Frozen Impressions

♥ The daffodils are up!!

( picture )

♥ And irises, my favorite.

( picture )

♥ Plus a fun mystery: I'm like 80% sure I planted crocuses here. Before yesterday I was 100% sure, but what's coming up does not look like crocuses. What will these clever sprouts turn out to be, I wonder. (Scilla?)

( picture )

And now a spring planting calendar update.

♥ Dahlias were potted March 5. The first one stuck its head above soil today and I quickly transferred it from the dark floor of the utility room to a bright succulent shelf. (In other words, I continue to not plan lights for the dahlias.)

It has been one week since they were potted. Nine weeks remain until our frost-free date. For everyone's entertainment and my hope of making better decisions next year, I am tracking dahlia size versus time remaining before they can go outside.

( picture )

♥ Cannas remain in boxes by the back door. No substantive growth I can see; I'm checking them every few days. Temperature is higher than I'd like but steady between 55-60F. Anything below 60 seems to keep them sleeping. Garage temperature was freezing last night and will probably go colder next week, so not yet a better option. If they can stay dormant until the ground unfreezes, I should be able to put most of them in front of the patio where they were last year and let them wake up naturally in May.

♥ Winter sown seeds seem to be behaving themselves, no early germination or wild parties that I've noticed. The containers were seeded Feb 18-21, so it's been about three weeks. At least some of the seeds in there need cold stratification, and I think four weeks is the bare minimum for forcing. For most seeds, 6-12 weeks is recommended. Fortunately it's going to be cold next week, so they'll definitely get their four. After that I'll keep them out of the sun until the end of March and hope for the best.

♥ The six boxes of bulbs I bought accidentally, thinking I would "winter sow" them, have been in the refrigerator for four weeks this weekend. At this rate they should be okay to go in the ground as soon as it unfreezes enough to dig. Whew. (They all require cold stratification, but only to bloom, so even if they don't get enough cold they should be able to put up some leaves and collect energy for next year.)

In unrelated news, Marci and I went to the aquarium yesterday and we both got t-shirts with a manta ray on them that say "just a ray of sunshine." I left mine on the sofa last night and Daphne has been sleeping on it ever since.