Remembering early spring 2022
A favorite winter past-time for most gardeners is to review the pictures of their plants & garden while dreaming about the new season.
It is not only about dreaming though. Keeping pictures-records of your garden can serve many other purposes: use them to compare the emergence of species over the years (so you don’t have to start scratching the ground too early looking for them ;)
Also, they help to decide planting/transplanting locations for various specie: for example, too much sun exposure in early spring will hasten some species into growth, which often is not desirable in our climate. For this reason, when you have 2-3 seedlings of the same species plant them in different locations and assess afterwards which one was best (advantage for growing from seeds!).
Paeonia japonica specimen with shoots growing in early April, 2022; notice the flower buds! Due to the sun angle, this garden bed receives too much sun in early spring and the snow melts faster. Another specimen growing in a different location, emerges up to 2 weeks days later.
Paeonia japonica and Paeonia mascula in particular, have the tendency to emerge in late March/early April in absence of snow cover and they can grow very fast. For this reason, they are best planted in a location that remains shaded in very early spring, if possible.
Also, the pictures will show which of the early species are most resilient and useful for an early spring show; make a list and gradually add more of them to your garden.
For ephemeral species like Corydalis, Eranthis, Galanthus… it is good to take as many pictures as possible; they can later help with identification if problems arise and keeping track of interesting variants.
Castilleja applegatei – good germination in very early spring, after cold/moist stratification (outdoors). Later the seedlings vanished (slugs, too much or too little watering or absence of a host…).
When it comes to seeds germination, the pictures will serve as proof that germination occurred. It often happens that the seedlings will perish afterwards, from various reasons, and we’ll forget about them only to wonder later if they had germinated.
For gardeners in a cold, temperate climate the first timid signs of spring could appear somewhere in late March. Species with the flower buds already formed are only awaiting for a bit of warm up and the snowmelt to burst into flower: Galanthus (snowdrops), Crocus, Adonis, Iris reticulata, various Helleborus, Scilla…
The true spring only starts in April though. Even in April (and also May!), snowfalls and sudden drops in temperatures are common and unfortunately will catch various flowering species by surprise.
A few garden mementos from late March until April 20 of 2022 (on 19th it got colder and a heavy blanket of snow covered the garden). Corydalis packzoskii, Corydalis malkensis and Corydalis solida, which also flower early, were shown with many other occasions, including in Corydalis Easter Edition 2022
