mears garden: Picture Contest- Week 12- February 20, 2011-I can just see springtime

Welcome to week 12 of the Fifth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

When you come over a hill or come around a corner you can sometimes see quite a distance. We have come around that corner or over that hill and can now see springtime. The snow is mostly gone. The temperatures were above normal all week. It even got up into the mid 60’s on Thursday. The ground is thawing out. The spring bulbs are waking up. The first snowdrop is emerging. I even saw signs that a mole or two was also waking up. This is from yesterday.

But it is still February. There are days to come when it will be cold…and dreary…and icy. The radar this morning was about as colorful as it gets- with greens and whites and purples and reds and yellows. It is not yet time to put away the winter coats or even the snow shovels.

But spring is out there. I expect if you went south you would find daffodils someplace. I even did the first yard work yesterday, filling up several trash bins with potential compost. And that snowdrop is still there. It has not opened yet. It is in bud. It will not be knocked down by a little cold. It will wait for the right time, which will not be long coming.

We have come over that hill and around that corner.

How about the contest?
In last week’s voting the winner was the primrose. I actually saw some of those primroses yesterday. They are greening up, perhaps never having lost that green as they waited under the snow.

The full voting was
Primrose 36 for 48%
Crocuses 25 for 33.3%
Caladium 11 for 14.7%
Anemone 3 for 4%
Total 75

In this week’s final contest with new flowers (next week will start the playoffs) I have four really nice pictures for you.

First off is a wonderful group of fall crocuses. It does seem that crocuses have been a major player in the contest this year. Fall crocuses do stand out, as otherwise the garden is slowing down at that time of the year. This picture was taken on September 5.

Next there is another orchid cactus. This one bloomed in July 2. This potted plant is one of about 20 of these plants that I grow in the trees in the garden. They are cousins of the Christmas cactus most people recognize. They are bigger and bloom in the spring and summer. My goal is to diversify my collection and have lots of different colors. You saw the pink and white one in week 7. Please check out the bonus pictures down below for some other colors.

Here is daylily Sherry Linn Carr. With so many varieties out there, there are of course thousands of names for daylilies. Some are just named for people. I don’t know who Ms. Carr was. Someone immortalized her with this daylily. This flower bloomed on July 28.

Finally there is this great Japanese iris. This iris, the last iris to bloom during the garden year, is also the biggest. As a family the iris come in so many forms. They bloom over such a long time in the garden year. They start with the little reticulata iris that bloom during in early spring. Then there are the bearded iris (of several different heights), the Siberian iris, the Louisiana iris, and finally the Japanese. There are even a few others that I am just learning about. Cristata is one such variety that should bloom this year. This Japanese iris bloomed on June 13. That was early for these iris. But last year was an early year.