First Forages

Welcome to FlowerBabe's Forages!

When cleaning the garage this week, I found two stray bulbs, just sprouting where they'd been abandoned in a bucket. I handed them to Scott and said, "Plant these!"

"Well, what are they?" He asked. He has to be forgiven for these things. It's his science background that makes him so curious, and that's part of why I love him so.

"No clue! Just plant them!"

He's reported that he planted them back behind the Tuscan Rosemary, so if they're ugly, no one will see them. If they're nice, he figures we can move them next year.  (Did I mention he's also really smart?)

As a beginning gardner, I often feel like I'm foraging for facts and information, just as I would forage for herbs and flowers in the wilderness. So many sources, and so few answers!  Last year, without a clue what I was really doing, I kind of got lucky when I found the American Meadows website. I thought I'd planned carefully. I was precise. I recorded everything I put in the ground!   But I'm learning that, well perhaps... Well, planned isn't the word... Procedural? Methodic?  Completely bonking nutters? Yeah. That last bit, I think.

My spring bulbs, mostly selected from American Meadows and bulked out with a handful from the local Home Depot are starting to really bloom.  Crocus of all kinds- wee tiny Fuscotinctus and Minimus, big bright Pickwicks and Gypsy Girls- have been going for a few weeks now. The Dutch iris are appearing, leading me to the discovery that I'd made a stupid mistake. I thought I'd ordered the wee little dwarf iris, also called rock garden iris. DOH! I'm an idiot.

 The fact that there are two foot tall dutch iris growing in my low 'border' is forgivable only because the colors are STUNNING! I thought it was "Blue Ribbon" Dutch iris, but the color is a deep velvety purple. So beautiful that I maybe can forgive stupidity just this once! But it does make me wonder what else I screwed up?

I've decided this summer, I'll be less precise and more bonkers. Maybe, just maybe, I can surprise myself!