February Bloom Day

A belated Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Bloom Day to all!  Yes, it is time once again for the monthly celebration of what is blooming in (or out) of your garden, hosted faithfully for over five years now by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.  I'm glad it's Bloom Day, because I've been a little under the weather for the past week and haven't felt much like blogging.

Speaking of the weather, here in the Midwest we've been reminded that winter is far from over, despite rumors to the contrary.

A week and a half ago, I was taking advantage of the mild weather and sunny skies to take a walk.  I happened to look down and to my surprise saw these daffodils emerging in the garden.

Looking across the driveway, I also noticed some spots of yellow scattered underneath the pine trees.  Dandelions in February??  No, they were yellow crocuses in full bloom!  Looking through the photo archives and old blog posts, I confirmed that these were indeed at least a month ahead of schedule. 

Just when I was beginning to think spring might arrive early this year, Mother Nature brought us back to reality.  The very next morning the crocuses had closed up and everything was covered in hoarfrost.   The yarrow, which was showing signs of green growth on the balmy Sunday, was an interesting arrangement of silver and white on Monday.

The butterfly garden, which has looked more like a mass of dried-up weeds most of the winter, once again looked rather eye-catching with the white plumes of goldenrod.

So once again, we must turn indoors for any signs of blooms this February, which is not that easy, since I'm not much of a houseplant person.  I do have a few blooms, but mostly what I have is foliage.  Notice the amaryllis on the right which has very tall leaves--I measured them at 31 inches!--but not a single bloom.  This happened a few years ago, too, and I'm not sure if it's because the bulb wasn't chilled enough this fall or something else, but I was certainly disappointed not to see the pink and white blooms I had last year. 

The paperwhites next to them seem to be in a race to see who can grow the tallest, but at least they are blooming!  This is the first year I've grown narcissus indoors, and I have to say they're the easiest of any bulbs I've tried to force.

That's it for any blooms here this February, but while pickin's are pretty slim, I know it won't be long till some real blooms appear once again.  Several containers filled with seeds are sitting outside waiting for the snow to melt and the sun to warm them up.

 

Hopefully, it won't be long until the icy "blooms" on the clematis turn to real ones instead.  

It is another gray February day here in the Heartland, but somewhere the sun is probably shining and real flowers are blooming--check them out at May Dreams Gardens.