My prediction, unfortunately, came true. We have moved from a few days of spring-like weather directly into summer. And we’re not happy about it. Yesterday it was 87 degrees. Temperatures promise to remain in the 80s all week long.
Ummm…..it’s too early for that nonsense. It’s the first week of May. Don and I were both surly yesterday because of the temperature. We had to install the window air conditioner in the kitchen because it’s too hot for us and definitely too hot for Scout who does not handle the heat very well at this point in her life.
And I’m still feeling like crap. And I have to go to Hartford tomorrow, no matter how I feel.
Enough complaining.
I do have a few garden mysteries this year. We had a brutal winter, as you know, with extremely cold temperatures and mountains of snow. This year, for the first year I can remember since we moved here, our one lone tulip didn’t come up. It was planted long ago by some previous owner of the cottage. Maybe some critter got to it…or is it due to the weather?
And my hyacinth has emerged from the ground, but with smallish leaves and no flowers to be seen anywhere. Not a one.
And my poppy plant is full and beautiful – but there are no buds to be seen.
So, in the case of the tulips – nothing. In the case of the hyacinths and poppy, greenery but no flowers.
The winter had to be the most extreme we’ve had in the almost-ten years that we have lived here. Is that the culprit? Or is it just the changing cycles of bulbs and perennials?
Any ideas?
New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page in case you missed it yesterday.
Happy Tuesday.
Claudia, Your tulip could have suffered from so many things–old age, too wet, too dry last year, leaves removed too early, desperately hungry animals during the winter. Dig it up and see if the bulb is still there and what condition it is in. My flowering plants and bushes are in the same state as yours. I have buds but no blooms yet. I hope our seasons aren’t going to start being a series of extreme cold and extreme heat! Curl up and relax today before your trip to Hartford. I hope you feel better soon. Linda
Well, the one thing it isn’t is leaves removed too early, because I just leave it alone. But as for the others, they all make sense. I know I’m going to have to dig it up and ‘investigate.’
I so hope we are not in for extreme cold and extreme heat…that would be simple dreadful!
I don’t know much about gardening but I do know that extremes in weather do change plants. Hope you feel better and glad you got out the A/C. I’ve had mine on for several weeks now. Can’t take the heat.
hugs,
Linda
Me either! We were both so snarly yesterday and the minute we put in the AC, our moods changed!
I used to have over 200 tulips…that is not a typo. When my parents moved to be closer to their grandchildren, my mom brought all of her tulips with her, and planted them in our yard…what a gift! And she had a map…what color, where, how many…our yard was a showplace for a few years until…the deer would eat the blooms…and the squirrels would dig up the bulbs. Now, I have no tulips whatsoever! Best you rest up for your trip. We’ve had two days of rain here…so all outdoor landscaping has been halted…cool here too…it’s way to early for 87!! ;)
I don’t see any evidence of the bulb being dug up – but I suppose a vole could have got it. Or, as some commenters have stated, it just might be done. The hyacinths are another story – why no flowers?
I have no clue whatsoever as to why your hyacinths have no flowers…other than a harsh winter. I’m thinking that the climate change we’ve been experiencing, will bring us more unwanted surprises. We’ll just have to adjust as best we can! ;)
As Donnamae said, we have had a couple of days of rain. No storms here, just a nice rain. It is really quite cool here today
don’t know what happened up there…… but to be in the 80’s Thursday, I think. It is spring… and I’m sure I said it before, but I am a fan of the IDEA of spring,,,, just not the reality which is usually extremes of lows and high temps and no rhyme or reason to much of it.
Oh, I hope you feel better when you have to go to work. I wonder if being in a city-setting will help your sinus/ allergies at all, or if it is truly “just” a bad cold.
I’m just terrified of getting into a coughing jag in the middle of the run-through. I’m going to plant myself near the door so I can run out if I have to.
Claudia, 87 degrees now way too hot for me, here in RI yesterday it was 73. I hate to tell you but nothing last forever. Your tulip may be just done….. But wait until next year to decide. I have a couple tulips ( how did they got in my yard? ) they were fine my daffs are wonderful too. Hyacinths were good too. All my flowers are in back yard ( south facing) some melting first. I actually thought I would not see a single snow drop four feet of snow in back yard ( some from snow blower) but once the snow melted a bit there they were. Plants are a fickle bunch. Hope you feel better.
Hyacinths are all leaves, no flowers. Makes me sad!
Oh, Claudia, I’m SO sorry you’re feeling low and you have every right to grumble. I obsess about SoCal’s weather incessantly but we, too, never have even our subtle seasons anymore and it’s just endless hot summer which might sound great but it is NOT. I was driving yesterday and felt despair over all the medians, vacant lots, wild hillsides…and people’s front yards…which look like pale straw and nothing green growing, which also leaves the wildlife nothing to eat. What makes me mad, however, is that homeowners have turned their backs on their yards with the excuse of ‘drought’ and water conservation but I think with some of them it’s just an excuse not to do yard work and there’s simply no reason to have weeds two feet tall and I hope the City gets on to them about it. You can make valiant adjustments and still have pride of ownership.
Anyway, just try to get some good sleep before you have to get on the road; take a ‘care’ package with you so that you don’t have to make a drug store trip when you’re already not feeling well. I can remember having to go to work once when I was in the throes of some kind of flu and I had a tyrannical ‘boss’ who would not abide a sick day (I’d handle it differently today but, back then, I was a little bit too meek); I went home on my lunch hour and crawled into bed, every single thing in my body aching, and thought ‘how can I possibly go back to work?’ but I did. I remember those things and am so grateful now, when I’m not well, that I can be home when I know so many others do not have that option, like a single working mom who doesn’t get paid if she doesn’t report to the job and she’s got three kids to feed. Heroines among us.
I’ve worked many a day where I was sick, whether with the flu or a cold or whatever. I’ve performed onstage with a raging fever, and once did an entire show with a broken wrist. (I had a fight scene early in the play and the actor I worked with threw me to the ground the wrong way. I was in tremendous pain but couldn’t go the ER until after the show. Actually, I wouldn’t go to the ER until after the show!)
That really seems strange for your plants to grow leaves but no flowers..I never had that happen..My AC was also turned on for the first time this year yesterday..I also get grumpy when I’m too hot..Have a safe trip..
It IS strange. I don’t get it! I am perplexed at that one, Nancy.
Tulips are fussy and several types are not reliable year after year. I used to grow them and then got tired of their finicky ways. Daffodils are very reliable and the squirrels will not dig up & eat the bulbs. Hope you begin to feel better soon. It’s hot here in the midwest too, but looks like a return to normal temps. next week.
This particular tulip came through every year. Some years, more flowers than others, but it did its job every year. Daffs are no problem. They are constant. There are no signs of any digging up up the tulip bulb, so it’s still a mystery.
Oh yes, the weather. I’m afraid I’m with Al Gore & Co. on that one. I was just telling my sister the other day, “I hope this great 50/ 60-degree Spring weather doesn’t morph right into 70s & 80s, that’s just not normal for May in Rochester…” And, thanks to global warming, here we are. Too warm – and too soon. What I’m really praying for now is that it’s not too late to turn things around, but unfortunately we’ll need more than prayers to do that. Anyway, hope you’re feeling better. Even though you’ll be busy, try and get all the rest you can, and enjoy your day. :>)
Well, I am too. I definitely believe in global warming. Too much evidence, i.e., FACTS, tell us so. I am afraid it’s too late, but I pray that isn’t true.
Linda (above) is correct. It’s not unusual for tulips to disappear after a few years. Lots of critters adore them. Squirrels and voles, especially. I think you were lucky to have that one as long as you did.
I know that you have some kind of wildlife certification and cannot use pesticides, but are you allowed to feed your plants? If so, a quality organic fertilizer that is high in phosphorous, or some bonemeal, applied around the base of the plant (and scratched in, so it doesn’t wash away) will help tremendously. The best time is right after flowering (or right after they would have flowered, in your case.
When a plant that is supposed to produce flowers produces leaves only, the plant is said to be “blind.” If you use the word “blind” as one of your search terms, you may find some answers online.
The plants usually do very well every year without fertilization, and I expect them to this year. We’ll see how it goes. Since we have a well and because I also don’t even fertilize our lawn I probably won’t do that. I will follow your advice and search under the word blind. Thanks, Nancy.
Forgot to add that the hyacinths are bulbs that I found on the other side of the house when I was digging new garden beds a couple of years ago. I just stuck them in the ground in the main garden – not even expecting anything to come up – and they bloomed for two years. But I have no idea how old they are. They might be quite old.
It WAS a very harsh winter. I’ve lost some old garden friends, as well. In horticulture, a winter like this last one is known as a “hardiness trial.” Apt, don’t you think? Gardening IS a big experiment, as you know well. At least, it helps to think of it that way.
Quite apt!
I’ve read through all your comments and I don’t have anything to add to the good advice your kind readers have already provided you. I planted about 200 bulbs when I first moved to my house 20+ years ago. They bloomed for a couple of seasons, then nothing. There are lots of squirrels here, so I’m thinking they got to them. This year, my daughter planted pots and pots of bulbs. We had a riot of flowers but now the leaves are turning brown. Haven’t decided whether we’ll dig up the bulbs or leave them and plant annuals over them.
This is the fascinating part of gardening; the mysteries that occur, the plant that blooms one year but won’t bloom the next, all those things that we can’t predict.
I don’t really know about these garden type things. However, my neighbor a farmers wife told me that things go in cycles. For the most part they are true. For instance she told me we go 7 years with squirrels (too many) and then we go a few years with none. Right now we have way too many. She also told me there were cycles for the wild flowers. Again true.
Maybe it is the same with your mysteries.
Well, it’s true that everything has a cycle. I’m remembering now some years when the poppies didn’t bloom – easy to forget when the past two summers were so spectacular!
Being that sick isn’t grumbling…that’s trying to cope. I hope that you make it through the days without a coughing spell…have lots of candies in your pocket.
And that winter was brutal, it always seems like the spring and summer are harder after those cold ones.
Feel better soon!
Jen
Claudia-
I know what you mean about weather and tempers… we get the same way here at times. So far, we’ve had a mild Spring. Everything has ‘greened up’ nicely…the nights are mild and we haven’t had the A/C on yet.
We are actually into our stormy weather (Tornado) season. Truthfully here, we could get a tornado just about any season…but this time of year its the worst! I just pace back and forth…and don’t get any sleep. Guess what that makes me? Snarly!
Too bad about your tulips… maybe you can plant some more. It’s not the same when you’ve looked forward to seeing them pop out to meet you– but maybe a replanting now (or whenever your supposed to plant them) will make for a happy surprise in a couple of Spring times.
Hope your health improves and you have a pleasant and safe trip.