Pretty chilly out on the balcony this morning but in the four-foot-long planter box I found several vivid blue scilla, a few blue anemones and two (only two) yellow crocus bravely flowering in spite of the cold.
Their container is up on a stand but on the floor below there is a pot of “Tagetes” — miniature daffodils also in bloom and four pots of primroses (two saved from last year and two new ones).
Other than those it looks pretty bleak out there but it is early days yet and things are bound to improve when it warms up a bit.
I have plans! Serious plans!
This year I hope to grow several sunflowers for dramatic effect but no more Scarlet Runner beans which were good bloomers but produced no beans.
Remember, you have to have either bees or humming birds to have successful pollination which, to my disgust, I didn’t know last spring.
This year I hope to entice Annie to plant a few Pole beans for me in what was (several years ago) my precious vegetable garden. I will buy the seeds, of course, and hope her family likes beans and would be willing to share.
Steve, editor of the PNR, brought me a wonderful book this morning, given to me by a generous, handsome, clever and dear reader whose name I hesitate to share (there is evidently a law that forbids using someone’s name unless you have his/her permission and I have no clue how to thank him/her unless he/she calls me).
It is a beautiful book, handsomely illustrated, and I’m going to love perusing it this evening.
Until I can thank you properly, please let me say I am thrilled and honestly overwhelmed to receive such a splendid gift. Many thanks!
Helen Lang has been the Peninsula News Review’s garden columnist for more than 30 years.
