In a Vase on Monday: Spring Delights

This is my first time joining in on In a Vase on Monday, hosted by Cathy over at Rambling in the Garden.  Last year, I was able to bring in a few bouquets from the garden, but I didn't have much variety to choose from, and not a very long season of good cut flowers and foliage.  This year, I'm hoping that will change, considering all of the plants I've planted and seeds I've sown over the last year.  It would be wonderful to be able to have a new bouquet of flowers every week, fresh from the garden.  I'm certainly willing to give it a try, and I think this blog meme will help me stick to give it a good shot.

This week's arrangement shouts spring-time with the multiple Erlicheer narcissus blooms, unknown yellow narcissus, and amaryllis leaves.

The primary reason this bouquet came to be was because heavy rains at the end of last week weighed down on these blooms can caused them to bend over to the ground.  Since I knew they wouldn't last long in the garden like that, I decided to bring them in to enjoy their blooms a bit longer.  And the amaryllis leaves are left-overs that are part of the bulbs that I forced indoors over the winter.  There leaves make excellent foliage additions to the bouquet - and are quite long-lasting!

The multiple blooms of the Erlicheers are busting with fragrance.  Every time I pass by the bouquet, I get a whiff of their strong, but delightful fragrance.

And the yellow narcissus adds a nice cheery focal point to this piece.  It is obviously a spring-time bouquet with the daffodil.

This vase was too lovely for me to leave at home while I headed to work, so I decided to take it with me and place it in my cubicle to get more enjoyment out of the flowers.  I actually get more enjoyment out of work too, getting to look at these pretty guys all day and smell their wonderful fragrance.

I also made a secondary, smaller bouquet this week to showcase another delightful springtime bulb bloom in the garden right now - hyacinths.  These blooms are also very pungent, so just one little flower can fill a whole room (or cubicle) with its fragrance.

The pink hyacinth is accompanied by the familiar blooms of the Erlicheer again, as well as another amaryllis leaf (I have a feeling I'll be using these frequently to anchor my arrangements in the coming weeks).

Thanks again to Cathy for hosting this meme.  I look forward to the challenge of creating garden fresh bouquets for my home on a weekly basis!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 2015

Spring has sprung in my Zone 8b Central Texas garden.  The weather broke from cold and rainy days in the 30s-40s (our version of winter) to sunny days in the 70s and I'm lovin' it.

Relatively few plants are in bloom right now.  Most are still shaking off the winter chill, but here are some of the plants that are blooming in my garden right now:

The hyacinths are in full effect right now.  I planted a border of them in January after chilling the bulbs in the refrigerator for several weeks.  I'm not sure the chilling was necessary, since I've planted hyacinth bulbs other years, left them in the ground, and they still came back, but it apparently didn't hurt.

I'm not sure of the varieties, other than the mixed bag they came in said they were "shades of purple." Most look to be pink to me, with a few lavenders scattered in.  But, no matter.  They are beautiful and smell lovely.

The Erlicheer narcissus are also blooming away right now.  They were also new bulb additions to my garden last fall.  I'm definitely enjoying their first bloom season and looking forward to many more to come.

My Meyer lemon tree is still sitting indoors, as I haven't had a chance to move it outside after the freezing temperatures.  It has started blooming (five blooms at the moment), and since it is indoors and without pollinators, I've had to step in and do some hand pollination.  It is really quite easy - just use a cotton swab and get some of the pollen on the stamen.  It seems to be working, as I can see little lemon fruits start to appear.  I think these blooms have my favorite fragrance - nothing beats its floral citrus smell.

Back outdoors, the arugula is still blooming like crazy.  The bees are loving it, and since the ground has been too wet to plant any new spring veggies, I'm keeping the arugula in place and letting the insects enjoy the blooms for now.

I've shown the pansies before, but they have been going strong all winter, adding a burst of color to the otherwise blank courtyard.  And since they will most likely be nearing their seasonal end soon, I thought I'd showcase them one last time.

And finally, while not quite making it in time for this month's GBBD, I see the potential of other blooms around the garden, including other narcissus and daffodils, and even my first Blue Bonnets are well on their way to blooming!

Thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this garden meme each month!

Frozen

It has been a chilly couple of weeks in Central Texas, with highs around 40 degrees Fahrenheit and lows around 27 degrees.  My garden has not been a fan of the below freezing temperatures.

I was most concerned about my Florida Prince peach tree, considering it was in the middle of blooming when the cold front came in.  To try to salvage the blooms, and ultimately at least a little bit of a peach harvest, I covered the tree in Christmas lights and then put a couple freeze cloths over it.  This might have helped somewhat, but with the wind that also blew in with the freezing temps, the freeze cloth didn't stay covering the full tree for very long.  I guess we will see once temps rise again if my efforts helped keep the peaches at all.

The greens, while normally cold-weather lovers, were not digging the freezing rain we've had the past few days.  They were all limp and defeated-looking this morning.  The good thing is that they generally bounce back pretty well once we get back into the 40s.

The poppies also took a beating.  I'm really hoping they bounce back like the other cold-weather greens.  I have so many poppy rosettes this year, it would break my heart if I lost them before getting to enjoy all their glory.

It has been a bummer having this crappy weather, mainly because it means I'm stuck inside and can't play in the garden.  At least I have a small garden indoors that I can enjoy on these cold and rainy days, like the hyacinths that I forced in a pot indoors.  Their heavenly pungent aroma fills up the entire kitchen.

And even my Madame Joseph Schwartz rose, which was brought indoors since I purchased it recently and haven't put it in the ground with the chaotic weather we've been having, sent out a bloom for me to enjoy while I wait for the spring weather to arrive.

Dutch Iris and Daffodils

Last spring I planted a bag of blue and white dutch irises.  No plants or flowers came up last year, so I thought the bag was a bust.  This spring, however, about half of the bulbs came up and ONE of them actually bloomed.  It was one of the white variety.  Hopefully more will bloom next year!

Right now we are having the garden beds at the front of the house redone, which involves tearing up all grass and weeds that have infested the beds.  One of the beds that is being redone had a bunch of bulbs that I planted over a year ago.  The bulbs included an assortment of daffodils and hyacinths, which I had planted out front since they were suppose to be deer resistant.  That was not the case.  The deer have munched these plants down two springs in a row.  So, since I had to move the bulbs anyways due to the landscaping being done in the front yard, I decided to move the daffodils and hyacinths to the backyard where they will be safe from the snacking deer.  I planted them around my Florida Prince peach tree.  I'm looking forward to some blooms next spring!