Spring 2021

 

On the sunporch today. We got up to 64 degrees.

Tiny cottage in the city. Don't laugh. Love my new window box planter from window box.com.

It was a beautiful day. Soon the Norway Maple will be in bloom showering down yellow pollen. I'll have to keep the windows closed at night to avoid it triggering my allergies and the kitties also.

Organized the porch a little. Pots were everywhere. The two black containers are tulips for my daughter's balcony. She has to have some spring blooms also.

Some of the tulips were removed for container outside.

Still working on this area.

Tiny lilac. Yes another lilac for the porch. If it ever grows Guess it will need to stay pruned as the get to be large shrubs.

New plant shelf in my daughters room. She moved several months ago. I'm supposed to be freshening up the wall paint and making it my prayer, plant, and library room. In time although it's moving slowly.

Sorry for the bad picture taken last week. The bloom is open and larger today. Had to see what the gloriosa bloom would look like.

Don't know what's going on with the salvia. Hope I can get them to make it another month. Plans are to change the soil and move them to plastic pots. I tried everything except this.

Blue jean petunias I think from Park Seeds. They're doing good.

Pansies

The pansies are still small.

Gloriosa daisies getting large. Will start some dark flowering ones I ordered later 2 months before autumn as I've found they only take 2 months to get to this size.

Pelargoniums are sad also. There is one pot with 3 seedlings that are much healthier and further along. The other seedlings are down stairs on the other plant shelf. They all long over due for transplanting.

Yes, A Girl's Thoughts Turn To Spring

It would be wonderful if all year could be spring. There's no other season like it. Fall is a beautiful time of year also with relief from the oppressive heat and mugginess of summer. A beautiful show of autumn leaves in shades of reds, gold, and colors in between. Followed by the cool crisp air that only comes with winter. A time to feed and watch the bird and enjoy falling snowflakes. But spring is the winner for me. It's a season of hope and renewed strength and energy. Maybe because plants and some animals hibernate and sleep during the winter but only for a while. Then in the blink of an eye, they start to emerge again. They know that spring is arriving before we do.

Back in the pansies this weekend at the nursery. This time at Holod's True Value Hardware and Nursery in Lafayette Hill Pennsylvania. It was my first time there and now a new favorite. Yes I still have pansies I sowed from seed but they're still small. In the fall I'll start this extra early in the summer. But I'll have pansies for my window seal when they start to bloom. Orange pansies seem to represent fall but I love orange and all the colors of pansies especially the blues. This year a color to go with the stucco. Normally I plant blues and purples.

Planted up the container on my stoop on Monday during a warm and spring like day. Removed a box wood, 2 coral bells, and a creeping Jenny which I'll put back. Threw out the old soil and watered. These pansies came from Primex Garden Center in Glenside. The tulips and a few hyacinths are ones I forced in containers on the sunporch this winter. I removed them from pots and inserted in this container. This way I didn't have to worry about squirrels eating or carrying the bulbs away.

Soon I'll have tulips and narcissus blooming up here. Plastic mesh helped save my bulbs from squirrels this year. Looking forward to them.

A lily from the produce market about a week ago.

 

Buds on my lilac purchased in the fall. Yes lilacs on the sun porch. I have 2 others. One looks dead but may not be. The other I just bought in a quart pot which has yellow blooms. Can't wait. Spring is such a beautiful time.

Alliums have emerged.

The sunporch 

Buds on the new lilac and a pumpkin still hard.

Two ferns from last fall survived the winter in their containers on the porch. Will pot this up this year. They'll live on the porch.

Catnip never died this winter and is putting on new growth. My kitty will be patiently waiting. 

Snapdragons. Why did I buy them, I have seedlings? I want to plant my planter now, impatient. And snapdragon seedlings can be difficult. I hope some make it.

Not a good plant mom sometimes. My amaryllis still on the porch all winter. They'll survive and bloom again late spring or summer. They were beautiful last year.

New orchid pot from Holod's and some nasturtium seeds for my small flower bed out front. When deep summer arrives and most of the perennials have bloomed, it's nice to have some extra color. I found they do better direct sown.

Waiting patiently for more hyacinths. The last few forced bulbs are blooming indoors. I need to start my amaryllis that arrived in the fall still in bags on the porch.

Creeping Jenny started growing on the porch after I pulled it. Will go back into the planter soon.