Spring Time

Well spring has finally come and the garden is doing fairly well. We could use a bit more rain however. Saves me watering. Couple of lilies are smaller this season but it is still early. I may have to put miracle grow on to give them a jump start. I did not get a chance to get any compost last fall or so far this spring to add to the soil. Weekends are busy lately and the car just will not take the weight like the van would.

Well finally spring like weather is here and early flowers are blooming. Here are a few pictures to start off the season.

First Flower of 2007

Well winter is still not giving up its hold on Ottawa. We have been having colder than average seasonal temperatures and have even been getting snow. Its not accumulting but it is still depressing to see. However on one of my scoutings of the back yard I noticed a Snowdrop blooming. So I guess sooner or later spring will finally arrive and things will begin to grow. I will be able to post more frequent blogs once things are actually happening in the garden.

New Flower shoot on Orchid

One of my new orchids is putting out its first flower spike for me. It will be interesting to see the colour. The cultivar is Slc. california flame. It was purchased from Cloud Orchids in Ontario this summer. They have a nice selection of orchids and the ones I have bought from them were in very healthy condition. Their prices were very reasonable. I will post more pictures of the flower when it blooms in a couple of weeks.
I have another one that looks like it could potentially put out a flower bud, but it is too early to tell yet.

Website

For those of you who have come to my blog site via my gardening website, please feel free to send in any questions you may have concerning horticulture. I will try my best to find the information and answer your questions. Also sign my guest book, its nice to see who is looking at the site.

For those who have not visited my site there is a link to the site to the left and further down. Please visit the site and let me know what you think of it. Any suggestions for new topics to be covered are welcome. I plan to add information on Roses and Water Gardening in the near future.

Come on Spring time

Even though it looks like winter has decided to return after the last three days of absolutely gorgeous weather, spring is really not that far away. Even the plants in my basement are starting to feel the change in the seasons. SOme of my stored Canna Lily tubers are already sprouting and are about two feet high. This could post a problem when I move them outside. The tissue is not strong enough for outside light levels. Also I had a pot of Tom Piuce Oriental Lilies that I did not get a chance to plant last fall. Well one of the bulbs is coming up. Maybe the other two will join it and I can have an early show of Lilies in my house. This is a picture of the first Tom Pouce shoot. I have it under my Florescent lights so it will grow straight.

March is coming in like a lion here so it should go out like a lamb. Hopefully we will have a nice long spring and not get to hot to fast so we can enjoy the spring flowers and tulips in our Tulip Festival.

New Additions to website

Today I added two new features onto my gardening website. These are Photograph of the week and Tip of the week. The new digital camera is making it easier to add features like Photograph of the Week. Ita a little early for our flowers to be out but some of my orchids are in bloom so I will be using these for now. Hopefully im March the Algonquin College Spring floral show will be on again and I will take some pictures there to add to the site until my own flowers come out.
Take a look - website address is www.mikesbackyardgarden.org

Daylily Seedlings

One has to love the magic of digital photography. No more waiting for pictures to be developed. The latest photo I took was of my daylily seedling that I have growing in the basement under florescent grow lights. These are from my crosses during the summer of 2006. They are in their second growth session of the year. I find that they go through a couple of these sessions where they grow then turn brown and after a while start to grow again. It should take another two summers to get to blooming size. Some of the faster growing ones may bloom in the second year, but most will take until the third summer to bloom. More than likely by that time I will have more seedlings crossed.

Blooming Orchid

Today one of my Phalaeonopsis orchids finally opened it first bloom . I bought the plant a couple of years ago and has not bloomed until this year. This is also one of the first shots taken with the new digital camera. Nice true to colour shot taken with the flash right next to an outside window. I don't see any spill over from the outside light.

Digital Camera

Another step into the new electronic generation today with the purchase of a new Digital SLR camera. I purchased the Pentax K100 2 lens kit. It comes with one 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 lens and also a 50-200mm F4.5-5.6 lens. I have not tried these yet but I am excited to get going taking pictures with them.

I will be familiarizing myself with the camera over the next couple of days and will post some pics.

WoooHooo First Blog

Well I guess it had to happen sooner or later, I finally got my own blog. ...........Uhmmmm, Now what? I guess I better think of something to write in here. Hmmmm, let see.........Oh I know!! Let me introduce my gardening site. The Address is www.mikesbackyardgarden.org. This website is about my garden....hence the name. In it you will find many picture galleries of the Lily and Daylily Cultivars I grow as well as some of my own hybrid lilies I started in 2003. I have also written a huge pile of information on Lilies and Daylilies, how to grow them, and especially how to multiply them.

Come and visit my site and let me know what you think. I have a guest book if you want to leave comments or suggestions for other information you would like to see on the site.

There that was not so bad, they say the first is always the hardest to do.