Spring is Here!

After a mild winter and a very rainy March, spring has sprung. With several days in the 80's under our belt, many plants are starting to pop. The Eucomis pole-evanii has about 1" of growth, the Laburnum allee has a few flowers starting to open and the Tetrapanex is leafing out. The hardy Amarylis are about 6" high and the hardy banana (Musa basjoo) have several new leaves. The native frogs are toning down their evening song of love (or is it lust?) and our Egyptian goose seems to have become attached to a Canada goose who, unfortunately for him, ignores him.

Last fall we dug a new pond and the frogs have rapidly moved in and filled the void. We stocked the upper pond with rainbow trout and discovered that the Blue Gill in the middle pond have been busy propagating. We also got the small vineyard planted on the middle pond dam last winter and the buds on the little Pinot Noir vines are beginning to open. Spring is such a dramatic beginning to the warm season.  We are excited about several plants that will be available this spring. After several years of poor luck with germination, this year we finally will have Musa sikkimensis 'Red Tiger' available. It is about as hardy as Musa basjoo, but has red stripes on the leaves. Pretty cool!  We dug our Haemanthus humilis and Brunsvigia bulbs and potted them up. They are just beginning  to grow and hopefully we will be able to release a few this spring.