What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

[cohan]

Lori and Tim- it's  a tidier looking outfit- at least the bottom half- since I wasn't planning to shovel at first, and so I didn't put on my 'work' pants which get rapidly dirty handling logs/firewood in the bush! These are sweatpants mostly reserved for lounging indoors...lol

Tim- our language for snow is sadly lacking (at least words in general use- they may exist in scholarly writing??) though I can certainly recognise many many types and conditions of snow, and have often judged temperature by the condition of snow on the road....

Lori- lots of plants to look at there! I just noticed tonight that one corner of the semp bed is showing ( I think, it was dark out)- the sun is powerful this time of year, melting where anything dark is on or through the snow, even when temperatures are barely above (or even below) freezing! Until that, my only plants showing were my cactus seedlings... 7C for tomorrow, then we have snow forecast again Mon and Tues, but after that, up to 11C..

[Lori S.]

First greenhouse flowers of 2012 - the wonderfully bizarre water hawthorn, Aponogeton distachyos- these flowers were cut and brought inside to better enjoy the vanilla/gardenia scent.

         

[Hoy]

Beautiful but a little bizarre

[RickR]

I didn't know you had a greenhouse, Lori.  Too small for all your seedling, I suppose...

Bizarre certainly is beautiful!
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Ptilostemon afer: March 19th and March 25th.

          

[cohan]

Really pretty, Lori, they remind me of something- maybe I've seen a picture before....

Rick, things are rolling along!
I'm going out to do some chores now- supposed to get up to 7C as I said, but at noon in Rocky Mtn House, it was still -5, and windy.. have to look at that semp bed and see what's showing...

[Lori S.]

I didn't know you had a greenhouse, Lori.  Too small for all your seedling, I suppose...

No, amply large (10'x20') but Stuart uses it for his above-ground water lily ponds and tender roses and I don't want to interfere.  (it's enough that I've taken over the entire rest of the yard!  )

Wow, Ptilostemon afer looks spectacular!
http://www.greekmountainflora.info/Parnon/slides/Ptilostemon%20afer%20Parnon.html

[RickR]

Your rolling eyes doesn't compute with me...
My yard is all for me, I still have seeds all over the house, my refrigerator is more than half full of overwintering plants, cuttings and seeds stratifying, and I have a potting table set up in the living room!
There are advantages to being single.  
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Gee, it had never crossed my mind before, but from that pic, Lori, it looks like the Ptilostemon would make a good dried flower.

Similar to Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum)

              

[RickR]

Forsythia mandshurica 'Vermont Sun' blooms two weeks earlier than F. x intermedia cultivars.  Actually, it is already done now...

               

Adonis 'Fukujukai'

          

A plain ol' Corydalis solida, but very pretty anyway.

               

Cornus mas has lost its petals, but it's still nice looking, too.

               

Hieracium villosum is interesting anytime of year.

               

[cohan]

Rick's C solida is a little ahead of mine-- here's a shot from today of the planting area where I have some- they are about 4 feet farther than the stick you see sticking up out of the snow...
Second shot is another bed- just between the shrubs and the posts (stuck into the snow to keep shovels and snowplows away from the beds). this is where I wait for Pulsatillas, Muscari, etc...

[McDonough]

Rick's C solida is a little ahead of mine-- here's a shot from today of the planting area where I have some- they are about 4 feet farther than the stick you see sticking up out of the snow...
Second shot is another bed- just between the shrubs and the posts (stuck into the snow to keep shovels and snowplows away from the beds). this is where I wait for Pulsatillas, Muscari, etc...

 

[McDonough]

Good stuff there Rick, I see that you're experiencing the same early spring we are here.  Interesting about Forsythia mandshurica, being an early flowering variety.  Even though common and ubiquetously planted, I do love Forsythia.  I don't have any in my yard, but that's okay because they're in everyone else's yard, and I get to see them everywhere.  Need to rectify the situation, and plant some of the different varieties; really like those that have deeper gold color flowers.  The Adonis is most cheerful, can't believe I don't have any adonis in my garden.

[RickR]

F. mandshurica 'Vermont Sun' flowers are twice as large as those of F. x intermedia cvs.  Lighter yellow, not gold.  I am not sure how or if it differs from the species.    But it is a very tidy shrub in comparison to most unruly forsythias, and with oval leaves, not at all narrow or pointed. 

[cohan]

I have fond memories of Forsythia from seeing it -esp in charmingly overgrown plantings in the yards of Victorian houses- in Toronto; I had thought they weren't hardy here, but have seen a couple growing happily in the town where I work.-- on the south sides of buildings, I think.. I'd like to try some if I can find seed/the right varieties

[WimB]

Spring really has started over here, with temps up to 18°C and constant sun, flowers are popping up everywhere:

Olsynium douglasii 'Album'
Saxifraga wendelboi
Ranunculus ficaria 'Salad Bowl'
Anemone blanda
Primula 'Aire Waves'
Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Papageno'
Veronica thessalica
Ranunculus alpestris
Soldanella carpatica 'Alba'
Morisia monanthos

[RickR]

I grew a seedling Pulsatilla Papageno once.  Frankly, I couldn't figure out why people liked it.  Flowers had very asymmetrically divide, sparse petals and were very ragged looking.  Yours, Wim, looks nice.  I love all of those creeping veronicas, too.

Cohan, I have found Forsythia mandshurica to be more cold hardy than even Forsythia x intermedia 'Northern Sun', which is a University of Minnesota introduction, and much touted here. 

I have been going through some of my flats of miscellaneous potted materials.  They are all much farther ahead of plants in the ground.  And I came across this surprise:

               

Clematis ochotensis from wild seed collected in Japan.  I planted the seed back in 2009 and only one sprouted, so I didn't transplant it.  The clematis grew about a foot last season, but died back to what you see.  I never realized it would be such an early bloomer!

You can also see a bunch more seedlings that came up two years later (in 2011) in the pot.  There ya go, Lori: another example for keeping "dead" pots.  But, you probably would have been smart enough to use GA3 in the first place.