Spring! Spring! Wonderful spring!

17 years ago

I know many of you are snowed under with the arctic express that blew east this week. And that cold weather will hold you in its grip for another month or so. But I wanted to assure you that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel!

This weekend I discovered no fewer than four p. Incense sprouts in my front yard. Granted this isn't such a big deal, since I had some pop up in January and February, but those froze back. These are likely here to stay.

Curiosity piqued, I checked my back yard. My little p. affinis had sent out a stalk that's already a foot long. Not five feet away, sheltered against a wooden privacy fence, is a cluster of p. foetida var. gossypiifolia, green and vigorous. Elsewhere, I found several tiny, 2-3 inch shoots of my p. Inspiration (which doesn't sucker like Incense. Go figure). The shocker, though, was coming up right next to a pear tree. A six-inch incarnata sprout. I've never had an incarnata come up this early before. Granted, out winter has been unseasonably warm, but finding that one was unexpected.

I'll be digging up and potting some of these early season sprouts, if anyone is interested in trading in the next month or so...

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Comments (7)

jblaschke
Original Author
17 years ago
Well, I had my first caerulea bloom today. Almost missed it. And two Lady Margaret blossoms opened as well, both of them exceptionally dark, as the one that opened last week. I love this time of year!
karyn1
17 years ago
Lucky you! It's unusually cold here for this time of year. My incense, caerulea and incarnata don't normally start coming up until mid June and I'm wondering if they'll be even later this year because of the cold? I hope they do come back as we had record cold temps this winter. I do have some spring flowers in bloom but it will be quite a while before I see any passies.
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jblaschke
Original Author
17 years ago
Karyn, it's been the opposite here. We maybe had a dozen nights where it dropped below freezing, and even then the longest was six hours at a stretch--the coldest daytime temps we've had were in the mid-30s. Heck, most of my plants even skipped their annual winter die-back.

Which all sounds good and well, until you consider the fact that my pear and plum trees didn't get enough winter chill hours to produce any fruit this year. :-(
karyn1
17 years ago
Sorry to hear that you won't have any pears or plums this season. I hope we don't get a late freeze that kills the fruit tree blooms. It happens occasionally. My peach blooms are almost ready to pop. I did cut back some branches and forced them inside. The flowers are so pretty and the daffs and quince are blooming so it's starting to look like spring but I'm going back to FL at the end of the week anyway. lol It's still not warm enough here for me.

Does anyone know of a good nursery in the West Palm area? Butterfly World has a decent selection of passiflora vines and other butterfly host plants but I'd like to find a nursery instead of paying $25 to get in just to shop. I was there 3 weeks ago but it was still too cold to ship plants home at that time. I love the gardens, butterflies and birds but don't need to see them again so soon. Once a year is enough. lol
pollywoggin
17 years ago
Karyn, take a trip to Homestead. Get onto Krome Avenue, (The last major street before you hit the glades) Heading south, you'll find MANY huge plant and tree nurseries. With unusual species too. I found macadamia, all kinds of other lovely palm varities, and passiflora. Plus you'll get a great deal if you buy several. Bargain with them. These are the dealers who supply almost all of the rest of the U.S. with their stock. You can make a wonderful day out of, heck...bring a picnic basket! :)
You'll also see fields full of ripe tomatoes and strawberries, that you can pick yourself.

Nicci
www.pollywogsworldoffrogs.com
cyrus_gardner
17 years ago
In Atlanta, GA suburbs (Alpharetta, z7.5) pasiflora are not moving yet. I would think that they need night temperatures of close to 50F. That may be another two weeks down the road. we are expecting fros this comming Mon. and Tuesday night.Last year I saw them bloom in june.

past winter I spoted some of them, dug up their roots and planted them near garden, at the foot of treliSS. None of my transplants nor any wild one is sprouting yet. The ones growing around here are pretty and fragrant(p. incarnata ?!). They bloom all summer, till frost.
karyn1
17 years ago
I didn't have time to run down to Homestead but several of the growers that my DH buys from are in that area so I might have him contact them. I only got one passie while there but did get several other plants that I shipped home. I didn't see anything unusual but the plants were nice and very reasonably priced. I replaced my P. vitifolia that was lost with a 3 gallon plant that was a whopping $10. It was a PITA to ship home but arrived in good condition.

I think that spring might actually be here. It was miserable here last week while I was away but got into the 60's yesterday. That's still below average but at least it's above freezing! lol Lots of bulb plants and flowering trees in bloom but I won't see anything from my hardy passies for about 2 more months.