Coffee

[Pulsegleaner]

Source: Internet
'Spring is here! The trees already have buds on them!'

I planted pansies last spring and then over-wintered them, and they did drop a LOT
of seed. There must be a thousand 1/2" tall seedlings sprouting. The original 'mother' plants made it through the winter too, because here in the Pacific Northwest pansies are very hardy. They go dormant during the winter, and then take off growing again come spring. Out of curiosity I tried looking up pansies and some say they are 'short-lived perennials', with one site saying they are biennials. In our zone they definitely grow like biennials in that they are sown in summer, they over-winter, and then they set seed the following year. Whatever they are, most people certainly treat them as annuals.

Double annuals around here, since a lot of people put in a second set in the fall to give color until winter starts.

How hardy they are also may depend on their genetics. Pansies are the result of so many crossings it's actually hard to define them as a discrete species (which is why they have that x. withrocki end on their name).

In my personal experience, the closer one is to it's wild forms (either Johnny-Jump-up (Viola tricolor) or Viola cornuta) the better the chance of it or its seeds making it through the winter is. Certainly, all of the volunteers I see tend to be smaller size violas rather than bigger ones. I think the stems and leaves being less juicy (and hence, less prone to freezing damage) may help.

My main problem during the year is trying to keep the seeds separate, since I usually pick the ripe pods as I see them, and I only have so many pockets. Plus, quite often, the ones I want most to do the next year produce few, if any seeds (or why I still have to go crazy hunting down red violas when by now I should have a stable population (violas, not pansies, red pansies are easy to find, red violas are not.)

And genetics can throw curveballs. The very FIRST volunteer I got (which, alas didn't produce any seed) came out with a yellow rimmed black centered flower. This would have been perfectly typical for a full sized pansy, but this ones plant (and flower) were about the size of a wild field pansy (Viola arvensis) i.e. the weed one.

 

[digitS']

@Pulsegleaner , our warm temperatures finally melted the last patch of snow in the yard.

What do I discover about 50' away?

A tiny lawn violet blooming!

 

[Carol Dee]

Awww @digitS' and @baymule you are both so sweet.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

@Pulsegleaner , our warm temperatures finally melted the last patch of snow in the yard.

What do I discover about 50' away?

A tiny lawn violet blooming!

Yeah, I guess the blue violets (what I assume you mean, Viola soraria) will be coming up here soon as well, along with the Confederate violets (same species, Confederates are the ones that are white with the blue/purple center.)

Why the OTHER colors of this species, like the pure white and the Delft Blue (white with blue speckles) never seem to take beats me (apart from flower color, they should be exactly the same.) Even the Labrador Violets, which are supposed to be TOUGHER than the native ones, conked out after the second year.

 

[digitS']

You can only do so much, living on borders, @Pulsegleaner .

I have noticed that some lawn violets here, although not in my yard, are a much lighter blue. So light, I'd guess that they could be called white. I'm still wondering about the taller johnny jump-ups that I see near the big veggie garden.

I was disappointed that the neighbor to the east had the lawn service kill her buttercups. With no lawn violets in her yard and no buttercups in ours, they made an interesting Springtime contrast for someone walking past.

 

[baymule]

Coffee is ready! It’s 66F with high of 82F today. Going to CPA today. Been going nuts trying to find everything. Moving twice sure didn’t help any. Looking at receipts really brought home the price of inflation. It is depressing and it deeply angers me. I hate politicians.

 

[digitS']

Finished breakfast (& fiddling with the smart teevee) and now on to the herb tea, full kettle on the stove.

I told DW that we pay a price for our recent sunshine — cold nighttime temperatures. It was 56°f (13°C) and 26°f (-3°) right now. I look at @Zeedman 's weather report and how his weather and others' seems to go from wintry to spring-like in a few days (weeks), our weather drags but with 24 hour bounces. Somewhat shocking to plants.

The starts are all back in the house from the unheated greenhouse. Yesterday, I had the vent open, the exhaust fan on, and opened the door a couple of inches - trying to keep the interior out of the high 80's. Closed it up tight well before sundown, it's now 37f (3C) and that is pretty good but likely to drop another couple of degrees. At least, the little plants are happy in the house and I'm not pumping heat into the greenhouse yet.

Steve

 

[Country Homesteader]

Good Morning everyone!
HAPPY "Hump Day" WEDNESDAY!!!! 1/2way through the week YAY
Last night FH told me that if we can get our neighbor ( very good friends) of ours to tend to our dogs we are going to North Carolina on April 8th to see his sister. She really doesn't like me so I know she isn't going to be too happy that I'm there but FH wants me to meet some more of his family members so that's the only reason I'm not refusing to go. Am I really happy about having to deal with his sister? No, I am not but it's only for a few hours and I'll be able to handle it.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Drinking coffee and recovering from yesterday. It was nice out and I did some raking in the garden. I am going to do more today, but it is going to snow tomorrow and Friday, which I think is really going to be rain, but we ordered a cord of firewood that will be here Friday. I get overwhelmed by all of it, but I decided to just work each day and what I get done I get done.

The blackberry canes are just huge and bent. I was picking blackberries in Sept. and I had trimmed everything last spring. I had a lot of blackberries and things looked good before I went to the hospital and I did not get back out there until just recently, so I am not sure what all went on out there. Thinking about it, I think heavy snow might have bent the branches down.

 

[Country Homesteader]

Good THURSDAY Morning everyone!!!
Hold in there seeing how the weekend is almost upon us!