Category Archives: Bulbs
Tulip Porn
Tulip ‘Brown Sugar’ It would push me over the edge to have to write catalogue descriptions for tulips. A groundwork of deep apricot etched in grenadine feathering reaching just shy of the margins, emanating from a central upward brush stroke … Continue reading
Tulips Can Be Had Cheap
It takes a flower of infinite grace to withstand being turned into a potted ubiquity at every neighborhood nursery, grocery store, and florist shop, which is where I’m bumping into tulips this month. Growing them for myself is an intensely … Continue reading
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Veltheimia bracteata
Yes, Joseph, this one will be a slow grower, so settle in. My system for summer-dormant bulbs is fairly lackadaisical, as in if I’m lucky I just might trip over the pot tucked in an out-of-the-way spot and notice the … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, Plant Portraits
Tagged Pacific Bulb Society, Telos Rare Bulbs, Veltheimia bracteata
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Nerinomania
I went on a treasure hunt for a half-forgotten bulb in the front gravel garden in early fall, Crinum ‘Sangria.’ I was certain it was in there somewhere. That’s when I noticed the new green tips of the nerines piercing … Continue reading
The Third Harmonic
It’s that time when the garden vibrates to the frequency of Alstroemeria ‘The Third Harmonic.’ The flowering stalks, when upright, graze my chin, and I’m 5’8.” This is a two-year-old clump, and it’s a good 5 feet across already. These … Continue reading
From Ants to Squills
This fantastic architecture must have an equally fantastic pollinator, yes? The Giant Fork-Tongued Moth maybe? Well, let’s leave out mythical insects. What’s left would be the usual garden-variety pollinators, and possibly just ants. Just ants? Don’t let E. O. Wilson … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, creatures, Plant Portraits
Tagged ants, Argentine ants, creatures, E.O. Wilson, Scilla peruviana, The Naturalist
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And So It Begins Again
Yes, phrases do bubble up from the depths unbidden until I find myself saying them aloud on a day such as this, about 75 degrees, neither cold nor warm, more like an amniotic bath, birds and insects attending to their … Continue reading
Drought Buster
Tibouchina heteromalla holding on to a raindrop. Photo by MB Maher. I understand the impulse. We’ve been promised a solid day of rain, but so far it’s only been a fitful one. Possibly more tonight. Euphorbia cotinifolia, Caribbean Copper Plant, … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, MB Maher
Tagged drought, Euphorbia cotinifolia, MB Maher, Scilla peruviana, Tibouchina heteromalla
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March of the Tulips
They are a bit regimental in appearance, aren’t they? I’m not sure I’d want to accentuate that trait by lining them out with geometric precision in bedding-out schemes. I prefer to see these little soldiers cavorting with fennel and linaria … Continue reading
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Tulips’ Progress
Look at that stem length! This is the best length I’ve achieved yet from the regimen of prechilling six weeks in fall, then potting them up the day after Thanksgiving. The fishhook senecio experiment has been dismantled, and the black … Continue reading
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