Daffodil Walk

I finally have one daffodil blooming- it's one of the cyclamineus group- either 'Peeping Tom' or 'February Gold'- these are the daffodils which look like they are in wind tunnel with the perianth segments pointing backwards. Hopefully more will soon be in bloom. It is too late to change the date or cancel the event. I hope it is successful.

Snowdrops and Daffodils

My annual daffodil walk is in just over a week: May 4th, which is a week from Sunday and I have no daffodils in bloom yet. I'm trying not to worry. I have a great number of Galanthus (snowdrops) which I love and spread them around every year- I think maybe this year for the first time ever they will still be in bloom for my walk. My Scilla and Chionodoxa are starting to bloom and I have Johnny-Jump-Ups left over from last year. Also, one Primula is blooming. I'm still hoping for the daffodils- they have never failed me yet. 3 or 4 years ago, we had 12 inches of snow completely flatten them and cover them all but by Sunday they were fine. Last year a freak 5 inch snow storm bent over most of my lilacs (and snapped alot of the Canadians) the night before my lilac tea- I haven't picked a date yet for the Lilacs- I'll wait and see if the daffodils are on time first.

Spring is Really Here

My snowdrops are now in full glorious bloom (in the one spot with no snow- as most of my yard has a foot of snow still).  It is sure nice to see those flowers- I think they are one of my favorite because they are so early- also very rugged and fragrant.  It doesn't bother me that they are white which is a color I've seen alot of lately.

I started my pruning this weekend and I have cleaned out the chicken house.

At farm, we've been making syrup everyday after going the month of March with not much activity.  At this time of year, I don't have time to help them very much.  Gathering sap this weekend, we heard and saw killdeer.

Back to Work Every Day at the Nursery

Kevin and I are busy bagging bare root trees and shrubs  This year we are using new technology and planting mostly fruit trees in biodegradable pouches with handles.We have quite some snow and our soil mix is quite cool but we are there 5 days a week working.

Back at the farm (Maple Grove Farm in West Newbury where I live),  we're not having a very good syrup year.  We made 20 gallons in Feb and another 20 yesterday and today it's rainy and sap is not running.

Making Apple Cider

We made apple cider Sunday afternoon with Wealthy and Northern Spy (we think) apples

Earthworms ruining plants

Yesterday afternoon, while I was repotting small crabapples in the nursery, I noticed more evidence of earthworm depredation.  They had eaten many of the small roots or perhaps had eaten mycorrhizal (sp?) matter- in any case, the plants just pulled right out of the ground.

For the past 10 years we've been noticing some plants just pulling out the pots in the nursery with all the roots gone and I came to suspect earthworms sort of trapped in the pots with nowhere to go as they were on gravel- I figured that when they finished eating dead vegetable matter maybe they sweitched to roots.  This has been wuite a problem with Heuchera and Tiarella- also I've noticed it with some Astilbe and Epimedium.  When we visited Don Avery at Cady's Falls Nursery, he told us that Austarlian Jumping Worms (the worst kind) had eating roots of his Cypripediums to the extent that it killed them and these were in the ground.  He showed us areas where there were many many worm castings.  I noticed Monday, weeding at my house in my beds, where I have incorperated much organic matter over the 20 years I've been there, some of the plants - namely a Thalictrum just pulled right out of the ground when I was cutting off the dead stems and roots were gone (eaten by earthworms).

It is only very recently (this week) that I have started to worry about this.

Berberis koreana: Korean Barberry

Korean Barberry is one of the most beautiful Berberis and it's not invasive.  The fall color is excellent and the fruits are nice.  Also, it has showy yellow flowers on gracefully arching branches in the spring.  It is stoloniferous so suckers keep coming up which enable easy propagation.  I have had mine for ten or fifteen years and have never yet seen seedlings.  It is possible that since I only have one, it would seed as the other barberries do if I had more than one clone but I have had no problem as yet.