Good Morning everyone! I am looking forward to the weekend and predicted warm (70’s) weather! I have been reading Elizabeth Lawrence’s book, A Southern Garden. She is so right when she says we do not have four seasons. We have all the seasons in every month. 40 degrees one morning……….70 degrees the next……….one night a low of 28 degrees……..the next night a low of 51 degrees. Drought conditions one week and the next week you’d think you were in Ireland. So even if a plant does well in my garden it may not do the same thing in a garden across town or in a garden 30 miles away. Another pointer she had, was doing away with miffy plants. By miffy she meant too much attention, too much watering, too much pampering, etc. to get them to grow in your garden. She loved to experiment, she felt her entire garden was one giant experiment and she documented everything. In this way she could determine what was miffy! And, when it was time to move on, it was time to move on. I am keeping much more detailed records of my garden now.
Well, enough of that! This week I am featuring my Wee Ones. I am so thrilled with the bulbs we planted. Even if only one would have come up I would have been thrilled! But, I have spring everywhere! In one patch are the Sailing Away Collection. It was a collection of 25 Muscari/Narcissus. The first up were these tiny yellow daffodils! They are about five inches tall with a flower the size of our quarter! I think they look like a woodland flower! The muscari are just now peeking through and there are some much bigger bulbs poking up too, that I think will be bigger white daffodils, as shown on the package photograph!
These are the Jeanne d’Arc,1943, Crocuses! I have 35 of these heirloom crocuses scattered everywhere in my gardens! I love the heirloom bulbs I purchased from Old House Gardens. I feel I am keeping the plants that were around in my grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s gardens alive and well! This crocus is soooooooooooo white and really stands out in the garden. I like the stripy stems, the tiny, tiny purple lines and the bright gold centers inside them as well!
These are Moschatus, known as Swans-Neck, Goose-Neck or Silver Bells Daffodils, 1604. According to George Herbert Engleheart, he was collecting these white daffodils in the 1880’s from a Mrs Curry, who was hunting them in old cottage gardens in Ireland. In his search he came to the conclusion that Irish religious houses must have had some connection with Spain and Portugal, the focus of the white daffodil species. I found that very interesting, because when I was in La Coruña, Spain this is what I learned…….look HERE! I planted 5 and I have 5 now and more coming!
Since these little gems were so beautiful I wanted a better close up………Hubby got on the ground and took this photo for me! I am glad he did, because now you can see all of its beautiful parts! The very narrow, very long trumpet distinguishes it from other daffodils. The trumpet is yellow but a very pale yellow at first. The segments are a fawn color. The second day of blooming it lifts its head and both the trumpet and perianth become silver white!
Next is the Muscari I bought in a mix of 45! They are in shades from almost white-lavender to deep purple! They will grow to a height of 6-8 inches and have long lasting blooms…..we’ll see how long! I’ve placed them everywhere in my garden and it is like hide-and-seek looking for the early buds!
I want to finish up this week with a new segment to my SOS posts. It will be called, “Am I In Your Garden?” I love visiting gardens and when I looked, I have many, many posts of gardens all over the world………..so I thought I would feature one a week. If you have been to the garden or live in the same area as the garden featured, please let me know! This way I will know where your garden is! Or close by! Or in the same country! Let’s start with a local garden tour I went to in St Ives, UK! It was in a series of posts that I called “Reasons to Love St Ives.” Look HERE! And HERE! What did I like best about these gardens? All the planters in various shapes and sizes, (especially the old chimney pots!) and the tidbits tucked in here and there. You just wanted to look at every spot in the garden! And, I really found the various fencing styles quite charming!
PS, the featured photo this week is the Wee Ones in my Woodland Garden….they are a combination of the Cream Betty’s, 1943, Mammoth Yellow, 1665, and Tommies, 1847, all heirloom plants.
Won’t you join us with your SOS?
The instructions for SOS are easy. The photos can be flowers, vegetables, a garden design, whatever, as long as it’s garden related and posted on Saturday! So, it’s six photos. Of Gardens. On Saturday. Easy Peasy. To see all the SOS’s look at SIX ON SATURDAY, hosted by the Propagator, to check out all of them each Saturday! See you next week in another spot!
ThatTravelLadyInHerShoes 
It is lovely to take the time to look closely at our flowers, so much to admire. As for your featured gardens, this made me laugh. I am originally from St Ives, and my family home was there until very recently. We still visit several times a year. Still my home in my heart. A very special place, thanks for reminding me. 🙂
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I bet you know those terraced houses then!
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Yep! Did you get to the Barbara Hepworth garden?
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Yep! https://thecadyluckleedy.com/2016/10/18/reason-to-love-st-ives-7-sculpture-and-barbara-hepworth-garden/
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One thing that SoS does is get you looking even more closely at the plants (and other things) in your garden week by week and recording them week by week. I find that I end up taking maybe a hundred photos which I have no intention of publishing online but which I now carefully index each week (if I don’t force myself to do that job weekly it’ll be chaos). Comparing one year with the next really helps.Now I just wonder how, with all your travelling, you find time to look after the garden.
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When we are gone my neighbors take over and when they are gone we take over the keep of their garden! I get the best of that though because my neighbor is a fantastic gardener! Our lawn and trees are taken care of by the “association!” We don’t own our front yards!
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What a blessing for you all! One of my neighbors watered my gardens one searing summer we were away, and another with a key to the house came inside to water the Boston ferns.
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We are a very small group of 13 cottages here. So we know each other and our gardens well!
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John, I’ve always relied on my garden journals and memory. Now I’m inspired to take frequent photos as well and paste a choice few into the book. Not a simple project for me as I don’t have a Smart Phone and haven’t figured out how to take pictures with my cell. The old Minolta will have to do.
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I am always amazed at how my garden changes up! I am sooooooo glad I have photos and take a lot of photos! On vacation we usually take over 10,000! It takes me forever to go through the photos and thank goodness they are automatically added to my photo folders by date on my computer or I’d be a mess!
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Do gardens under snow count!
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Oh those definitely count!
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hahahaha ………..
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I’ve never been to England, let alone St. Ives, yet I love Cornwall, having “visited” and/or “lived” there through various books, such as TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (which isn’t set in England at all but the northwest coastal area of Scotland). I’m glad you’re reading Elizabeth Lawrence again. I had to chuckle over the all-season month you describe! That’s the South! Elizabeth Lawrence is the gardener/writer who “taught” me to keep a detailed garden journal years ago. I like being able to refer back to see how I designed certain areas, what plantings thrived or dived (well, I had to make that rhyme!) and bit the dry dirt in heat waves. Then I learned that Thomas Jefferson kept one, too, but more as a scientific study, as did some of the English gardeners I’ve been reading about. Today’s Saturday assignment: Finish reading A WRITER’S GARDEN about Eudora Welty. Thank you for recommending it!
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Isn’t that the best book? I loved it! I just finished Two Gardeners, A Friendship in Letters. It is the letters between Katherine White and Elizabeth Lawrence. It was very impressive! Can you imagine writing to someone for over 20 years and meeting them only once? Of course times were different then and both women were busy……..The other book I finished was No One Gardens Alone, the Life of Elizabeth Lawrence. It had some info I had read in other books about her, but it was good too. I am waiting for nicer weather to get to EL’s garden. The Camellia Walk tickets were sold out before I could get one! Yikes!
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The Jeanne d’Arc are fantastic with those fine purple lines.
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I like the term ‘Another pointer she had, was doing away with miffy plants’. My gardening friend told me I spend too much time nursing my plants when they get sick. I took the plunge this week and got rid of 2 of my 3 hydrangeas.
Like you, I’ve also started to experiment to see what works, what doesn’t and then why.
IT’s also interesting to note despite where we live most of us have the same plants… and I never want to see another daf, only unusual ones LoL.. What SoS has given me is make the use of space by trying out different bulbs
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Your photos remind me that spring might eventually get here to where I live. Thanks for the glimpse into my future. I love daffs.
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Me too!
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I have some of those crocuses, the first ones poked up their flowery heads this weekend. Might be coming to you soon via SoS…
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What beautiful bulbs! I particularly admire your Jeanne d’Arc crocus and the Silver Bells daffodil.
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I planted Jeanne d’Arc this year too, among purple and yellow crocuses. They are stunning, but sadly mine popped up just before the storms arrived and have now gone 😦
PS I live near St Ives so I shall pop over and read your posts now.
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I knew there was someone near St Ives ! I think Jim S is near there too!
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Jim is further east, near Bodmin/Liskeard.
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Beautiful crocus!
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