Image of the day

[McDonough]

It always amazes me that there is still so much open land in Europe.  If Americans (from the U.S.) had populated Europe for the same amount of time, every little bit of land would be gobbled up.

 I have ventured across the USA by car back and forth 3 times, and one thing that always amazed me, is the vast VAST areas of no habitation and development whatsoever.  In the last decade and a half, my travels have been limited to coast to coast travels via airplane, but looking down upon the scenery from airplane heights still show vast areas of nothingness (in terms of development), or near nothingness.  It amazes me that there is so much open land in the USA, but that's a good thing.

Since this is supposed to be the Image of the Day thread, let me post a few photos of a wonderful crocus from 2009, Crocus suaveolens.

[Lori S.]

So, how much longer for those to start blooming again in your area?  I'm sure I'll be green with envy to hear the answer!
Bulbocodium vernum is always my earliest way up here in the hinterlands, with March 20th being the earliest bloom; crocuses (I only have the commonly-available species/varieties) won't start until early April, at the earliest, all weather-dependent, of course.

[RickR]

Along with everything else about it, I really like the short, stubbiness of your C. suaveolens, Mark.  Does the trait continue as the foliage grows too?  In other words, are the leaves shorter too, compared to other crocus?

[Hoy]

It always amazes me that there is still so much open land in Europe.  If Americans (from the U.S.) had populated Europe for the same amount of time, every little bit of land would be gobbled up.

Wonderful pitures, Trond.

Thank you!
But for the open land in Europe - You can't draw conclusions about Europe from pics of Norway! Lots of Germans and Dutch people (and others)  come here to escape crowdedness (and pick mushrooms).

[Hoy]

Well Mark, now I have to go out digging in the snow to look for my crocuses! Last year they were in full bloom at this time.

[McDonough]

So, how much longer for those to start blooming again in your area?  I'm sure I'll be green with envy to hear the answer!
Bulbocodium vernum is always my earliest way up here in the hinterlands, with March 20th being the earliest bloom; crocuses (I only have the commonly-available species/varieties) won't start until early April, at the earliest, all weather-dependent, of course.

My photos are named with the image date, so last year was a lucky early spring and I took those photos on March 27, 2009, about 2 weeks earlier than normal, most years they flower early to mid April.  The first crocus to bloom is always C. vitellinus, blooming with the snowdrops.  My snowdrops, planted close to the sunny south side of my house, are in bloom now, and C. vitellinus has sprouted (no flowers yet), but most of the yard is entombed with a thick crust of icy snow; it is snowing again today.  For a bit of sunshine, here is a photo of Crocus gargaricus, another early bloomer.

[McDonough]

The snow is receding, the crocus are poking up through the soil, and it will not be long before they're in flower.  To help get us there, here is a photo from last march of Crocus angustifolius, with a fine stand of C. etruscus 'Rosalind' in the background.

[Hoy]

Do you keep record of all your plants, Mark? I have not names for all mine. I loose the labels and don't bother to make new ones.
I am waiting for my crocuses now, but this plant was in flower at Xmas times when it was covered in snow and has not been seen since!

[McDonough]

Do you keep record of all your plants, Mark? I have not names for all mine. I loose the labels and don't bother to make new ones.
I am waiting for my crocuses now, but this plant was in flower at Xmas times when it was covered in snow and has not been seen since!

Trond, I'm not very good with records, although I try to keep some, particularly on things I collect, like Epimedium.  A couple rules help; I always place two plant labels when I plant, one in front and one in back of the plant, so if one label gets lost, there should be another.  I also photograph plants and pull out the label and make a "personal information photo" with label in sight, to remind me just what plant I'll looking at (again, most important for collections of things).  One thing I'm bad at, is renaming my digital photos... they often are just downloaded with default numerical names, so it can be tough later on to figure out what is what.

Your having a beautiful red Hellebore in bloom at xmas time tells me our winter is much harder, no Hellebore would dare show any activity here until March at the earliest.  Just checked my earliest one, H. niger, but it is still half encased in ice, it'll be 2-3 weeks more before it is in bloom.  Just checked my photo records from last year, and see H. niger was in good bloom on March 27th... two photos uploaded.  The second photo has an arrow pointing to a seedling.  In fact, they are beginning to seed around a lot, which I'm happy about.

[Hoy]

Mark, your H. niger looks healthy and floriferous!

I have two  different clones, and one starts flowering in December, the other in March. On both he flowers are often a little hidden by the big leaves. I don't like to cut them off.
And I am not good at keeping records of my plants. Try to remember as much as possible but cultivar names  .... not a chance!

[Kelaidis]

It looked as though there's nothing listed for today, so I propose Clausia aprica as plant of the day: I grew these from seed from Alexandra Bertukenko nearly ten years ago. At first they spread like wildfire and I feared this would be the new pest...but then one day they were suddenly all gone and I am yearning to have them in my garden again. Very fragrant and it bloomed for quite a long time. Anybody else had consistent luck with this striking Central Asian?

[Booker]

Hedysarum hedysaroides nestles at the base of the imposing Cinque Torre in the Italian Dolomites.

[McDonough]

It looked as though there's nothing listed for today, so I propose Clausia aprica as plant of the day: I grew these from seed from Alexandra Bertukenko nearly ten years ago. At first they spread like wildfire and I feared this would be the new pest...but then one day they were suddenly all gone and I am yearning to have them in my garden again. Very fragrant and it bloomed for quite a long time. Anybody else had consistent luck with this striking Central Asian?

Hmmm, that's a fine looking plant, like an exceptional erysimum.  I once ordered from Bertukenko, all kinds of wonderful sounding stuff, but the seed arrived in the days of my being impossibly tied down from work and with a very long 3-hr daily commute, and did not have much resulting from the expenditure.  I still have one Euonymus from her collection in a pot, a most slow growing thing so far.

So Panayoti, what do you think is the clausia of your plant's demise... er, I mean cause.

[Kelaidis]

I get the biggest kick outa your avatars, Mark! Keep it up...

Now back to Clausia etc.: I know it looks superficially like a wallflower, but I think it's more closely allied to Parrya etc. I posted about it hoping someone else could elucidate my dilemma.

I have had the "explosive invasiveness followed by untimely demise" syndrome happen repeatedly to me in various gardens. I recall how Viola koreana looked as though it would swamp the Botanic Gardens and then disappear. The same happened with Silene keiskei, Viola cornuta, Geranium sessiliflorum var. nigricans and lots of other items: often when the garden is freshly tilled, some plant will find the condition perfect, but as the soil settles down and other plants fit in, some aspect of the soil texture or chemistry suddenly makes the seemingly invasive plant settle down to a dull roar, or even become hard to grow. I have wondered if it wasn't possibly due to a virus infecting these plants. I've observed the same phenomenon with some of the supposedly invasive weeds that get native plant people so worked up (I believe there are plants that are truly weedy, but instances like this make me angry at their extreme reactionary point of view): thirty years ago I remember seeing vast swaths of our Front Range foothills turned a brilliant yellow by Linaria dalmatica: I panicked. A few years later, ask I hiked the same areas, I noticed the Linaria was completely gone. One cannot generalize on one year's experience, obviously!

[McDonough]

Assuming it is acceptable via the "fair use" provision of material posted on the internet, today's Image of the Day is Townsendia aprica, a rare endemic of Utah.  To cover the bases, in addition to the photo itself, I include the link to the photo on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife web site. 

Every now and then one comes across a quintessential image that embodies a genus, this is certainly it.  In this view, the flower color is light peach pink, but the flowers can be yellow, joining with Townsendia jonesii var. lutea as the only two Townsendia that have yellow flowers.
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/rareplants/profiles/tep/townsendia_aprica/images/townsendia_aprica_lg.jpg