Daffodils are popping up much too early.
Not all have been tricked by a warm January.
Clouds are gathering, here seen through the stick house that
Curly and I put up in 2004.
The joints of the stick house have stood fast through windstorms. The wood is weathered. I hope the part that is buried in the ground remains strong. It made me sad to think of Curly. 
Deciduous magnolia 'Leonard Messell' has early
scattered blooms.
Two green bottles were broken. The rest I've gathered still with the wire
harnesses that held them in place.
I'm thinking they'd make a wall hanging for the tool shed gathered into a bunch like grapes by the wires that hold them. I think I know where there are 2 or 3 more of the blue Arizona tea bottles.
What do you think?
Secrets of a Seedscatterer
Still winter?
ReplyDeleteSo I understand that you at least have got some winter yet...
Over here in Europe I also keep asking myself: still fall? or already spring?
I hope winter doesn't forget us this year.
(My croccuses are starting to bloom, but no daffodils yet...)
Wow a daff bloom already? This weather just gets wackier with each season....
ReplyDeleteNeilJean,
ReplyDeleteNever seen blue Arizona Tea bottles before. I moved our blue bottle collection a few weeks ago, over 215 and counting, I always check the recycling center when I recycle. Thinking of re doing our bottle tree, too many bottle get water in them. Likely will cut off limbs and install rebar limbs pointing upwards.
I like Randy's idea of the rebar limbs so the bottles don't collect water but if you can hang yours upside down that would work too.
ReplyDeleteWe are cold again here. It is now 23°. I hope it stays cold so the fruit trees will go into full dormancy before damage is done to 2012's fruit crop! I dreamed my trees were blooming....makes me think I need to check them up close and personal today.
I always love seeing daffodils.
ReplyDeleteI have my blue bottles upside down to keep water out of them. They are on these stiff but bendable lengths of whatever it is, that are placed in a 3' high terra cotta pipe, so that they look like flowers in a vase. Or at least that's how they look to me.
Have a great week.
FlowerLady
neat stick house... and I don't see blue Arizona Tea bottles any more...
ReplyDeleteYou remind me that I'm guilty of a pair of jeans that need hemming, I'm missing that legs up to her armpits gene, which the jeans HAVE! (Friday 20 January your signature plant? I have a badge on my sidebar)
ReplyDeleteI saw a fun garden in Louisiana where the gardeners had used single blue bottles on pieces of rebar, scattered thrughout the garden, rather than a single bottle tree. It made a very pretty theme, providing color even when blooms were scarce.
ReplyDeleteDear Nell Jean, Some great ideas for using blue bottles in the comments and in your posting. I think bottle trees are a southern custom -- don't often see them here and certainly not in England. Your daffodil is amazing! P. x
ReplyDeleteI am amazed with the Magnolias and the daffodils...ours are up a little bit, but certainly not blooming.
ReplyDeleteHowever you arrange your blue bottles, keep the water out so you don't have a freak freeze and lose them.
Like the blog changes. The daffodil photo made me smile. I too had some blue Arizona bottles I used for vases. Something about those blue bottles. Sorry about the bottle tree.
ReplyDeleteI had the bottles hanging from thing wire upside down. They never held water but when the wind blew the haints moaned wonderfully.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to find a place where they can hang upside down once again and I hope it will be a place where the evening sun shines through them.
Arizone tea doesn't come in glass bottles any more. Surely it can't cost more to make a plastic bottle from petroleum products than a glass bottle from sand? Go figure.
How I loved seeing your daff photo. Daffodils never fail to make me smile.
ReplyDeleteSorry about your bottle tree crashing down. I'm sure you'll think of something clever to do with the survivors.
It doesn't feel at all like the winters I've known and loved. No snow and temps in the high 40s. Hope my perennials don't suffer from no snow cover.
Happy 2012 to you, Jean.
donna
Oh my goodness, daffodils and magnolia blossoms in early January! They are lovely (even if a bit foolhardy). Happy New Year! -Jean
ReplyDelete