Meet: New Plants

   The sun is shining and my mood is vernal. The snow has begun to though slowly melt. There is little snow in the city; of course it is still lying in the garden.

After my previous visit to the garden center, I brought home the new plants. They have been in small pots, so I planted them in larger pots and boxes, that plants could grow before moving to my garden.

Here are my purchases:
Rhododendrons 'Nova Zembla' and 'Scintillation'. They began to grow actively in a sunny and cool place. I know very hardy 'Nova Zembla' is for zone 3; I have not seen comments about another one 'Scintillation'. It is written that it's for a zone 4-5. Did some of you grow such rhododendron?

I've bought two of hellebore, one is greenish-white, and the other is classic, white. They were very weak so I sprinkled a growth stimulator and hellebores began to grow.

My next purchase was Honeysuckle edible. I grow Honeysuckle caprifolium, the beautiful vine that has berries in August. But they are inedible. Now I'll get Honeysuckle's edible fruit. It has been actively growing and I think it should be shorten before the moving to the garden. How do you think?

Two weeks passed and I was not going to buy anything else. But ...Again I was brought to another supermarket and I could not resist. Roses were in a large selection and cheap (100 rubles ~ $ 3 each).

I had purchased one more Canadian rose: is a climber 'Henry Kelsey'. I have read that it could be left on its support for wintering, it is quite hardy. So I've got a chance to check if it is. Another one was floribunda rose 'Punch', I really liked the description of this rose: is covered with buds all season and resists diseases. Look this summer!

Two clematises were the last ones (I hope !). Although clematis grows in my garden, I like them to plant more, other varieties. Here are clematises 'Rouge Cardinal' and 'Miss Bateman'. I guess how wonderful they will grow: red and white flowers together! Clematises immediately began to grow in larger boxes, think I have to ship them carefully so as not to break their sprouts. How do you usually bring your clematis? 

 Thank you!

Spring on a Windowsill

   Spring has not yet come here. The bright green seedlings are growing on all windowsills at my home.

In my other post I told about seeds that I bought for the garden.There were some packets of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers seeds, flower seeds of lobelia and petunia, Dianthus and campanula (Blue bells).
In the first days of March I thought what the best way should be to sow in the soil or in expandable coir pellets. And I decided to buy both, soil and pellets. Most of the seeds were sown in pellets then I continued sowing, pouring soil in plastic or paper boxes.

I was told that the hybrid petunia seeds poorly germinate and I had to use only coir pellets. So I've sown 5 seeds of petunia 'Gloriosa' (first photo) in the coir pellets and my own simple petunia seeds were sown into the soil. The photo shows that petunias 'Gloriosa' are still weak, and the garden petunia seedlings are strong enough (photo below).

Tomatoes were three 'cherry tomatoes' varieties. Surprisingly, they've rapidly germinated and now one variety of tomatoes 'Richy' outgrows the others. 

Over time, I've noticed that pellets began to rapidly dry up on sunny windowsill. I didn't know whether I should keep them watering constantly. So I've added soil, now moisture is keeping better.
The lobelia seeds are very small and were sown very tightly, I need to separate seedlings soon (below, in cells). 
I'm glad Monarda seeds were perfect and I have nice and healthy seedlings (in a plastic pot). 

 Begonia tubers wintered well in a cool place and now are growing in a light windowsill. I think begonias will bloom soon, and I'll move them blooming to the garden.

I've picked up milk boxes, cut them and planted Gladiolus bulbs there. Gladiolus bulbs have also begun to sprout. I have to plant gladiolus in large garden containers later.
Here are growing dahlias. As I showed in my other post, I bought red and white dahlias. Since sprouts appeared on their tubers I've planted them in pots. Now, they are drawn to the sun and waiting for to be planted in the garden.

When the warmth come and temps are high enough my plants will be moved to the garden.

What did you sow and how are your seedlings grow?  
Where do you sow: in cells, pots or in expandable coir pellets, my friends? 

 And now what is new in my garden? The Blackbirds arrived!

 

Shrovetide, Samovar and Scarecrow, Part 3

Shrovetide week comes to an end, and people traditionally drink tea with pancakes.  (See Shrovetide Part1 and Shrovetide Part 2 ) In the old days a samovar used to boil water, it was always in any at home. This kitchen item came to Russia more than 200 years ago. 
I have never had a samovar in my home, but I read that it was necessary to put burning coals in a samovar center pipe. 

Here are some photos (Internet source) of samovars. The white samovar on the left is electrical one, porcelain. The next one has a small tea pot on top.The typical samovar is a metal one in the center below. The other painted samovars are souvenirs.

It was a tradition to fill a small teapot with tea leaves and boiling water from a tap and then to place it on a top of a samovar. I can imagine how delicious tea was with pancakes at Shrovetide, when it was cold or snowstorm outside.
Here are some traditional scarecrows made nowadays in different areas of Russia. This Shrovetide I decided to make my own scarecrow and to burn it in my garden.

Some typical scarecrows made ​​of straw or wooden sticks, dressed in different clothes and shawls (Internet).

 
To realize my idea I prepared sticks, some rags for clothes and  the scarecrow’s head. By tradition scarecrow should be dressed in women's clothes (don't know why!).
I've taken some old rags to make the head. Then I've painted her face, put "a dress" on and “a headscarf”.  I've liked it, turned out not bad.

Then I installed scarecrow in snow and  set on fire. Oh. scarecrow was burned well. The tradition means spring will be warm! (I think, in these ancient traditions is something of pagan rituals).

The audience appeared, they all wanted to spring come soon!