Guess Where I Will at 6:30 a.m. Tomorrow...

You will never guess............

O.K. I know you can't control your suspense, so I will tell you.

In a dentist's chair! At 6:30 a.m.! Can you believe that?

Anybody want to trade places? LOL.

It seems I have an invisible fracture in a molar. It must be pretty serious if the dentist is willing to come in at 6:30 a.m. Did you know even ex-rays won't show a fracture? It has been hurting a lot for the past week. At the moment it's really bad. If I had a pain killer I'd take it and I rarely take any meds. I think the last medication I took was nearly two years ago for another dental crisis.

Life just isn't fair! Even when I ran away I took my toothbrush--that's how serious I have always been about caring for my teeth. It does not seem to have done me much good as I've had plenty of root canals/crowns. I think it's only going to get worse as I get older. Even after a root canal and crown, it may have to be extracted. There is no guarantee.

I also have a mammogram tomorrow. It just sounds like an all around fun day, doesn't it?

Yesterday I took a picture of the colchiums blooming in the rockwall garden. The lack of rain did not seem to hurt them.
I think they make quite a pretty picture in front of this large rock.

I am still Tiptoeing Thru Those Tulips!

Thanks everyone for the comments on the new header. I decided on a whim to experiment. So far I think I have changed it 4 times. I can see I will be playing around with the header now just as much as I do the profile picture!

Does the header expand across your whole screen? It does on my computer, but I saw on a different computer that it was 3 or 4 inches short of spanning the entire top.

I got a bit more weeding done in the rockwall garden yesterday. It's tedious work getting the grass out of all that creeping phlox. I have just one 12 foot section to finish today.

I am so enjoying my tulips this year!! Most of these tulips were planted in 2004 and this is the first time I've seen them bloom because the deer eat them EVERY year. I believe I planted something like 300 tulips that year. There are so many that I just love. I grabbed my binder with the saved packets, so I could tell you the names.

Like these 'Greenland' pink/green striped ones:

I've always thought the "Greenland' were beautiful and was very happy when I found them at Kmart in 2004. They are from the Martha Stewart collection. In fact all 3 of these that I have deemed favorites happen to be from Martha's collection. Interesting.... Here are the 'Greenland' in the landscape photo.


These violet/pink doubles are 'Blue Diamond'. They remind me of a peony.

Oh, and just look at the spectacular color of these 'Texas Flame' parrot tulips. These are the ones I showed in the last post that were not yet opened.

And last, but certainly not least, another primrose/blue hyacinth shot. The thick green foliage in the back is colchium (for all you searching for 'what does colchium foliage look like in the spring?')


Sylvana, you have a good eye, because those orange tulips in the back that I like so much are indeed, 'Princess Irene'.

Tiny and Delicate Are not Adjectives Often Used to Describe Fall Flowers

unless you are growing colchium.
Long after the thick green foliage has gone, the little lavender crocus-like blooms shoot up from bare ground.

I only received these bulbs last fall. When I got them, I didn't even know what they were. They just appeared on my deck. I still don't know who put them there. (Here is my first post about these flowers)

Thanks to a lot of info from Kathy and Chloe, I am now pretty colchium savvy.

I am very thankful to whomever put them on my deck. I hope they multiply fast because I wouldn't mind having a few more. As you can see, they are barely visible in front of the huge boulder.

These little beauties were the cause of a lot of work for me today. You see, I thought I would just run out and get a quick picture. While out there, I spotted this mess of Snow-in-summer plants (Cerastium tomentosum) growing in the middle of this creeping phlox. There's also some
Bishop's Weed, Gout Weed, Snow-on-the-Mountain (Aegopodium podagraria)...whatever you call it, it's a very aggressive plant that I want out of this area. It's the variegated stuff near the shovel.

Before you could say "albino tulip", I had the shovel and wheelbarrow out and started digging. I spent about an hour out there.

Autumn Crocus (Colchicum) Foliage

I get a lot of hits from people who google for this, so I thought I would oblige these visitors and post what the foliage looks like in the spring.

I like it a lot.

Since I just planted these last fall, I don't know what happens next. I believe this lovely green foliage dies off and the flowers just sort of "pop up" in the fall.

Kathy, if you are still around, am I correct?
Or if anyone else knows, feel free to jump right in.

This is what the flower looks like in the fall

Albino Tulips? :)

One day in July I found these tulip bulbs in a pile on my deck. I still have not found out who gifted me with these. I had them sitting in my garage (forgot about them). Yesterday I noticed they were ready to bloom! I think I will have to toss them now.


Post updated after a very informative comment

Oh, my! These are not even tulips. Thanks to Kathy from Cold Climate Gardening I have learned the true identity - Colchicums.

Huh? You say, "What are colchicums?".

Well, that is exactly what I said.

I went to Kathy's site and saw many pictures of the 8 varieties she has. She has a wealth of information about them. Then I searched the net to find out how to plant the little treasures and I found this description:

Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) is also known as meadow saffron, mysteria, or naked boys. It produces pink to lavender crocus-like flowers in the fall. The flowers arise directly from the corm. There is no foliage present when the plants are in bloom. The dark green leaves (approximately 1 to 2 inches wide and 10 to 12 inches long) emerge in the spring, remain until summer, then turn yellow and die to the ground. After which, the flowers magically appear in the fall.

Colchicums should be planted immediately after delivery in August or September. (They often bloom in their shipping container if not planted immediately.) Plant the corms in well- drained soils in full sun to partial shade. Good planting sites include naturalized areas under the filtered shade of large trees and shrubs, in rock gardens, or among low-growing groundcovers such as sedum. For the best visual display, plant colchicums in clumps. The corms should be planted 2 to 3 inches deep and 6 inches apart.

Luckily I have a rock garden (well, actually it is a garden full of big rocks, but let's not get picky!) Tomorrow I shall find a home for them there.

If I had not taken up blogging, I would never have known what these were. Thanks again, Kathy.