All the Dirt on Gardening

We have collected and planted thousands of daffodils on our place over the years. They are sequenced with early, mid-season, late and last. Here's a bit of what's blooming now The American Daffodil Society   2016 World Convention will be in St. Louis April 7-9 Free admission Here's a link to the Convention details.

The beauty we find in the blooms of spring bulbs is partially because the winter look of the landscape is open, clear and softly colored in tans and greys. Even when the slim green leaves of the bulbs emerge most of our time is still being spent indoors, braced against the wind and cold. Then, in March, all this color emerges. Not so much the reds and purples that the heat of summer demands to capture our attention, but soft yellows, whites, and pinks are the colors of spring. Even the red of tulips is tempered by the delicacy of their translucent petals. The scent of spring is the soft scent of daffodils and the sweet scent of hyacinths. Bright colors contrasting with ground that is mostly shades of brown. It's no wonder that so many poems and songs have been written about spring. It has its own divinity, don't you think?

Pansies, tulips, iris, daffodils and other features of the spring floral display are all over the stores, catalogs and Internet sources. It is definitely time to buy and plant! Photo: Iris and coral honeysuckle blooming in our yard last spring. There are two schools of thought about this time of year: One type of person buys two or three times as many plants and bulbs as they think they need and they other type orders half of what they want. Some of us order as soon as the catalogs arrive so we don't miss out on anything. Others wait in hope of a last minute sale. Photo: One of the most popular pansy colors. Which ever type you are, clean out the old planters, start amending the soil in the beds, and rest assured that if you want a pretty spring, you can accomplish it by buying your bulbs, corms, rhizomes and pansies this week.

Spring blooming bulbs are springing up all over town and the summer blooming bulbs are in the stores. In our back yard there are white-white, yellow-yellow and yellow-white daffodils blooming around the tree trunks and in the mostly winter-dull garden by the shed. Joost Pennings of the Netherlands took this photo at The Lentium (click to see more photos). Get out and enjoy the flowers. And then go get a few summer bulbs like calla and canna lilies to brighten your summer garden.