Last Fertilizer Friday of February.

It's hard to believe it's already Friday, what a busy week it's been with an even busier weekend coming up. I had really wanted to get to the nursery and pick up some more seeds. I'm hoping to get some indoor seeds started in the next week. We did get some Sweet Peas started outside a few days ago and I'm trying them in pots this time like I saw Joanne do in her garden last year. The place I used to have great success growing them is where I now have the Blueberry bushes, which also love the spot. Plus I thought the other advantage would be that I could move them to the deck when they bloom and we can really enjoy their scent that way.

This is the last Fertilizer Friday of February and I feel lucky to have more blooms to share:

Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) is probably one of my very favorite Spring flowers. I have several in my yard, but each Spring I feel like I need to have more. I never get tired of the heart shaped flowers. They are perfect for putting in little Spring bouquets.

Tete-a-tete Daffodils were almost covered in snow this time last Winter. The little clumps throughout the yard have been multiplying nicely.

Navelwort (Omphalodes cappadocica) 'Starry Eyes'. I can't wait until I can spell this one without looking it up every time! My other plants are finally getting larger, but they are in too shady of an area to get good pictures of.

The first Snowflake (Leucojum) is blooming under the newly moved Dogwood tree.

A freshly planted pink Pansy in the front yard, dirt and all.

Hellebore 'Red Lady' (H. orientalis) which was just planted last year has it's first couple of flowers just opening.

The Corsican Hellebore (H. argutifolius) has flowers opening left and right. It actually started blooming a couple of weeks ago, but I just think it's so pretty I had to post a new picture.

Hellebore (H. x nigersmithii) 'Ivory Prince' was bought on clearance last Spring. I was a little worried it wasn't going to bloom.

Muscari blooms are just popping up.

This is probably the thing I'm most excited about though. Our tiny Meyer Lemon Tree has got several of these tiny lemons forming. They are about 3/4 of an inch. It might not sound like much, but it's the first time we've gotten them. Guess our hand pollinating worked! Now we just hope they continue to grow.

Fertilizer Friday is hosted each Friday by Tootsie at Tootsie Time. Visit her to join in or see who else is "flaunting their flowers."
I hope all of you in the Northeast getting all the snow and wind will be safe. From what they are showing on the news here it looks like it's quite a storm you're getting. Hopefully this will be your last round of snow!

Busy as a bee, hand pollinating lemon blooms.

We have some new indoor blooms here and do they smell heavenly! I woke up Christmas morning to find that the Meyer Lemon tree that I brought indoors had it's first bloom opened. What a great surprise! I've been trying to take good care of it since it is the first time I've overwintered one. It had been a gift from the California in laws last March and to be honest I didn't take very good care of it for the first several months. Towards the end of the summer I re-potted it and since bringing it in a few weeks ago I've put coffee grounds around the base of the plant as a nitrogen fertilizer and have allowed the soil to dry some between waterings. The Littlest Gardener has helped me mist it since it's very dry inside right now with the heat on.

Here are some of the delicious smelling blooms.

More yummy flowers.

I realize the word tree might be a bit of an overstatement for this plant, might be more like a Lemon "shrub". It has many open flowers and lots and lots more buds growing each day.

I had mentioned in an earlier post while reading up on the care of indoor citrus that since there wouldn't be any pollinators indoors we'd have to hand pollinate. From what I could find on hand pollinating a small artist's brush was the best thing to use, although I found one person that suggested using a finch feather. We decided to go with the paintbrush. Here you can see the brush being carefully brushed against the pollen in the flower.

And look who my little bee is... The Littlest Gardener was very excited to pretend she was a bee. I told her how bees pollinated the flowers by visiting different flowers and carrying pollen from one flower to another. She worked very intently on making sure she got to each flower.

I'm sure each flower was pollinated as if an entire hive of bees had been on the little tree. I figure this is our little indoor winter experiment. If we get fruit it will be very exciting, otherwise it was a good lesson on how important the different pollinators are in the world.

I did read that some people hand pollinate the flowers regularly until the flowers are spent. My little busy bee and I will keep you posted on how our lemons do. Until then I will be stopping by regularly to breathe in the wonderful smell of lemon blossoms.