Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk a bit about our interrupted spring. You may remember me from such spring-related posts as “Sunless Spring”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. 
That’s my internet radio on the dresser behind me. It can pick up streaming radio stations from all over the world.
I have an idea that you can tell what happened here, from my nighttime pose.
It rained a lot, and then it snowed a lot. The garden is soaked. The guy I live with said the grass in the field will become “seriously green” because of this.
Right now, nothing is green.
Yesterday there was a lot of water in the creek. It’s not very cold outside and so the snow is mostly slush.
All this snow doesn’t bother the guy I live with, since it’s “free water”, though I can tell he’s really irked that his neighbor, shoveling off their driveway, piled a whole bunch of snow in our front garden, flattening all the snowdrops growing there.
The guy I live with said that with all this snow, really the only thing to do was to eat some fermented tofu.
He said it was really good, kind of salty and sweet, very much like cheese, but that I didn’t need to try any.
Next, he’s going to try some hot fermented tofu. I definitely won’t get any of this.
Tofu aside, there is a bit of gardening news.
There are seedlings of Mirabilis longiflora.
And he got some snowdrops in the mail.
Snowdrops actually do better here when planted “in the green”, like this, especially if they’re autumn-flowering snowdrops, like some of these are. They have the rest of spring and all of summer to grow roots and get all healthy and stuff, instead of being planted as dry bulbs in October and expected to grow roots and prepare to flower in less than a month.
And so that’s my report for today.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Envious of those snowdrops. They look amazing especially for arriving in the mail. I need to try “in the green.”
Sent from iPhone. Please excuse typos.
These came from Far Reaches Farm. The guy I live with said these are technically not “in the green”, since they’re potted.
Temple Nursery (no website) and Carolyn’s Shade Gardens sell snowdrops “in the green”, and you get a package with what looks like green onions wrapped in damp paper towels.
Of course they need to be planted, or potted up, the day you get them.
Indebted to you!
You’re welcome. Though the guy I live with says these snowdrops can be pretty expensive. For The Temple Nursery, think you send a check for five dollars for a catalog to The Temple Nursery, P.O. Box 591, Trumansburg, NY, 14886.
I don’t think any other nurseries sell snowdrops like that, no soil.
But he says you can also order bulbs in the autumn, plant them in pots in a very gritty mix, water the daylights out of them, and when roots have formed, a couple of weeks later, they can be planted out into the garden. They don’t do as well for the guy I live with, but climates that have autumn rainfall might make it easier.
That is interesting about planting snowdrops ‘in the green’. We sometimes relocate bulb at the wrong time because they are in the way of something. It is saddening, although most of the resilient sort recover by their second season. I just pulled up some Crinum because I can not find them without their foliage, and it is difficult to get them out of the soil intact while the soil is dry and hard. Realistically they do not like to be moved even while dormant, so moving them while they are not dormant is not much more stressful. Actually, they are growing as if nothing ever happened, although I suspect that they will abort their bloom for this year. Heck, they would have done that anyway, no matter when I moved them. Amaryllis belladonna, which is almost a weed here, is supposed to be relocated between bloom and refoliation, as if anyone has time to be that attentive to them.
Generally bulbs can be moved right after they flower. The guy I live with dug up some crinums and gave the gigantic bulbs to a friend.
The only thing is to be careful of damaging roots. And that’s supposedly the deal with snowdrops “in the green”, damaged roots, though that hasn’t happened here.
Yes, the fleshy roots come up easily from the damp soil. So do the roots of the Amaryllis belladonna. That seems weird to me. I sort of expect bulbs to replace their roots like they replace their foliage.
The guy I live with said some bulbs do replace their roots, but maybe some don’t. The only way to tell would be to dig some up about a month after the leaves have withered. If the leaves never wither, then the bulbs must still have roots.
Amaryllis belladonna foliage shrivels as soon as the weather gets warm through spring. They are dormant for quite a while through summer. However, their roots remain fleshy. They are very resilient. I pulled some out of road debris that was out back for months, and they grew like weeds for the following autumn. The only indication that they are displeased with the abuse is that they delay bloom until the following season, which I can not complain about. I am pleased with them regardless.
The guy I live with says that makes sense. The amaryllis, by the way, is hardy here, in the sense that the bulbs are hardy, but the foliage is not.So the bulbs will live happily underground, but when the leaves get frozen, which they do, that will be the end of the bulbs. It can take a couple of years for this to show up.
Gee, that is a bummer, since they need their foliage through the winter to compensate for their lack of foliage through summer.
They do, but the guy I live with says it’s no big deal.
I think I might welcome snow for a change, just for the pleasant visual effect. I imagine it would be a pleasant alternative to constant rain and muddy conditions underfoot.
The guy I live with complains about how bright it is, outside.
There has been some damage to trees, which was expected, since the snow was so wet.
I just dug up some of our very ordinary but lovely snowdrops and sent them “spring onions style” to a gardening buddy in the mid west. It will be interesting to see how they do! I didn’t include the damp paper towel because the soil they came out of was dampish. Your snow/”free water” looks impressive!
ceci
So long as the snowdrops get planted right away they should be fine.
The “ordinary” ones are probably the best since they do so well.
My completely ordinary snowdrops, which I like very much, come in the fall like bulbs except a bit earlier. Dry. But they grow. I was very excited about my Mirabilis longiflora. When the flower buds opened I went outside all evening and into the night, but I never smelled the orange blossom fragrance. I was very disappointed. It’s kind of a sticky plant. Maybe it has to reach a certain age for the fragrance to appear? That looks like a comfortable spot for your head in the last picture, Mani. It must be hard to hold up, packed with all those brains. So heavy.
Thanks; I like to rest my head on the stairs like that, and then the guy I live with kind of attacks my paws when he comes up the stairs.
He also says that smell is kind of a strange thing. His wife couldn’t smell violets, at all. And he says it’s obvious that our neighbor has no sense of smell at all. You would not believe what my expert nose detects from that house, hundreds of feet away.
He also says he hasn’t been able to detect the fragrance in some cyclamen, which people say he should,
Dry snowdrop bulbs probably do just fine if there is rain in autumn, which I understand we no longer have.
You don’t look very happy re: all the snow. Ironically on the first day of Spring a massive storm system has moved in and we are expected to get over a foot of snow in the next few days. My snow crocus had just started blooming so they too will be crushed. The snowdrops look fantastic from their mailing. Usually the plants look sad after being shipped. The snow will melt and then you can have fun playing in the mud. Our old border collie loved to do this.
The guy I live with said all the snow was really good for the bulbs, and we’re supposed to get some more this weekend, so he’s okay with it.
The snow has mostly melted and there is a lot of mud. The guy I live with gets irked when I track mud onto the carpet, but he does that too, so he’s going to wait for a while to shampoo the carpet.
Same heer Mani! Upstairss nayburr tossed snow all over THE snodropss inn THE Wee Garden! BellaSita was miffed! Wee are havin SWINTER heer two! You due look hansum an cute inn all yore fotoss purr usual…..now to find Spring time!
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks.
The guy I live with was pretty annoyed.
Almost all the snow is gone now, but they say we might get more this weekend.