A Sweetsmelling Small Daffodil and Other Things Yellow

At Hofstra's Sensory Garden I fell in love with these wee multi-flowering daffodils. Then I took a whiff to see if they really were fragrant and man were they ever.

A Winter Hazel was in full bloom with some yellow tulips not far behind.

Green!

And a bit of yellow too! I feel like pointing and shouting like people do when they see the blimp. The flowers are coming! 

Box of Bulbs

Because the seasons bleed into one another and spring will come next year, it's bulb planting time again.

In the Parking Lot With Plants

Plants just seem to make everything better. I was in a parking lot at Hostra when I snapped these photos of a median strip garden.

Are Turkestanicas Getting Trendy?

I felt like I was bumping into some old friends on a walk through Hofstra's grounds this week when I spotted Turkestanica tulips en masse bordering a sculpture and then tucked into all kinds of little spots as well.

Is this sweet species tulip I adore getting a little trendy these days or is someone at Hofstra also enamored by it? Either way is just fine by me.

Cloudy with Scattered Pink Petals

This morning the weatherman said it would be cloudy with some scattered pink petals. Tomorrow's springtime forecast? More of the same.

Another Day, Another Crush

Call me fickle I guess? I seemed to have developed yet another mad crush on an orange tulip I just met this morning.

"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh you don't quite know what it is that you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" -- Mark Twain

Oh It's Love 4 Sure

I fell hard and fast for this sweet mutli-flowering tulip this morning. Be still my bleeding heart!!!

Unfortunately it wouldn't give me its name. So, I guess I will just have to hunt it down.

If You Only Notice Them When They Are Blooming, You are Missing a Whole Lot of the Show

The oakleaf hydrangea, with its first soft green leaves of spring unfolding, is quite a long way from blooming. Some tulips on the other hand like those pictured below are on the cusp of blooming. They are all something to see even right now though.

Looking Up Now and Down and All Around

As the cherry blossoms hang down en masse from above, closer to the ground, the peonies, in a different phase of growth, reach up towards the sun.

While at my feet, some 'Fire of Love' tulips emerge striped in a red and yellow so bright and surprising that I wonder if the name references these leaves now or the bloom yet to come.

Guess They Call 'Em "Lent Lilies" for a Good Reason

This year in New York as Lent is ending, the daffodils bloom. It is impossible to ignore that spring is here now.

What a Difference a Week Can Make

Already you can tell this is going to be one of those weeks in spring where it will feel like everything you have been waiting and waiting for happens suddenly and all at once.  Of course this isn't really so. The signs of growth have been everywhere.

Yesterday's Daffodil and Some Future Tulips

Yesterday's daffodil and some future tulips in the same late afteroon/early evening sunlight.

Windy Sunday Walk With Tulips

Even though I was using a tablet that doesn't have a camera to write home about, I couldn't stop myself from trying to capture a bit of this windy Sunday walk with tulips. Bet if I had a good camera I would still be stuck there on the path snapping away.

The sun finally came out after a rainy grey week and the tulips, well, they were blowing in the wind.

Turkestanica

Tulipa turkestanica at the High Line

Over at the High Line, the Turkestanica is blooming again, featured as the plant of the week on the High Line's Blog. The photo above captures the exact moment I fell in love with this tulip in the last sunlight of the day, its petals apparently closing up for the evening. I was at the High Line. It was a few springs back, and at that time I wasn't quite sure exactly what I was looking at.

Tulipa turkestanica at the lot

Susan, Anne and I planted this really sweet species tulip in the stalled construction lot around the corner when trying to squeeze in a guerilla experiment in learning about growing flowers for market in much less than ideal conditions. I was wondering how this tulip would look and last in a small vase. And we were planting things on the sly that we thought might thrive under the conditions of the lot-- the poor soil and lack of irrigation being primary factors.

These bulbs are now buried beneath the 5 story building that has risen since, the construction nearing completion this spring. But in that singular spring a couple years back, seeing those blooms was more than all right.

Abundance

Granted, the lily is indeed a massive flower, the anthers like giant fuzzy-slippered landing pads, but that is one very very tiny bee. I'm not sure how to make a comparison to any feast I've eaten. But then, I've never actually sat down in my dinner plate with room to stretch out and walk around.

We had our first eggplant for dinner tonight.

One For my Mom's Table

This year I harvested most of my garlic scapes about a month ago. Those scapes made their way into salads and one tasty pasta dish that I was surprised came from my own hands at the stove. The rest remained on the garlic plants which were just pulled this week to cure. Those remaining scapes just opening made their way into the bouquet for my mom's table above. I was getting teased down at the community garden though about leaving those scapes on. But it's win/win as far as I'm concerned. I had some scapes for eating, some for flowers and still enough garlic to harvest and of decent size to be happy with. There's more than one way to skin a cat or so I've heard.

If It's The End of A Dream

then at least the dream is ending in a bright splash of primary colors up against a red wall. (Something tells me the coffee spot, ( Coffee Bites) up the street isn't afraid of a little color in the vase. It could be their paint job.) Our somewhat mad and exciting experiment with growing flowers locally in Brooklyn in a dusty lot may be at its end. Though we found out only recently that the owner of this stalled construction site is in jail for mortgage fraud, (to the tune of $18 million), it seems someone has locked us out of the lot. Wouldn't you know it, it happened just as we were delivered flats and flats of native plugs (mostly prairie plants) and other drought tolerant species that would relish the space. With so many blooms still being waited on from what's already been planted, it's going to be hard not to find a way back in, if only just to harvest and not to plant and sow as we were getting excited and ready for. I'm having a little trouble adjusting to the cirumstances, though all along I knew it was a very real risk. It will kill me to watch the mugwort and garbage swallow up the plants we have in there, but that just may be the reality we are headed for. I'm pretty sure that though the owner is in prison and the property has been in foreclosure for some time that the lot will sit vacant for a while longer still. I'm going to give myself a week to think about what my next move will be and I think I'm going to need all of it.

Brooklyn Grown flower bouquet

The Scene From Today's Window Sill

Joe's in mad propagating mode and he's beginning to take up more and more window sill real estate. His innovations continually surprise me. Today I noticed the new shelf and the mirror for catching some extra sunlight for the tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings. I can only wish that I had some of the building and really fine motor skills that he has. Handling delicate seedlings kind of freaks me out (I still have to get past my tendency to be overly precious with plants), but he just pricks them out and transplants with the kind ease and steady hand that makes it seem like he's been doing it his whole life.

And below, some freshly harvested flowers in a little bouquet. (You know I don't keep bouquets on the window sill. It's just a source for capturing some daylight for pictures.)

Some of what's blooming now, grown in Brooklyn

What Matters

it's what you see and what you dream. The reality is that much of this lot is ridiculously dry and dusty (for now). Susan and I planted last night (some chives, some sea thrift, we think they will handle it) and digging into the ground was something like being in a great dust storm of earlier times, mixed with hitting chunks of brick and cement. Not ideal, in other words. But if you crouch down in certain areas, there are all these amazing bulbs that managed to survive in this most inhospitable place and they are spectacular. I am crazy for this tulip. It is the sweetest yet tough-as-nails thing.