What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

[Tim Ingram]

[Moderator's note:  We have been a bit remiss at splitting this off into a new thread for 2012, but here it is, finally!
Lori]

A mix of things flowering or looking interesting in the garden at the moment. The garden is waking up with hellebores and many bulbs soon to come.

Narcissus panizzianus grown from Archibald seed. The flowers are small but always very early.
Muscari pseudomuscari, ditto. This is a lovely tidy species, growing here with a selection of Cyclamen hederifolium.
Cyclamen coum. Two forms with very silvered leaves from Tilebarn Nursery.
Corydalis quantmeyeriana 'Chocolate Stars' growing with cyclamen and Astelia nervosa. The corydalis is new to me and I haven't yet seen the flowers, but what foliage! I rather like this combination.
Sarcococca confusa. An unassuming shrub but one of the most delightful and scented winter flowers, and usefully tolerant of dry shade.

[RickR]

Especially vibrant cyclamen leaves, Tim!

I thought those were water droplets on the corydalis leaves, but googling shows my error: http://www.perennials.com/seeplant.html?item=1.167.580
Very impressive!

A friend showed me a corydalis with similarly shaped green leaves in an old botany professor's yard.  (I don't remember it having that cool dotting, though.)  The man doesn't remember what it is.  I saw it out of bloom last year, and I remember saying to my friend: "You saw it blooming and you're sure it is a corydalis?"  That corydalis (and the rest of the yard that includes one of the heavily divided leaf hellebores sp.) is on my slate for investigation this spring...

[McDonough]

OMG, that superb clump of cyclamen coum, WOW, those leaves are drop-dead gorgeous.

And Rick, I'm glad you provided the link and called attention to the Corydalis leaves; I had come to the same conclusion that I was seeing dew droplets.  What an unusual and attractive Corydalis.  Tim: not fair you have all this going on now! 

[cohan]

A mix of things flowering or looking interesting in the garden at the moment. The garden is waking up with hellebores and many bulbs soon to come.

Narcissus panizzianus grown from Archibald seed. The flowers are small but always very early.
Muscari pseudomuscari, ditto. This is a lovely tidy species, growing here with a selection of Cyclamen hederifolium.
Cyclamen coum. Two forms with very silvered leaves from Tilebarn Nursery.
Corydalis quantmeyeriana 'Chocolate Stars' growing with cyclamen and Astelia nervosa. The corydalis is new to me and I haven't yet seen the flowers, but what foliage! I rather like this combination.
Sarcococca confusa. An unassuming shrub but one of the most delightful and scented winter flowers, and usefully tolerant of dry shade.

nice to see the flowers, but especially like the Cyclamen leaves!

[Hoy]

I like all those plants! But if I could get only one and had to choose, I had chosen the Corydalis, no doubt! I have a soft spot for that genus! However, love Cyclamen too - a hard choice

I had hoped that our mild weather should continue but no luck. Today is our first day this winter with temperature below 0^oC all day and night. And more is to come The forecast says down to -10^oC during the week > and almost no snow

[AmyO]

A mix of things flowering or looking interesting in the garden at the moment. The garden is waking up with hellebores and many bulbs soon to come.

Cyclamen hederifolium[/i].
Cyclamen coum. Two forms with very silvered leaves from Tilebarn Nursery.

Holy crow!! Those Cyclamen are gorgeous!!
Would you consider trading Cyclamen seed for Primula seed?? Please oh please?

[Lockwood]

Cyclamen coum. Two forms with very silvered leaves from Tilebarn Nursery.

  Tim - those are some very stunning cyclamen coum.  Very unfortunate Tile Barn Nursery has closed.

Like Amy, I'd be willing to trade for some seed.  

Julie

[Lori S.]

Beautiful, Tim, and always a shock to see plants in bloom in the "middle of winter"!   

I see that Corydalis quantmeyerana 'Chocolate Stars' is available again this year from Fraser's Thimble Farms.  I bought it a couple of years ago from them but had no success with wintering over... actually, I'm not even sure if it survived the summer.  Your photo is a powerful temptation to try it again!

[cohan]

I missed the Cory first time round, till Trond mentioned it (with my dodgy internet connection, I don't always enlarge all the pics) but it is very cool-- always love non-green foliage

[Doreen]

A belated Happy New Year everyone as I catch up with posting some pre-Christmas pics.
First up, Erythronium 'Ruapuna Dawn', a revolutum hybrid raised by Joan Whillans in New Zealand, and thought to be the same parentage as Ian Young's 'Craigton Cover Girl'.
Next a clump of seed-raised Lilium mackliniae . One plant has flowers with a dark red eye so I'm hoping to get some seed from that.
I've always had a soft spot for buttercups, and Ranunculus parnassifolius does well for me in a polystyrene trough. It seems to need lots of sun and lots of water though to stop it getting long and leggy.
Then a plant I used to cossett in a pot in the UK but which grows and spreads happily outdoors here under a dogwood bush, the Canadian bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis 'Multiplex'. Many years ago when I first got my hands on this plant, I was told not to be frightened of chopping it up and moving it around, even "arranging" nice little noses in a clean pot to take to a show a couple of weeks away. Just ignore it bleeding red sap, it's tougher than it looks, and the foliage is pretty too.   

[Tim Ingram]

Doreen - that Sanguinaria is spectacular! We used to have a group nearly as good but I have not kept it going. I think regular division is the answer. i have the single version which seeds around but never makes clumps like this.

[AmyO]

Doreen your photos are so wonderful to see on this cold and slightly snowy day! I woke up to just a dusting and we need so much more on the ground here!!
You're right about the Sanguinaria...I wacked up a patch at work last fall and potted the pieces for sale this spring! So easy!
Here is a photo of a patch of the single flowered form at the end of my road last spring! It's huge and interspersed with Trillium erectum although you can't see them. 

[Booker]

Super images everyone ... Happy New Year Doreen.

[RickR]

Wonderful images of excellently grown plants, Doreen!

The way Amy shows wild Sanguinaria canadensis growing is the same way they colonize here in Minnesota.  Larger single clonal clumping is not rare, but one to three noses per plant is the norm.  However, these same plants grown in a garden setting would likely have a great propensity to form large clumps.

[Hoy]

Doreen, now I know what to aim for! My plants never grow like that

Amy, interesting to see how the bloodroot grows naturally. My second goal is to copy that in a patch in my woodland!

Does the bloodroot need another clone to set fertile seed?