The best gardening news this week is the Spokane Orchid Society Show this weekend, March 27-29. Karla, one of our members stopped to pick up my plants for the show on her way to pick up plants from Ray and his wife. She has taken plants to the show the last four years and set up the display. After spending the weekend with her sister she brings them all back home, along with ribbons and awards. Here is the box and a closer shot of Cattleya Bob Betts.

Two of the plants I had planned to send were slow to open so they stayed home. The Encyclia bractescens has 35 buds but only 11 are open, and the Phal. Ida Fukumura x Doritis pulchima cross has 11 buds but only three were open. By the time the Bozeman show starts April 17-19th these may be done blooming but hopefully others will be ready. The Helena show is mid-May.

Despite the weather I had planned on starting garden cleanups today, but the weather dawned gloomy and dreary, much like the prediction for tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday. Be prepared; I’ll soon be there.

When it happens, it happens all at once. Today it

is official and spring is here, and my first flowers beat it by a whole day.

I returned home from pruning about 5:00 yesterday afternoon and the Winter Aconite were everywhere. Not only the plant I’d been watching and waiting to open all week, but half a dozen others as well. Eranthis hyemalis is one of the earliest rock garden plants to bloom. I have been trying to establish a colony for several years now, but despite repeated plantings only a single plant has ever come up. Apparently the bulbs I planted last fall, which I soaked overnight before planting, did much better than previous batches which I had not soaked. When they come in the mail they resemble large, very dried up raisins. I asked the supplier about any special directions and she suggested that it might help to soak them before planting but they didn’t normally suggest it. It seems to have done the trick because they are in most of the places I remember planting them.

The other surprise was that one of my tiny yellow species crocus was blooming. Barely two inches tall these have become one of my favorites since I planted several "unknown" bulbs almost ten years ago. Since then I have seen them gradually establish a small colony that has spread out into the lawn, and shown up in surprising places as the seed has spread.

They are here! They are here! The first spring flowers are up and blooming. I found the buds of the Winter Aconite last Saturday afternoon after those two warm days. They weren’t quite open, but it was color. I was certain they would be fully open by Sunday but it wasn’t to be since the weather cooled off. When they do open they will resemble our native Buttercup with a whorl of leaflets below the bloom.

Monday I was at my friend Debbie’s and found her early Iris and a clump of crocus. So even though spring does not officially start until Friday, the 20th, the flowers, at least some of them, are here now. More will come soon. I can see signs, the first leaves, of the tulips and daffodils showing more and more.

It looks like January again this morning, and sounded that way all last night. But the indoor blooms seem unaffected. I wasn’t able to make these pictures post on Friday so I’ll try again today.




The genus Restrepia is one of my favorites. This is a hybrid; Restrepia cuprea x R. dodsonii. These are tiny plants, only a couple of inches tall, but form large-ish clumps that bloom throughout the year. The hardest part of growing them is maintaining relatively high humidity and keeping them somewhat cool-ish. Mine are in a terrarium of sorts.








I puchased Paphiopedilum Snow Bird 'Opalescence' AM/AOS from Bert Logsdon when he came to Missoula several years ago to present a program for the Five Valleys Orchid Society. The AM indicates the plant recieved an Award of Merit from the American Orchid Society. I can't take the crdit for that; it belongs to Mr. Logsdon.

This beautiful white and purple miniature Dendrobium is Den. Maiden Charlotte, a cross between Den. aberrans and Den. rhodosticta. The plant is barely four inches tall making it perfect for growing under lights. It also gives a great display but takes up almost no space. I have three of these miniatures and all do well under lights. Den. Mini Snowflakes is very similar but pure white. And the third is miniature of the species Den. atroviolaceum. An odd little flower, although actually quite large for the plant, that is green covered with purple spots. I'll post a picture after the buds open.

This last flower is one of several Oncidium Carnival

Costumes I have. It has turned out to be very productive for me, bloomig regularly between October and March.

One of them bloomed last summer. I thought they

probably had a higher light requirement but discoverd

this winter that they are doing well under my grow lights.

A hybrid, Carnival Costume is an interesting combination of high and low light, and intermediate to warm growing species with a tendency toward doing well in environments with lower humidity. This makes them perfect for home growing
in places like Montana.

See you next week.

Winter and spring on the other side of the divide – the Continental Divide – is different than on this side of Montana. For one thing, the temperature extremes are greater, and more sudden and much more distinct. Missoula stays closer to the line, creating fewer undulations whether it is temperature or storms. Eastern Montana sticks to regular sunshine interspersed with the odd day or two of overcast weather as a storm comes south or beats a retreats north; thunder storms barrel through in August with all the drama of a classic thriller leaving the sunsets only the flat land can experience; the temperature can go from 64 (Monday, March 2nds high) to the previous Thursdays low of -2 below zero in only a few hours, although this week it took a few days. And it made short work of the snow, which lingered only in the deep gullies and the north sides of the eastern foothills along highway 200.

In my mother’s flower beds I found the first tulips and daffodils poking through the mulch

but no signs yet of her crocus. Her roses and other perennials are still as dormant as most of mine here in Missoula.

At home in Missoula I missed the few warm days here but the evidence of their presence was evident – the snow and iceberg surrounding my parking area were almost gone, and the Hellebore that started blooming at Thanksgiving is again blooming above the snow. The Hens and Chicks are giving their best winter color. How might they look under a reddish-brown Juniper? While not evidence of spring they continue to show the progress of the seasons.

On the highway between Missoula, Lincoln and

Great Falls, over and back, there was other

evidence of the passing of the seasons – the brightening reds and yellows of the willows and dogwoods along the Blackfoot River and in the beaver ponds above Lincoln created years ago when the Mike Horse Mine tailing dam broke and before the beavers moved in. Incidentally the first water birds I had ever seen there, mallards if I remember correctly, showed up only three years ago, and two years ago I noticed one of the largest beaver lodges I’ve ever seen. It is easily bigger than my own living room, so there must be something to say about building your own home.

Things have gone wild inside as well with

several orchids blooming again, or for the

first time. The white flower is Phalaenopsis

Sogo Yukidian 'Odom's Snowfall.' The plant is almost

too big for my house but is so beautiful it is going

to stay. Fortunately, the many small plants leave

room for a few bigger ones.