The Rewards of Fall Planting

Hello Steemit community, it's Idyllwild here with an early spring update of our garden and the beautiful blooms from plants I started last fall.

In January, I posted an image of my budding hellebore in A Flower That Blooms in Winter and I'm happy to follow up with the same bud in its full glory!

While hellebores take awhile to flower (5 years), the good news is once it gets established, I'll be able to take divisions and get more going. All my hellebore seedlings that I started from seeds have also sprouted their second leaves and I've potted them up into individual pots.

Aside from hellebores, last fall I also invested in fall bulbs such as anemones, ranunculus, daffodils, tulips, snowdrops, and narcissus. Here are some of those beauties blooming:

Snowdrops do exactly as they're named - flower right in the snow!

My first anemone blossom. This little lady was planted in our greenhouse. I also planted several dozen outside, which are slower to bloom but much sturdier than their greenhouse cousins since they've weathered the winter. It'll be interesting to see the differences between these plants later.

Ranunculus also performed surprisingly well in our zone 7a winter, with all their newly sprouted leaves intact.

This is my first time experimenting with these flowers and seeing how far I can push them in our winter. I put some in the greenhouse just in case but so far they're proving to be far more resilient than we give them credit for.

Bulbs such as the ones I mentioned are all really great flowers to grow in your garden because not only do they do well in winter, but they also take very little care after they're established and they'll come back year after year.

Fall is also a very good time to start perennials, so I potted up peonies, daylilies, clematis, and roses. If we were living on own land, I would've planted these straight in the ground and allow them to establish, but potting will do for now so we can move them later. However, the nice thing about potting is I can observe how they do in different locations before planting them in their permanent spots.

I also seeded yarrow, feverfew, veronica, dusty miller, dianthus, and scabiosa, all of which have quickly outgrown their 1/2 gallon pots and ready to be transplanted into the ground. In addition to all these, I got a head start on hardy annuals such as larkspur, delphinium, poppy, and pansy. Hardy annuals can withstand a light frost, so now that the ground is no longer frozen, it's perfect timing for transplanting them.

Lesson learned: fall planting is well worth it!

Now on to spring planting :). I can't wait to show you our garden in full bloom. It's going to be so full of beauty, food, and medicine. Season 2 at the homestead is kicking off nicely!

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