Well, this year’s results are in! Lovely how these species tulips returned and put on quite the show – just in time for Easter! I’m sure they will continue blooming over the next couple of weeks. They do love to dry out in the summer which I’m sure is not a problem over in Afghanistan! Each fall we carry a variety of colors which will be available by Sept 1 of this year. Fall Product Page Link!

Happy Monday!

Species Tulips

Species Tulips in Afghanistan

Species Tulips in Afghanistan

Species Tulips in Afghanistan

An Inviting Gate

Last week we had the wonderful opportunity to drive to Mississippi to receive an award from the GCA (Garden Clubs of America).   How wonderful it was for the GCA Garden Club of Houston, the garden club of my hometown, to nominate me for such an award!  They have supported me from the very beginning.  I’m sure my parents or my grandparents who grew up in Houston never would have imagined such a thing for one of their own.  I’ll break the trip into two sections: our time at Dr. William C. Welch’s garden in Mangham, Louisiana and our time with the Greenville Garden Club in Mississippi.

The Welch's Early American Home

To start with, we stayed the first evening in Louisiana at Bill’s house, and enjoyed the wonderful company of Bill and Lucille.  This home belonged to Bill’s first wife’s family, Diane, and he has kept it up ever since.  It is an early 1900’s American home that has a very Norman Rockwell feel to things, or maybe even earlier.  You can almost feel the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird walking down the sidewalk visible from the front porch.

A Porch Made For Rocking

Southern Screen Doors And Flowers

The garden was sporting numerous amaryllis and Byzantine gladiolus (which we couldn’t offer this last year because of Vole damage).  I probably took  too many images, but here are a few to appease your photographic appetite.  The amaryllis are Appleblossom amaryllis that have reverted back to some natural form.

Appleblossom Amaryllis

The Byzantine And The Bee

Rebecca With Byzantine Gladioli

A Chair For A Rest

Hardy Amaryllis

On a side note, we still have the beautiful Hardy Amaryllis also known as St Joseph’s Lily available! Click HERE for the product page!

Old Fashioned Bearded Iris

Jesse Lee Talks Gardening

The phlox was just coming on and the Chinese fringe tree (both a native and non native form) were still in bloom.  Phlox littered the sidewalks.

Native Fringe Tree Louisiana

On the drive from Louisiana to Mississippi, we saw a great bulb blooming in the ditch, but I’ll write about that one tomorrow!  However, there was one real nice specimen of a native fringe tree blooming in some ones front yard that I just had to stop and take a picture of.

White Tulips With Live Jazz

Once in Mississippi, our first stop was a garden full of white tulips.  This was one of several tours leading up to the awards banquet of the GCA that evening.  We quickly put a mint julep in our hands, and began to tour the garden to the sound of a live jazz band in the background. It reminded me almost of the wedding scene from Steel Magnolias.  It was a wonderful scene, and even more wonderful to begin bumping into so many friends and supporters throughout the years.

Mint Juleps And A Garden Tour

The evening was nothing short of spectacular, as we shared drinks in a no longer used 1920s-1930s E.E. Bass Junior High School which if I heard correctly was the first project by A. Hays Town—the famous Louisiana architect.

EE Bass Junior High School

One Spectacular Evening

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves as I’m afraid I’m out of time!

Drinks By The Carousel

Chris and Rebecca Wiesinger

Amaryllis Blooming Spring 2012

We decided to deck out our little back porch behind the red cabin and potted up several beautiful modern amaryllis varieties! These beauties have been putting on a show for several days now and many of the pots are sending up a second bloom stock. This little back porch should be ablaze with color for a couple of weeks in total!

Amaryllis Blooming Spring 2012

They really do pack a powerful punch and when planted in the garden setting should return every spring! Most people think amaryllis = Christmas but actually in the South, amaryllis are perennials and should return for many of us each year.

Exotica Amaryllis

Exotica Amaryllis Spring 2012

We have a limited selection still available – CLICK HERE! 

Lemon Star Amaryllis Spring 2012

Lemon Star Amaryllis Spring 2012

Lemon Star Amaryllis Spring 2012

Summertime Amaryllis Spring 2012

Click HERE for Summertime Amaryllis!

Visitors at The Southern Bulb Farm

The Southern Bulb Farm never gets this classy of a visitor.

Of course I mean you, Steph, and not your flashy, zippity, gorgeous vehicle. Thanks for driving us into Mineola to Kitchen’s for lunch in your corvette though.

Steph in the Barn Bagging Rain Lilies

Pretty much anytime a family member admits they are able to stop by, I snatch them up to help out at the farm. Even if it’s for just a few hours, I bribe them by talking sweetly in that oldest sister manipulative voice, paying their gas to get here, or even taking them to lunch!

Steph, thanks for helping ship 30+/- orders today!

Sisters on The Southern Bulb Farm

Steph helped bag the Z. grandiflora Rain Lilies we have on special at the Southern Bulbs web-site! Thank you all for your orders! We have put lots of bulbs this last week into gardeners hands.

These little blooming beauties are so endearing. Perhaps because they are one of the few bulbs that brave our dreadfully hot TX heat and give us a bloom several times throughout the summer while we are all sweating our way to October.

Order yours HERE!

Several of you have asked about tours here on the farm this spring. While we hope to be able to host you all one day, our farm isn’t open to the public at this time.

In the meantime, allow me to give you a little visual tour in pictures of what’s blooming this first week of March!

Rebecca and a Bouquet of Blooms

So this picture didn’t quite turn out as good as I had hoped, but you see the three different varieties here! The large trumpet daffodil to the far right is a mix of narcissus but includes Narcissus ‘Trevithian’ then we have the plump, beautiful white blooms of the Narcissus ‘Erlicheer.’

Erlicheer has really captured my fancy this spring, and I just can’t wait to offer it again in the fall. The heavy, full bodied so to speak blooms are just to die for. The last little yellow bloom you see… drum roll…one of my all time favorites, Narcissus bulbocodium ‘Hoop Petticoat.’

What a precious little yellow petticoat perfectly fitted for say a large female grasshopper!

The Texas Tulip with Grape Hyacinths

We have managed to preserve a few Tulipa praecox The Texas Tulips from the hungry jaws of the voles by growing our last few in black bulb crates. Pictured here with the Muscari neglectum Grape Hyacinth. Both putting on a show here at the farm!

Grape Hyacinth, Hoop Petticoat, and The TX Tulip

See how absolutely delightful the little Hoop Petticoat blooms are!?

(Leucojum aestivum) Snowflake

Even some of the dainty little snowflakes have decided to grace us with their presence.

(Narcissus) Golden Dawn

Going out on a limb since Chris isn’t here to check my bulb IDing skills, but I believe this is the Narcissus Golden Dawn. Chris, a little help here?

So, please tell, tell! What’s blooming in your garden this week? Post a comment below or better yet, send me an e-mail with a picture to share!

info@southernbulbs.com

Have a great week, everyone!

Lent Lilies in Tennessee

I asked 5 different people, and they all called them buttercups.  I have never heard of the Lent lily (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) having been called buttercups, but they were all in agreement.  Each person at different locations and on separate occasions all said the same thing “We always get a little snow on the buttercups, at least one, and we had that little bit of snow last Sunday.”

Lent Lilies in Tennessee

Lent Lilies in Tennessee

Lent Lilies in Tennessee

Thank you Tennessee for sharing with us your beauty!

Jonquil Blooms on the Farm in TX

The Jonquils are really putting on a show for us here in Texas. Not only on the farm, but all across the state!

My dad came this weekend, and we had some fun picking flowers. We really had a great time with him and always do.  The facial hair was a new experience for me, but I guess our parents are allowed to do crazy things in their golden years.

This early spring has us all itching to plant, prepare and well, just get out there and play in the dirt. More product coming soon! Please check out Southern Bulbs this Tuesday. We’ve got some old favorites as well as new, modern varieties available!

My Dad

Rebecca and my Dad

In my 8 years of bulb hunting, I’ve never seen the jonquils, campernelles, grand primos, Lent lilies, and Italicus (These bulbs available for purchase in the fall.) all blooming at once in late January/early February as I have this last week.  It seems like just yesterday it was Christmas….

Christmas at the Cabin

Christmas!  Well, in our blogging absence, we were in fact still alive.  However, I didn’t fill you in on all of the details.  We had a little get together.  Brad, a former Southern Bulb/Red Cabin dweller came out with his wife and baby.

Brad, Katie, and Baby Ford Fishing!

I was having fun enjoying the Instagram  photo app, so I hope you enjoy some of the photos as well.  Brad’s son is a natural fisherman.  About a week after the get together, we were able to head up to Utah to see my brother.  It was so beautiful up there, and I am thankful for at least a little cold weather experiences this winter.

Chris in Utah!

Rebecca, my brother John, and a friend, Will enjoying the sites!

All the while, the paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta papyraceous) were blooming at the cabin and at other places.

Red Cabin at Christmas

Paperwhites Blooming at Christmas

I never expected that only 3 weeks later I would see this scene in Hempstead, Texas last week.

Hempstead TX

Just south of Highway 290, on the little road to Hempstead, Texas there was an abandoned lot FULL of grand primos (Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’).  I don’t know if the camera did it justice, but it was quite a beautiful site.  I have some more photos from Hempstead, but I’ll share them tomorrow!

Hempstead TX

Blooms in Hempstead TX

Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’

Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’

Crinum Bulb

Question:

Sally from VA posted a great question regarding when to divide her crinum!

“I’d like to divide a crinum bulb that’s been in the ground for 5 years. May I do it in March, as the spring in virginia begins? Or, should I do it now, in January?”

Rebecca with Crinum Bulbs

Response:

“Thank you for your inquiry! Now would be an ideal time to divide your crinum unless you’re worried about exposing them to freezes. If the weather is going to zap them with below 30 degree temperatures or harder, wait until hard freeze danger is over. (or protect them after dividing) You’ll lose a little head start of spring growth, but all will be fine in the end with these aggressive summer growers.”

Happy Gardening!

Chris and a Crinum Bulb

Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum)

“… My mother planted Snow drops and spider lily bulbs 59 years ago when we moved…I just sold my farm/ house and I am wondering about transplanting some of those bulbs to Mississippi when I move there. I would like to take some of the bulbs to my daughters garden in about 2 weeks and take another planting when I get 60 years of moving done the end of April. Will these bulbs transplant easily? – and how do you do it?. They have multiplied over the years and follow a walkway down the hill to the lake. and have never needed any care.  I am not far from you…Winona, Texas. I shall miss this country but Oxford, Mississippi will be a new adventure. ( I first met you there when you came to speak to the garden Club and a friend of my daughter’s brought me as a guest..) …”