Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

4/6/01 - I have finally begun to move plants out of the glassroom. You may remember that I bought two little Alberta spruce trees to decorate for Christmas--one for the living room and one for the glassroom. After Christmas, I put one on the floor in each corner of the glassroom where they have been until now. This week, I dug holes on each side of the front steps and planted my little Christmas trees there. They did well indoors putting out new needles and also appear to be happy outside. Last year I made the mistake of setting a similar pair of trees outside during the winter and only one survived--even it was frostbitten on one side.
         Also this week, I moved the five "Big Red" geraniums out of the glassroom and planted them in the pots (pictured in the 3/17 "Diary") on the terrace and driveway edge. I'm going to put annuals around each of them--probably Browallia from the glassroom and some Star zinnias, snapdragons, or some of the other flowers now on the cellar steps. Tomorrow I am going to move the ivy geraniums from the glassroom and hang them on either side of the front door. These hanging geraniums are finally blooming--I guess that I embarrassed them by the picture that I put in the 2/2 "Diary."
         The basement garden is nearing the end of its season. I planted the last of my seeds (Profusion zinnias and sunflowers), and will be transplanting these and a few others still on the warming pads in the new few weeks. I still have about seven flats under shop lights on the tables, but the rest are on the outside cellar steps under the plastic frame. I will soon be bringing these up and placing them along the driveway on good days, and moving them into the garage if the nights are too cold or it is rainy.
         This week's picture is of Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica), one of the small spring blooming bulbs, and is planted in the little circle bed in the front of my house. I have a similar small spring bulb, Striped Squill (Puschkinia scilloides) planted in the Sundial bed, and another with the interesting name of Glory-in-the-Snow (Chionodoxa luciliae) in the circle bed behind the garage. These small, early spring bulbs that bloom at about the same time as the crocus and daffodils are especially useful in beds where bulbs producing taller flowers and foliage might not be as attractive. For me they have two other plus points: They tend to spread both in their bed and elsewhere (I have found them blooming happily yards from where I first put the bulbs), and their foliage and flowers are close to the ground so that I can begin to plant annuals among them without difficulty.

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