topic Re: Anything In Bloom Now? in Garden

Anything In Bloom Now?

Flatbush — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 07:54:51 GMT

I live in Southern Ca and am lucky to have flowers blooming at this time of year. Just wondering what's in bloom by you even if you live in a colder climate or not?

I have:

Mexican Marigold (Tagetes)

Lantana

African Daisies

Ivy Geraniums

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

77yangya — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 11:00:30 GMT

Well, we got some snow and rain blooming tomorrow. That's about it. However....

we have to pay the landscaper a king's randsom so I don't want anything blooming.

Anyway, your post is very cute!!! I'm glad you're enjoying your flowers. They can be very nice. XO

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Judaline — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 12:54:37 GMT

Helleborous blooms in February. Even if it snows.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Sweetbay magnolia — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 12:59:34 GMT

We're in a lull on the Eastern Seaboard (VA Piedmont) but I expect witchhazel and winter jasmine soon.

FWIW my African violets are in bloom in the bay window! I have a straggler cyclamen and oxalis, too, and some odd geranium blooms on the plants I over winter indoors.

I'm not a fan of non-natives, but my nandina have outperformed themselves this year; the fruit has been borne in gigantic clusters which is quite striking in the landscape. The mockingbirds tried them but the verdict was a definite "no".

Thoughts of spring. But then I have to clean the gutters so no, I am not ready yet.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Lovs2shop — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 13:42:28 GMT

Here in the Mid Atlantic, we have pansies. They plant them around our malls during winter and they bloom till May. Then they pull them out and plant the summer flowers. I also plant pansies in my garden. It is nice to have color when the weather is so bleek.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

gardenman — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 13:49:21 GMT

My dwarf Phalaenopsis orchid is flowering right now. Three flowering stems this year and looking good. (It needs repotting though.) Some of my Christmas cacti are still in bloom. The dipladenia I brought in over winter is tossing an occasional flower. Not much else in flower right now. Outside, the first of the daffodils are starting to poke above ground.

My seed order is due to arrive today so tomorrow I'll start the Multibloom Geranium seeds. I ordered fifty seeds of the geraniums and I'll likely get somewhere between 52-55 seeds. Geraniums take a while to get decent size so they'll get started tomorrow. Geraniums are pretty cold tolerant also so from mid-March on they can head to the cold frame to finish growing.

I did add another tier of lights to my plant stand this year. The red/blue LED lights instead of the 6500 K fluorescent lights I typically use. I hate looking at those lights, but they're supposed to be better for the plants, so we'll see.

I've got 250 of the Accent Impatiens seeds coming also. They'll get started in about two weeks or so. I switched suppliers this year going back to HPS Seeds as Harris Seeds played too many games with me last year. HPS is more reliable, but that $8.99 shipping charge bugs me. Still, I save enough by buying the impatiens seeds in bulk to help offset that. (Later today when the seeds arrive and I see it cost like $1.35 to ship them is not a good time to ask me how I feel about that shipping charge.)

Winter is always a bit more bearable once the seedlings start to emerge. In a week or two I should have a couple of trays full of baby geraniums and then it's just a question of time until spring arrives. More plants will be getting started every few weeks and my now nearly empty plant stand will be full of life.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

FastDogWalker2 — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 14:51:30 GMT

In SE VA, our camellias are blooming - they are a winter bloomer here.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Carmie — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:18:19 GMT

Nothing is blooming here in PA..even the poison ivy is dead. Our evergreen trees and holly bushes are still green, though.

We are expecting a snow and ice storm tonight.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Still Raining — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:07:40 GMT

I have some geraniums that might just go the distance this winter. Two pretty wimpy, pale little sprigs on one.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Flatbush — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 07:17:02 GMT

Just noticed that the pink Jasmine is now in bloom.Beautiful light pink whitish blooms, in the same form as Snowball flowers, I love the soft fragrance too. I have it growing up and around a post in the front of the house and sitting on the balcony railing on the second floor.

It was so interesting to see the responses from different parts of the country.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

gardenman — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 14:28:47 GMT

The geranium seeds (53 of them) got started yesterday along with some old lobelia seeds and a couple of cells of catnip. I'm courageously (maybe foolishly?) growing them under the new red/blue LED lights. We'll see how they do. The lights are now about six inches above the soil. I have no idea if that's too far or too near. I'll start finding out as the seedlings grow. If they get a bit too leggy, I'll lower the lights. If the leaves start to burn I'll raise them higher. We'll have to see what happens. The seeds should start to germinate in about a week.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Dazlin — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 17:17:22 GMT

I pruned my roses a little over a week or so ago, and I noticed one is already getting tiny shoots from the canes. I just today started adding a fresh soil mixture with compost and peat to freshen up the existing soil...ill fertile in a couple of weeks. I also planted a rose called Lavender Simplicity, own root. It was a gift from my daughter...she ordered it from Jackson and Perkins. I'm excited to see how it does.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Tennesseegal — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:31:15 GMT

I have several pots of pansies blooming and my daffodils are poking green shoots out of the ground!

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Flatbush — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 07:05:58 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
The geranium seeds (53 of them) got started yesterday along with some old lobelia seeds and a couple of cells of catnip. I'm courageously (maybe foolishly?) growing them under the new red/blue LED lights. We'll see how they do. The lights are now about six inches above the soil. I have no idea if that's too far or too near. I'll start finding out as the seedlings grow. If they get a bit too leggy, I'll lower the lights. If the leaves start to burn I'll raise them higher. We'll have to see what happens. The seeds should start to germinate in about a week.

@gardenman
I love lobelia, esp the deep, bright blue. Haven't had them for a while, but as I remember, they were pretty easy to grow.
I didn't know you could grow geranium with seeds! Are they a special variety?
I know you can snap off a piece of the stem of the ivy geranium and root it in the ground, because that is how I propagate them.They are almost like weeds here in Southern Ca.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Flatbush — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 07:08:33 GMT

@Tennesseegal

Those are two of my favorite spring flowers.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

gardenman — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 12:48:00 GMT

@Flatbush

Lobelias are very easy to grow, but take a long time to start from seeds. The seeds are very small and dust-like. A packet of lobelia seeds will often hold thousands of seeds. They do very well here, but by September they're starting to fade a bit. These are Lobelia Crystal Palace, a lovely dark blue form.

Geranium seeds have been around since I started gardening. (That would be sometime in the sixties/seventies.) They've improved the quality of seed grown plants immensely over that time and most of the store bought geraniums you see these days are seed grown. You pretty much have to go to a specialty retailer to find cutting grown geraniums these days. The Multibloom Geraniums are a nice variety topping out at ten to twelve inches tall, with up to fifteen flowering stems in flower at one time. They come in seven colors (capri, lavender, red, pink, white, violet, and salmon.) They start to flower when just ten weeks old (give or take a bit) and flower and grow even through a light frost or two.

The 53 seeds I bought cost $10.25, so the initial investment is pretty low. The plants at retail typically cost $3.99 and up each locally. These seeds come coated with a fungicide to help protect them which makes them look like they're 24 karat gold. They're almost too pretty to plant. Out of the 53 seeds I should get 90+% germination so there should be about 45 or so plants come spring, which if bought at retail would cost around $180+. Not a bad return on the investment. The potting soil for them cost less than $5 and I just reuse old pots for them.

Plant prices here in NJ have skyrocketed in recent years. Four/six packs used to be readily available for $1-$2. Now they're $3-$4. I'll be starting 250+ Accent Impatiens seeds ($7.99 seed cost) pretty soon that at retail would cost me about another $200. Later on about 50 maigolds will get started also along with some other plants. My total seed/soil investment will be under $100 but would cost around $500 to buy those same plants at full retail.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

happycat — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:43:21 GMT

They aren't blooming, but I was excited to see my daffodils coming up just a few mintues ago. Now, I need to get some more mulch to put around them.

I also went to atwoods this morning to get some birdseed and I got some okra seeds. They are called baby bubba hybrid, they are suppose to do excellent in containers. I'm looking forward to finding out.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Flatbush — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:33:25 GMT

@gardenman

Such an interesting post. I really had no idea about all the seeds you wrote about.You will have a busy time caring for all those seeds and seedlings.. I wonder what you will do with all those plants :-) What a fun time you will have watching the seeds mature.

Thanks for the posting, full of information for me.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

gardenman — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:55:45 GMT

@Flatbush

This is what I do with all of those plants. This photo is from the Fourth of July in 2019.

The hanging baskets, railing planters, planter boxes on both sides of the front porch, then there's a fountain in the front yard that gets surrounded by plants also, so I can never have too many plants. I use a lot of plants.

Re: Anything In Bloom Now?

Flatbush — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 01:00:49 GMT

@gardenman

How beautiful!.

I'm sure the people walking by love seeing your home. You must get a lot of compliments.

No wonder you plant seeds, instead of purchasing plants at garden centers. You DO need a lot of plants.

Greyt job.