Emergence

Some of the most exciting things about gardening for me are emergences. (Not emergencies, although they are exciting too.) So much anticipation followed by satisfaction, surprise, sometimes disappointment, but seeing something where before there was nothing.

The first appearance of leaf buds on deciduous plants, seedlings coming out of bare soil or potting mix, bamboo shoots breaking through the ground, and the tips of early-flowering plants punctuating barren beds of earth. This last one is what I'll talk about today.

***

The bulbs that I planted in these new beds 15 months ago are emerging now for the second year:

This is really exciting to me, as I know some of them will have multiplied: the crocus, the daffodils.

I am wondering how many of the tulips will come back, if any. This is my first experience with growing tulips, and I know they can be difficult to have return each year -- although my mother had the same red tulips in her small garden for a decade (until the year we had a huge snowstorm and the 6' snow pile on top of them got turned into an igloo by us kids, probably compacting the ground beneath in a horrible way) and she never did anything special.

The Muscari put up their thin, grassy foliage a while ago -- I don't remember when, but maybe mid-December? I remember thinking it was really early, but then realized that I really didn't know what their growing habits were at all, and that timing could be completely normal.

Maybe it's time to remove the dead annuals from last year?

As mentioned yesterday, these snapdragons will probably be around to provide company for all of these early spring blooms:

I can't wait to see what happens here in the next few weeks!


(I never thought I'd be excited about daffodils, but I am now. Ah, the fickle plant tastes of the obsessive gardener.)

.