10 October, 2010

Autumn Planting for Spring Flowers

In spring, we have masses of daffodils that flower soon after the snow melts in the flower bed at the front of the house.  I had planted these bulbs about 10 years ago (maybe longer, I can't remember.  LOL). 
Over the years, though, I had gotten tired of seeing the spent foliage in the front garden laying flat on the ground as it slowly fades to brown during July and August.  So this summer, I dug up most of the daffodil bulbs.  Altogether, I got more than 6 bushels of bulbs, some of which are shown below as they were dried and sorted.
Over the past week, Dennis and I planted most of the bulbs behind the house along the boundary of the lawn with the woods.  In the photo below you can see a white basket all the way at the lefthand side of the photo.  It marks the top of a backwards "C" shape that runs along the trees and ends where I stood as I took the photo; that strip about 10 feet wide is where the bulbs went.  I have high hopes for spring flowers!
And now for the last shots of autumn leaves.  I took these last Sunday when Dennis and I went for a country drive.
The best colors of autumn.

So intense.
I love the contrast of the almost black limbs and the leaves that seem to glow from within.
We saw these maples (perhaps Amur maples?) growing along a country road.
Since last weekend, the colors have faded and dulled, and many leaves have fallen.  Yesterday the first of our snowbird juncos arrived from Canada.  Many of them will stay here for the winter and others will continue south.  Autumn will soon be giving way to winter.

10 comments:

  1. A mammoth task with the daffodil bulbs Wilma. I bet it will look spectacular though in the spring.
    The colours of those leaves are stunning. Nature certainly has the best palette.

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  2. Wow impressive works with these bulbs... I really love your autumn pictures, the colors are fantastic and would love to see so many nice trees colors around here.

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  3. Wow! more beautiful leaves Wilma and thanks for posting the Daff collage, just lovely.
    Looking forward to the photographs of the spring flowers.

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  4. Keith - I find gardening to be very therapeutic, espceially weeding ... ;-)

    Chris - thank you.

    Roy - thanks. I hope the spring flowers live up to my expectations!

    cheers,
    Wilma

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  5. Hi Wilma, dropped in from The Early Birder blog and your autumn photos looked great. We currently live on the VA Eastern Shore but are on a 3+ week road trip through Maine and the autumn colors here are similar to yours - beautiful reds, yellows, orange.

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  6. Daffodils! My favourite garden flower and what a spectacular display you will have, well done Wilma it must have taken quite a while to plant all those :)

    As for the trees, the colours are absolutely stunning!

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  7. Yes, even as we watch nature rounding out the year with bold, brash, brilliant colors, we also think of the impulse to life that is spring - with its gentler colors, pastels in pink and blue and white and yellow - even the bright yellow daffodils are not as bright as the beech or birch leaves, but perhaps even more welcome with the promise of more rather than the flourish of an end.

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  8. Really fantastic colours captured on your images, ive enjoyed seeing them

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  9. Cool! I love your garden. Wish I can also have a healthy garden like yours, and I want plant a flower like that. Thanks for sharing. Keep posting.


    -yumi-

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  10. Wow those trees are amazing! The colours are fabulous!

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