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Anne McD
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 1:07pm | IP Logged
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Okay, all you green-thumbers! 
This is the year I'm going to make things grow outside my house. Thanks to the fact that my home is only three years old, I don't have any of these things that people often refer to as "trees" -- instead, I have sticks with leaves. I need something to charm me outside, then!
First question-- is it too late to plant bulbs? My next door neighbor's front yard looks so pretty when the first signs of spring start popping up out of the ground, and I guess I'm just a bit tulip-jealous! I'm thinking tulips, hyacinth, anything with color! (Can you tell I have cabin fever? I can't believe its only January, but at least it will be 60degrees here next week! This is pnemonia weather if I've ever seen it!  )
Second question-- does anyone have a favorite online place to order said bulbs? I'd like a little more variety than what Lowes could offer me, and I'm guessing they packed this stuff up months ago.
Thanks for your help!! I'll be back in a few months asking about veggie gardens! 
ETA-- I'm in Northern VA, which I think is zone 5, if that makes a difference?
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Anne
Wife to Jon
Mommy to Alex 9
James 8
Katie 6
William 3 1/2
Benedict Joseph 1
and baby on the way! 10/14
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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crocus and daffadils tend to be even earlier than tulips.. and they grow here.. at the best we're zone 5.. maybe 4.. so hard to tell when your general area is a swirl of colors
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 1:53pm | IP Logged
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You can still plant summer blooming bulbs, like easy-to-grow daylilies (they get planted a bit later than now, here in MD). It is too late for tulips and crocuses this year.
One idea would be to get a bulb plant in a container for this spring and then save the bulb for your garden in the fall.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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SallyT
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 2:04pm | IP Logged
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You could experiment with some easily available bulbs -- as long as they get SOME cold, they seem to come up, but the best time to plant them is October-November (in my zone -- I'm south of you, in Memphis, TN). That said, my mother planted some daffodils after Christmas last year that still came up and bloomed, and I have some (from the dollar store) still sitting outside my back door, that I've been meaning to plant, and probably will at some point, because I have nothing to lose.
Another ploy would be to buy some potted, blooming (or almost-blooming) bulb plants as soon as they become available, and put them out on your doorstep for some instant spring-bulb color. Then plant them for next year. You could do several waves: earliest available bulbs, like snowdrops, followed by maybe some narcissus or other daffodils + hyacinths, followed by iris. As they stop blooming, you can pop them into the ground (just don't forget to protect their fronds from the lawn mower or edger until they die back completely, or they won't bloom next year).
This isn't a very scientific method, but I have done it with daffodils, and it's worked just fine. They came up the next year like champs. Just mark the spot where you planted them, so you can put in more bulbs around the same spot, if you like.
With lots of sun, you have lots of color possibilities -- many lovely, hardy species love lots of sun, so that you can easily plant a garden that will have some color almost year-round and come back year after year. I have the opposite problem, of having huge, lovely trees, which I love -- except that it's hard to know what else to plant, other than foresty things. So we have lots of green and texture in our front yard (at least, I'm working on it), but not much successful color. Or grass. I'm trying to tempt the moss to grow, because it's green and we don't have to mow it.
HTH!
Sally
PS -- you might also try some late-winter/early-spring-flower shrubs like forsythia or flowering quince. Those provide a lot of color-bang, and they're lovely even when not in flower. One spectacular flowering shrub in your front yard -- or out your back window -- can be a marvelous lifter-of-winter-blahs.
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SallyT
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 2:05pm | IP Logged
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Nancy and I were thinking the same thing at the same time!
Sally
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stefoodie
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 2:06pm | IP Logged
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Best cure for cabin fever I've found? Winter sowing!!
It was my most successful garden -- 2004 -- when I wintersowed most of the plants. Wintersowing is cheap, not labor-intensive, and very newbie-friendly.
I'm starting today!
For more info visit the WinterSowing Forum at Gardenweb or Wintersown.org.
People are giving away free seeds, in case you want to try that!
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stef
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Anne McD
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 2:08pm | IP Logged
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These are all great ideas, thank you!
I actually had a friend out digging in the snow planting bulbs she had forgotten about! Nothing left to lose at that point, eh?!
I thougth I heard somewhere that you can plant bulbs late in the season if you put them in your freezer for a few weeks first to shock them? . . .
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Anne
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stefoodie
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| Posted: Nov 27 2013 at 11:04am | IP Logged
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Bumping this to find out if anyone's started wintersowing yet, and if you think it's a good time to start now? I haven't done it seriously since 2004. I'm thinking since we have such low temps now that I don't have to wait 'til December to start. Any thoughts?
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stef
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Nov 27 2013 at 11:31am | IP Logged
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My thought is that December is only 5 days away.. so it's not like it's a lot before December.
too cold to do that here though so I don't know much about it.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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stefoodie
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| Posted: Nov 27 2013 at 12:09pm | IP Logged
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Heh-heh. I know some people wait until it's officially WINTER, so December 21. But I'm probably going to be busy packing that day. So I'm thinking sometime this weekend. 
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stef
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Gardening questions part 1
