The front garden Saturday morning
Lots of bulb action in the front garden lately. Just a couple days of warm weather and things really took off. This is what it looked a week ago:
These photos of the Hyacinths are also from a week ago. Heirloom Hyacinth “Queen of the Blues” is the light blue one. It’s hard to render the color accurately on-screen; it’s a pale, powder blue which looks different depending on whether it’s sunny or overcast, or in the shade or sun. It’s been blooming for two weeks now. Today, it’s just starting to flop over and fade.
The dark purple one is heirloom Hyacinth “King of the Blues.”
What the camera can’t capture at all is the scent. These heirloom Hyacinths are intensely fragrant, especially “Queen”; those eight inflorescences perfume the entire front yard and the sidewalk in front of our house.
Two more bulbs opened up over the past week. An unidentified Daffodil obtained from the Daffodil Project, and the unbelievably red Tulipa linifolia, which I just planted this season.
Tulipa clusiana was just starting to open up today, but I didn’t get any shots of that yet. Something to look forward to for later in the week.
Related Posts
Sprign has Sprung, March 2, 2008
The Front Garden Evolving, January 24, 2007
If your daffodil is fragrant it might be the tazetta cultivar ‘Geranium’, which is an heirloom from the 1930s. It grows about 14 inches tall, and has several flowers on each stem, with creamy white petals and deep orange-red cup.
Thanks, Judy! It does look like that variety. But I’ve never grown a Tazetta Daffodil (knowingly) before myself, so I’m not familiar with them.
I’m glad to hear that “Geranium” is a 1930s heirloom. It’s not old enough for my front garden that I would have chosen it deliberately, but I guess it can stay! One variety I’ve looked at for this garden is “Avalanche”, which dates back to 1906.