The spring clean-up seems monumental at times, and so it begins this first week of March when it's still so chilly, but necessary. Weeds like hairy bittercress (Cardimine hirsuta) are just flowering, so smug with their tight little cluster of leaves. It's the perfect time to pull them, before this winter annual is pollinated and elongated seed pods develop and fling tiny seeds (hundreds of them) as far as 17 feet away. If you wait till April, I have no sympathy, by then it's way ahead of you. I might add that the seeds are viable for at least 10 years, and I say that from personal experience.
So my hands are already rough from pruning and weeding. Happy as a lark, I might add. Wear the right clothes, layers, a hat, and good sturdy shoes, the work is rewarding. Today I even cut some things to create a small bouquet. My first of the year, not as many choices as last year for the first week of March, but still plenty of lovely things to fill a vase.
The filler is buds of Viburnum macrocephalum, mixed with the earliest of forsythia, snowdrops, and the branches of the twigged dogwood 'Midwinter Fire'. After last years monthly chronicle of flowers to cut from my garden, I begin again this year, partly, or mostly due to 2 lectures scheduled for Merrifield Gardens. The first one is actually a workshop slated for Thursday, April 26th, at 5 PM at the Fair Oaks location. Myself and Wilson, the head flower designer, will help attendees on the basics of floral design and then help everyone create their own. This will require registration and payment of a supply fee of $40.
On the 12th of May, I will lecture on the uncommon cut flowers that you can grow. This will also be at Merrifield Gardens, at 10 AM, the Gainesville location. It's free with no registration required and even the most seasoned gardener will find some unusual options for plants to include in their cutting garden, I'm certain of it.
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