Grape Hyacinth Seeds

Grape Hyacinth seeds and opened seed pod.

My Grape Hyacinths made seed pods a few weeks ago. Since then I have been waiting for them to dry. I noticed some today were ready. I got 10 seeds so far and still some pods to pick when they are dried some more. I need to research a bit to see how long it will take to get anything from the seeds. Maybe I'll trade or give them to someone who can put them in their yard and be surprised one day when they show up.


All 10 Grape Hyacinth seeds.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day 3-15-08

Hyacinth Woodstock

Carol at May Dreams Gardens is the wonderful person that created Bloom Day. Go visit her blog and see other bloggers who blogged today about their blooms.

I pretty much have the same thing I had last bloom day. My balcony doesn't get many blooms. Maybe next month there will be something different. I sure do wish my seedlings would grow faster. I much be doing something wrong because I feel like my plants from seed don't grow as fast as others who grow from seed. Even my school project seedlings are growing faster then ones I've had planted for the same amount of time.

The Hyacinth wood stocks have blooms. Mine don't seem to be growing more then this. This photo was from a few days ago. Now my flowers are fried and crispy. I'm not sure if it's from the weather or if I just don't water enough for them to keep their flowers from crisping.


Cocktail Vodka Begonia

The always blooming Begonia. These have had blooms for months and months now. I love how the flowers have this sparkle in them.


Knotweed

Another plant that has been in bloom for months. The Knotweed took off but has stopped growing. The blooms keeping coming and stay on for a long long time before drying out.


Sweet Basil

Basil is in bloom. Most of the leaves are gone because there was a frost that really got to the leaves. I just took off the icky leaves and left it alone. I'm sure the leaves will come back. This plant was almost junked after the frost because I had thought it had killed the plant. The next day a flower showed up so I'll leave it alone for now.


Grape Hyacinth

The Grape Hyacinths have been going for about a month now. The bottom of the blooms are getting dried up. Soon they will probably be gone.


Hibiscus

I just got this plant yesterday. While working my manager asked me if I wanted a Hibiscus. How could I refuse a good plant. This was supposed to go to Walmart but was left behind so it is now at my home. It's not bloom but buds for blooms.


Snapdragon

The last for this months blooms is my Snapdragon. This had previous blooms but that stem broke off in the wind. I hope that it does not happen again with these blooms. Maybe I will get lucky again and get a seed pod. This time I'm wishing for better luck that the seed pod will dry out and I can have seeds.

That's all for this months Bloom Day. Nothing too exciting blooming over here.

I got you!

Bee on my grape hyacinth

Everyday I see this bee or other bees that look like this bee on my grape hyacinth. Everyday I rush out with my camera to take a picture. And everyday the bee flies away before I can take a picture. Finally I was able to get the bee when it least expected it. The bee sees me and flies away. Instead of giving up I waited for it to come back. It did come back and I took a picture before I knew what hit him. You can't outsmart me bee even though you can make honey and I can't. Lets not mention that you can fly and I can't.

Green Thumb Sunday

Sprouts of Phlox or Dusty Miller

My seedlings are growing and everyday new ones appear. I planted a mix of phlox and dusty miller in this planter. I'm still leaning towards these being phlox and not dusty miller. Even if the dusty miller does not germinate I will be happy. The dusty miller seeds I bought from Value Seeds so the .99 cents they cost won't make me feel sad. I love to get seeds from Value Seeds because they are just Thompson and Morgan seeds but greatly discounted. There aren't many choices but I usually find a few things I want. There are many of my plants growing really fast now. One of my corkscrew vine has started to grow like crazy over the past two days. That is a great sign because I really want the Corckscrew Vine to grow. The grape hyacinths are mostly all up and blooming now. They area welcome scene to my mostly green. Plus the bees have really started to show interest in them. That make me feel great when some beneficial insects are coming to my little corner. My spearmint is growing well now and will probably start to grow like a weed soon it seems. The columbine, armeria, and the bellflower are doing well. Mainly the columbine has been growing the most.


Kasha being mean and biting my plants.

Yesterday when I was taking photos as I normally do my dog Kasha decided she wanted to be a bad girl. While taking my photos she wanted to get in the way. Not only get in the way but try to bite anything I was taking a photo of. The picture above is her trying to bite my hyacinth. She did it for pretty much everything. Then she finally stopped to smell the mint and grape hyacinth.




Green Thumb Sunday

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Good Morning!

Good Morning Grasshopper!

Out on my balcony many things were out and already enjoying the day. I looked out at the sunny but windy day and saw the world awakening. Many of the plants around my apartment are growing already. There are tons of weeds in the grass that are multiplying fast. There is one weed I don't know the name of that I find rather pretty. It has interesting round leaves with a frilly edge. Then these little purple flowers come out but disappear quickly. I'm all for having naturalized native plants since my containers don't really allow them to spread as if I had a yard. The Evening Primrose is a weed here that I always look for on my morning walks. I don't see it as much as I used to.

Even though it was windy last night none of my plants tipped over like they usually do. I did the quick glance around and spotted the grasshopper on my window screen. Well good morning grasshopper. At least it will be a good morning if you don't fly at me! And it didn't, so it was a good morning. Large flying insects coming at me are not something I enjoy. I'm still getting used to the bees that like to get way to close for comfort. Now instead of giving a little squeal when a bee gets close to my head, I just stay there and wait it out hoping I don't get smacked in the eye.


Good Morning Grape Hyacinths!

Well after hoping that a grasshopper didn't fly at me I looked at my little seedlings. As I always do many times a day inspect the seedlings for any new growth. All those that are up are growing fast now. The fastest seedlings of them all are the sweet peas. They are just about 2 pushing on 3 inches tall. Yesterday I spotted my Parsley Big Mountain seeds growing. I had reseeded some of my seed flat since somethings were not popping up. Parsley was one that I reseeded a few seeds and they appeared the next day. Now I have around 4 parsley seedlings. I'm still wishing the Delphinium would pop up, but nothing. I reseeded some gazania and got a sprout about to pop out of the dirt. There was a gazania seedling before but something happened to it and it didn't make it for very long.


Peaking out of the foliage.

My Grape Hyacinths are getting ready to put on a great show. Some are showing some of their blooms already and others are just peaking out of their foliage. The ones I planted in the bowl for forcing aren't showing anything yet. I'm just guess their timers for blooming got set back from not having adequate light inside. Maybe they will put on a show after the others have started up.


Good Morning plants! Keep growing!

Grape Hyacinths and more...

Grape Hyacinths

Recently I complained that my Grape Hyacinths (muscari armeniacum) had no signs of flowers yet just foliage. Well yesterday while inspecting seedlings up close and personal I saw the signs! Quite a few of my Grape Hyacinths have the flower scape peaking up out of the center of their foliage. I purchased these in November or December maybe even Jaunuar I really don't remember. I got them on sale at lowes. Purchase them to force inside but had so many that I planted tons in any free space in my pots that I had. So I have tons of grape hyacinths to enjoy. The photo above are grape hyacinths I planted for forcing inside but put outside to receive more light. I never realized my apartment didn't receive that much light until these started yellow at the ends.

Muscari armeniacum (Grape Hyacinth)
fragrant
4-8 inches tall
deep cobalt blooms
flowers in mid spring
attracts bees
Great for indoor forcing, borders, cut flowers, rockgardens, beds, borders, and under shrubs and trees.

There are different varieties of Muscari armeniacum. There are the muscari armeniacum which is cobalt blue also the one normally called Grape Hyacinth. Album is white, Blue Spike has double florets and is flax blue, Cantab is sky blue with a slightly larger bloom, and Fantasy Creations double flowers with blue blooms that gain green with maturity. These are all fragrant.

There are over 30 different species of Muscari.


Today I have an interview/meeting to more then likely get started doing merchandising for a large wholesale nursery. Well the merchandising is at home depots I believe and lowes and those other stores. This is only for the spring. After the spring in May I'll start an internship and that I'm more than positive is a sure thing.

After my meeting when my husband gets home we'll be going to the Home and Garden show at the Alamodome. I'll be bringing my camera in hopes of great things to photograph.

Hyacinth Woodstock

Hyacinth Woodstock

My hyacinth woodstock looks like it should be blooming soon. I orginally bought these to force indoors. The container I had didn't fit all the bulbs so half went outside. I planted 3 inside and 3 outside. The other one outside is in another container and is not as large as these. The ones inside are outside right now getting some sun.


Photo from www.dutchgardens.com


Woodstock Hyacinth is a fragrant hyacinth with burgundy purple blooms. Some vary from a deeper wine purple red to a light reddish purple. They grow 8-12" high and can be grown in sun to partial shade. This hyacinth would be great for forcing indoors with the wonderful fragrance. I can't wait to smell it when mine bloom. The Woodstock Hyacinth is also good for containers and borders. They are deer and rabbit resistant. Their blooms last 3-4 weeks in mid spring.

Green Thumb Sunday

Seedlings of either phlox or dusty miller

I planted some seeds of Phlox "Phlox of Sheep" and Dusty Miller a week back. There are little seedlings popping up now. Not sure if it is the phlox or the dusty miller. I'm assuming the phlox for now because I think dusty miller is hard to grow from seeds. I could be wrong.

When I planted the seeds I had already put some grape hyacinths in the same planter. I thought by now the grape hyacinths would be blooming but they are taking their sweet time. I have a glass container where I put some grape hyacinths and they are much larger then the ones outside. I wonder if the depth that I planted them has made that difference. I'm hoping the combination will be okay with the grape hyacinths for now. If not it was a learning experience.




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