I swear, January always feels like the longest month ever. There’s nothing really actively growing, and it’s usually too cold to go outside and have fun. So I end up stuck inside under my blankets waiting for the sun to come back out. Luckily, the month is almost over and it’s time to take a peak at what’s going on inside the hoophouse.
We recently passed 10 hours of daylight. Right on cue, it seems that the anemone coronaria plants have started to send up flowers. None of them have bloomed yet, but I guess it will be any day now – depending upon how warm the temperatures are, of course. I especially eager to see the ‘Rosa Chiaro’ anemones start to bloom. 
The ranunculus are also doing well, despite being covered with frost blankets for a solid week. They’ve gotten a little scraggly looking, but I have no doubts that they’ll continue growing and look just fine in the end. This is the largest planting of ranunculus that I’ve made to date. They’re so beautiful!
If you can see past the big piles of bittercress weed, you’ll see that the ‘Madame Butterfly’ snapdragons have gotten quite a bit bigger. This will be the first time I’ve ever grown this variety. The flower blooms are supposed to be double, and insanely beautiful. I planted a mix of colors, so hopefully we’ll have a lot of color palettes to choose from. 
In the past month, the Bells of Ireland plants have nearly doubled in size. To say I’m surprised by their growth would be a serious understatement. Last year, the plants bloomed in June. It seems that we’re a solid month ahead of schedule this year. After seeing the height of these blooms, I’m really considering adding a layer of horizontal trellis netting in case they start falling over. 
I’m not the best at keeping weeds out of the hoop house. If you look closely, you’ll see the freesia in the middle (large spikes on the left). They’re wilted and falling all over the place. It’s safe to say that overwintering freesia is not a valid option in my yard. 
The other side of the hoop house has more odds and ends. Lots of tricolor salvia, calendula, forget me nots, and scabiosa flowers.
