Sunday, March 7, 2010

Week 15- March 7, 2008- Mears garden picture contest

Spring is here- well in some places- if you look very carefully.

This is live- well, it is a picture taken this week, on Thursday, in the backyard here in Iowa City. This year’s snowdrops have emerged as the snow cover slowly slinks away. In fact the winter aconite were only a few days behind. Check out the bonus pictures at the end of this post. You can also see in the second picture the snow cover in the rest of the yard is very much still there. This is all very much like two years ago when we had so much snow.
But Spring is coming. It is reported to now be in Missouri. I understand there may be daffodils in Arkansas. I would think they are closer than that.

So how is the contest.
Last week was one of the closest votes in the history of the blog. The Bluebell/epimedium combo was the winner, just edging out the snowdrop picture and the peach poppy. The daffodil fans were also a real presence.
Here was the full vote
Bluebells and epimedium 19
Snowdrops 18
Peach poppy 17
Daffodil 10

Unfortunately in some contests one vote or one point makes all the difference. The snowdrops will have to wait for another year.
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This coming week’s contest will pick the third entry in the final four. Here are your contestants. I say “your” contestants because at this stage of the competition these are all pictures you selected.

First, representing the color blue, is the Siberian Iris. I love iris. They come in so many forms, from the earliest iris riticulata, maybe even in late March, to the flashy Louisiana varieties in June to the great big Japanese Iris that can last into July. I can also go on about the color blue. I really should have the all blue special post at some point.

Next, there is the magical center of the Oriental poppy, looking just like some kind of hallucinogenic orb.

The third picture is the Monsella tulip, in all its glory. Here you have a red and yellow flower with some blue in the background. How can you go wrong with that combination?

Finally there is the deep red from Night Embers, a wonderful daylily.

Enjoy the contest. Vote for your favorite. Think about all this color to come.

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Here are a few bonus pictures from the last few days. The yellow flowers are the winter aconite, emerging like magic, neck and neck with the snowdrops this year for the first flowers.

I also would have you pay particular attention to the last pictures of snowdrops. I understand snowdrops emerging as the snow backs away. These came right up through the snow. In the one picture you can barely see the snowdrops to the right of the plant label. Then there is a closeup. They snowdrops seemed to melt a little hole right in the snow, not content to wait for the complete melt.




Enjoy the week. Consider our fundraising pictures.
Mears Garden Fundraiser
Philip

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I absolutely love the closeups of the snow drops emerging! We just got home to Wisconsin an hour ago, having escaped in January to Tucson. I can report having seen zero daffodils (or anything else blooming) this moring in St. Louis, if that counts for Missouri.