bloomed yet, and the ones toward the further end were small enough they may not have a blossom in them this fall. Don't worry--when it does finally look spectacular I'll be sure to show you.

I got this in 1997 for about twice what Russell Stafford is selling it for this year. I hope that means stocks worldwide are increasing, because everyone should have some of these beauties around. Two words in the Odyssey Bulb catalog description don't apply to mine: "pink-tinged" and "October." I have never seen even a hint of pink in mine, and it's obviously blooming in September for me. I originally had a 'Purple Mound' aster blooming here as well, but that has disappeared. When it was there, I remember being frustrated at how infrequently the two bloomed together, so maybe it has bloomed in October for me in other years. Certainly the other asters are blooming right now.

Hard to believe it is the double form of the flower pictured here. It seems not only double, but bigger in every dimension. It had increased sufficiently that I dug it up in 2003 and redistributed it in the same location. On rainy days I can see this gleaming against a background of dark purple ajuga from the kitchen door. Too bad that aster died.

I actually purchased this from Odyssey Bulbs in 2002. It bloomed nicely that fall, and if I remember correctly, the leaves came up in spring. But after that, it was no more. Since I planted that first one, I've come to realize two things. The first is that the ell of the house, where I planted my original Colchicum 'Zephyr,' is not the place it used to be. In terms of climate, it probably still is the most protected spot I have to plant things near the house. But it gets a lot more traffic than it used to ever since we set up a rain barrel there, and also relocated our hose bib there from the side of the house. Of course, no one tries to step on my flowers, but they pretty much have to walk right on the edge of the bed to get to the rain barrel, and who knows what they do with the hoses. Which brings me to my second realization, to wit, not all colchicums are as tolerant of less than ideal soil conditions as the byzantinums that came with the house are. I think I am going to have to give up on the ell of the house as a place to trial "iffy" colchicums because it is kept too moist by water barrel and hose activity.

To my eye, this colchicum looks more like a tulip in shape than any other that has bloomed so far this year. In the OB catalog it is described as "bright purple," but it looks like your basic colchicum lavender to me. Of course, the color may be deeper tomorrow, but honestly, I have yet to see a really bona fide purple colchicum. It would tickle me pink to see one.