Week 18- Mears Garden picture contest-April 3, 2011-And we have a winner.

Welcome to week 18 of the Garden Picture contest.


Your winner for the Fifth Annual Picture contest is the Leucojum. It just edged out the blue Siberian iris. Both the primrose and orchid cactus had solid support in finishing out the field.
And winter is done. We know winter is done for so many reasons. Snow is gone. Well there was that little surprise earlier this week. The winter coat has been put away. Well, it hasn’t, at least for the early morning walks. The dark is shrinking. But it is still quite dark on cloudy days in the morning.
But flowers are back. There are new pictures to be taken. Right now there are snowdrops and aconite and crocuses. We had the first daffodil yesterday. I had seen some daffodils around Iowa City earlier in the week. And there are squill and chiondoxa. Maybe that can be the new word for the day. Some of these flowers are even finished for the year.
Springtime means that the garden is new again. There is promise. There are sprouts and buds. I mistyped a letter and originally wrote that there were bugs. I guess that is true too. I went out earlier this week and the crocuses were buzzing. The bees have emerged. As the blue squill have started to bloom, I wonder if there will be blue pollen.


The full voting this past week was as follows
Leucojum 26
Blue Iris 25
Primrose 13
Orchid Cactus duo 12

So that’s it for the contest. We made it through the winter. It is now it is on to a new season.
I will leave you with a little bonus set of flowers for voting. I will then pause for the week and think about what to do next.
Striped crocus clump

Tricolor crocus clump

White crocus clump

Lots of Crocus clumps



The blog will continue, in some form. I hope you have enjoyed this little diversion.
Come by if you have a chance. Later this week there will be bloodroot.
Philip