Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

African Queen

African Queen

One Day Outside The Library

Donna from Garden Walk And Garden Talk suggested that I join Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This Photo Contest for the month of November. Here is my entry.

This photo was taken last spring when I took my daughter to our local library. After we checked out her books we went out to the library's garden and admired what were growing and blooming at that time of year.

Milden Red Ball Lily And A Gift From Norway

Last spring I planted a bulb of Milden Red Ball purchased from Faraway Flowers. I have never seen it sent up a stem. This fall while cleaning up the garden I decided to investigate, dug the bulb up, and lo and behold of what I found. The bulb produced two bulblets slightly larger than a pea. As per advice of every lily enthusiast that when you acquire an expensive lily, scale it as an insurance for not losing it. Circumstances arise like animals digging and eating it up. So I scaled the bulb prior to planting.

Milden Red Ball, by the way, was bred by Holger Kuhne of Germany. For more info, here is a link .

MRB bulb with the two bulblets.

These are the bulblets produced from scaling.

As I don't have pics of MRB for this post, I contacted my friend Mike and he happily sent me two images of the said lily.


A couple of weeks ago, I received a package from my friend in Norway. We were dicussing about breeding lilies and he sent me some bulblets for my breeding project.

Confused?

I noticed that these leaves are coming up in the raised garden bed. I can't figure out which bulbous plants they belong to. Below are photos of the area where they are growing. Could they be Scilla, Chionodoxa, Puschkinia or species tulips? Are they confused or is it their time to come up?

Mixed species tulips T. tinka and T. clusiana var. Chrysantha growing with lilies. And I forgot the names of the big red and yellow hybrid tulips.

I can't find photos of the area without my daughter in it. Apologies.

Some Neat Stuff From The Garden

After working in the garden for four hours, I grabbed the camera and took some pictures. Sorry for the lack of words. I am beat from trying to finish my fall chores and boy am I glad I'm done planting my bulbs.

Porcelain Berries (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata)

Blooming wild violets.

Nice contrasting color of columbine and Epimedium rubra leaves.

Clean and crisp columbine leaves.

Senescing hosta and evergreen Dame's Rocket.

Arisaema berries.

Bulb Pictures

We gardeners have been enthralled by the beauties of these bulbous plants. The kaleidoscope of colors they display in different gardens right after the snow melts until fall are amazing. But have we really paid attention to the bulbs that they grow from? Here are a few example:

Allium azureum

Hyacinthoides hispanica 'Dainty Maid'

Fritillaria assyriaca

Muscari comosum

Allium schubertii

Camassia caerulea

Fritillaria rubra

Eremurus 'Cleopatra'

Asiatic Lily Bulb And Bulblet


Bonus pictures of Lilium seedpods and seeds.
Seedpods

Seeds

Eucharis grandiflora

I planted five bulbs last spring, one of them is now blooming.

Peonies And Fall Colors

I went a little crazy adding peonies in my garden. Aside from an online order, I purchased tree and Itoh peonies. I have seen these peonies in our fellow bloggers gardens.

I bought two Kopper Kettles on sale at Lurvey's.

Purple flowered tree peonies bought at Berthold's.

I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope that they will make it through the winter.

Fall in my garden...






And it is official that my Amaryllis Belladonnas are not going to bloom. They sent up foliage and no flower stalks.

The Stump Is Gone

There are hundreds of bulbs waiting to be planted in this spot.

Seedlings

One in my fall 'to do list' is to plant all of my lily seedlings. I am so glad it is done.

Seedlings planted without disturbing the roots.

Map of the seedlings.