Fork & Knife

Tulips & more

The tulips in front of the house on Calvert Hill Road had arrived at full, tight bud stage this morning and will probably open up today. Grape hyacinth has begun flowering after I worked to remove last falls blanket of leaves from the beds. Lots of other stuff has begun to grow in earnest with warmer weather and a raked clean face.

At the farm the peaches and pears are flowering and, by now, I imagine some of the precocious apples are in bloom too.

Magnolias are turning the ground white with drifts of petals and the Bradford Pears and other suburban trees are drifting from the snow of flowers to the green of summer's shade.

Violets spread their tiny, ephemeral joys around the yard and in nooks and crannies of flower beds.

There is a ubiquitous purple flowering plant that I don't recognize in several areas of the front garden beds. I need to sit down with some of my books and identify it as it is beautiful and even grows in the gravel of the driveway.

Monotonous beauty

Bradford Pears have been marching through the malls, office parks, and subdivisions this week in their monotonous beauty, all show and no scent. This probably means that the pears at the farm and the peaches are flowering, or will soon.

I have seen a few tulips in city plantings, but I think they might have been pre-chilled before planting to vernalize them more quickly.

Iris are growing like mad and the clover and grass in the field is greening everything up quickly.

Many of the trees are cracking open their slumbering buds and will start flowering inconspicuosly to our vision, but, ironically not to our eyes and noses.

Redbud blooms are very purple, but not quite open yet.

Bees buzz drunkenly from bloom to bloom on the magnolias; often seeming too drunk or too heavy with pollen to fly back home right away. I have to be cautious as I weave drunkenly around the trees sticking my snout in all the blooms not to inhale the meliferous sting. A friend, Pam, described the sublime joy of sniffing magnolia blooms last weekend, then drinking the rain water from them.

As more have opened, I realize what I thought were Grape Hyacinth around the house were actually Hyacinth. And of course, the daffodils are in full swooning bloom.

Forsythia

We don't have any of these harbingers of spring at the Fertile Crescent Farms (either of them), but I noticed driving across town this week that they are in full raging bloom. I would say that means they have been flowering for at least 10 days, maybe longer. If someone can tell me when they started, I'd be appreciative.

Grape Hyacinth, magnolia, and daffodils

I noticed on Sunday that the Grape Hyacinth at the house had started flowering under the magnolia on the south side of the house. The magnolia, as I expected, started flowering on Sunday also.

The daffodils along the road continue to open. We now have solid yellow and yellow/white in bloom. The little orange/yellow ones at the farm are also at full glory. More appear ready to burst at both farms. Daffodils are such a joy and so easy to keep happy.

I have also noticed that I seriously need to rake last years leaves out of the flowerbeds as things are really trying to come up, but are buried under their winter coating of leaves. This will also help me in this first year at the new place to take inventory of the dizzying array of perennials that Missy, the former owner, had planted all around the house. I feel like I should not plant anything near the house for a full year.

Not sure if the lilacs will bloom this year as the drought then deluge of last fall caused a lot to flower in September which may have blown this year's bloom. We thought it was just a symbol of the juju put out by our wedding ceremony, but then I read it was happening all over the state. Not that there wasn't a boatload of juju coming out of our ceremony.

Peaches also appear ready to burst in the never ending ballet that determines whether we have local peaches. Peaches are so precocious that they are often nipped nearly literally in the bud. Hints: cover their feet with big piles of snow to keep them dormant or plant them either on a north facing slope, the north side of the house, or a cool spot in your yard (somewhere where the snow sticks around longer).

The buds on the hundred or so grape cuttings I got on New Year's day from my friend Frank Miranti look like they are beginning to swell. So we are a few years from yummy eating grapes.

Magnolia

I noticed that the magnolia (I believe it is a Star Magnolia) on the west side of the house is just opening its first buds this afternoon, what a heavenly scent.

Daffodils etc.

The first daffodils of the year began flowering here at the Calvert Hill homestead around March 15. They are a small, all yellow variety. The Pickwick, purple, and gold crocus all continue to flower as do the hellebores. I have seen some of the small early iris species blooming around town so I would bet the ones I planted at our old house have begun to bloom. I look for the fuzzy buds of the magnolias and some of the fruit trees to get into the action soon. The toad lilies, bleeding hearts, and others won't be far behind.

Crocus, snow drops, and hellebores

Noticed crocus and snowdrops flowering around February 28.

Hellebores in flower around March 5.

A small violet or something like it in front yard today.