What do you see on your garden walks?

[Hoy]

A little walk in the garden between the showers - rain - hail - sleet! Got an inch of white stuff last night and early morning but it thawed during the day.

The snowdrops dropped a little by the weight of the white stuff and a Helleborus thibetanus takes it time to flower.


   



The Hellebores in the wood fared better and the snow receded quickly. Some Crocuses struggle, not with snow but with old leaves.


         

[cohan]

Congratulations, Trond--spring finally arrived for you! It'll be a while yet here, so its good to see some photos from elsewhere ..

[Hoy]

Congratulations, Trond--spring finally arrived for you! It'll be a while yet here, so its good to see some photos from elsewhere ..

Thanks Cohan! But spring comes and goes here and is slow in progress. The spring does last to May We can still get snow and sleet

[cohan]

Congratulations, Trond--spring finally arrived for you! It'll be a while yet here, so its good to see some photos from elsewhere ..

Thanks Cohan! But spring comes and goes here and is slow in progress. The spring does last to May We can still get snow and sleet

Spring comes and goes here too, but we wont have any wildflowers until end of April or early  May, I don't yet have much planted for spring to make it earlier, my one spring bulb bed turned out to be  a cold spot, so its not early..lol
This week we will have days well above freezing, but there will be snow again, we aren't safe until late May/June....

[Fermi]

And here it is starting to feel like autumn with the "late bulbs" like Lycoris coming into bloom,
Lycoris elsae


and the red one we grow as L. radiata but which I'm told isn't!


The colchicums are also doing their stuff: Colchicum cilicium (pale form) is slowly clumping up


cheers
fermi

[Kelaidis]

We've just been through a toasty week and lots is coming into bloom: there are a bank of daffodils out on the parking lot of the gardens in full bloom, and the first Magnolia stellata opened by the Botanic Gardens house and the first corydalis are out (of course I forgot to photograph all these!)...but there are enough things to give a taste of the blustery steppe spring on the Colorado piedmont...I start with Bulbocodium vernum, which seems to do well in a variety of sites around Denver Botanic Gardens: I neglected to photograph the little dark pink forms of Colchicum szovitsii that have just opened at my house (much daintier). Two shots of my best Cyclamen coum--one with back lighting and the other not. These have finally found a shady site they like. Then there is the ever charming Eranthis hyemalis: can one ever have enough of this? The Fritillaria raddeana alarms me by its early bloom: I don't think we have as attractive a form as I've seen in pictures: it is rather greenish. Our F. imperialis are just breaking ground and this is in full bloom: makes me nervous since we are sure to have some more very cold weather. And Christmas roses have been blooming for months and they are now turning deep reds as they set seed....I've barely scratched the surface! I will have to do another post!

[Kelaidis]

I have just posted ten pix, and they were not enough! Way too much is already blooming. I have over 30 different kinds of things in bloom at home, and the Gardens are exploding! The Galanthus are starting to go over in more exposed spots (although there are still a few patches of snow in the darker corners where they'll be coming up for some weeks to come!) The first picture is of a giant form of Galanthus elwesii I got from Don Hackenberry 30 years ago! The next is a more typical form that has naturalized at the gardens...and the nivalis 'Viridapice' which I find to be quite vigorous. I have a special spot in my heart for reticulate irises, and this seems to be a banner year for them. I have two shots of Iris danfordiae, which seems to perenniate if you can keep it dry in summer (we grow it in groundcovers or grass to achieve that). I have 'Katharine Hodgekin' all over my garden (I blogged about it recently as well: there's quite a story about it:http://prairiebreak.blogspot.com/2011/03/whats-in-name.html). And I include closeups of 'Harmony' and 'Pixie' two of my favorite dark blues. We have drifts of 'Harmony' on a steep slope with blue gramma grass where they are quite happy. I guess you will miss my pix of early Muscari, townsendias, hellebores galore, a bevy of early drabas, and so on and so forth: the new year is rushing headlong and dragging me with it. There's nothing like early spring! (Or is it late winter?)

[McDonough]

And here it is starting to feel like autumn with the "late bulbs" like Lycoris coming into bloom,
Lycoris elsae
cheers
fermi

Fermi, great fall color, as we're just starting to emerge from under a mantle of snow and ice in the northern hemisphere.  I love the white Lycoris, a genus I have not succeeded with yet, in spite of getting some bulbs from Mr. Lycoris himself, James Waddick.  The name Lycoris elsae is probably referring to Lycoris elsiae Traub, Pl. Life xiv. 43 (1958).

It is a perplexing entity, this elsiae, and here are some links I found that help provide clues to the mystery:

[pbs] Lycoris straminea, houdyshellii, and L. elsiae:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/pbs/2010-September/038606.html

"Some authors describe that Lycoris albiflora Koidzumi is a natural hybrid of Lycoris radiata (L’Héritier) Herbert and Lycoris traubii Hayward"

Found a link for Lycoris albiflora, a species from Korea and China, with the synonym of Lycoris elsiae Traub
http://flowers.la.coocan.jp/Amaryllidaceae/Lycoris%20albiflora.htm
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200028053

All I could do here is raise questions, sorry, I don't have any answers, just not very experienced with the beautiful genus Lycoris.

[McDonough]

Panayoti, your spring season seems so much more advanced than New England, I'm so jealous.  Today it suddenly warmed up and reached 60 F (15.5 C), but it seemed semi-stupid as most of the yard and garden are still covered with a 12" thick (or thicker in places) mantle of snow, the ground still frozen beneath.

Of your floral spectacle, I really liked Galanthus nivalis 'Viridapice', such drooping elegance (and it actually looks different than many snowdrops).

Now I've seen plenty of photos of Iris danfordiae, that elfin golden yellow reticulate Iris, but interplanted with glowing orange Sedum rupestre 'Angelina', sheer brilliance!

And the shot of blue pools of Iris reticulata 'Harmony' amidst the pale amber of dried grasses, who would have thought of such a combination, double brilliance!

[McDonough]

Today it was suddenly very warm, almost summer like, after such a long spell of cold and freezing weather.  The snow has receded from a few areas where spring bulbs are plants.  Yesterday, a patch of ground where Crocus biflorus ssp. isauricus was planted, the receding snow-pack revealed flattened buds of this crocus squashed and lying miserably under the weight of the snow, but today with the warmth, they all popped open.



Stepping away a little bit is a reminder that winter snow is still predominant; we'll need a number of such warm days to melt the snow-pack layer.

[cohan]

Panayoti--what a wealth of spring glory! I can only second some of Marks specifics, esp for the irises, Love the wild form of reticulata..

Mark, congrats on blooms! Everything here still looks like your last pic.... nothing here can bloom out of the snow, unless its a late spring snow after the pack has melted and ground thawed! The ground will still be solidly frozen in most places until some time after snowmelt...

[Howey]

Yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, was the first day it was possible to see signs of life in the garden - Daphne mezereum, which was prostrate under the snow, has straightened up and the flower buds are swelling - lots of yellow Winter Aconite, Iris reticulata shoots and snowdrops.  Tulip and Hyacinths under the house eaves are up 3 inches now and Belladonna lilies which I transplanted into the University Courtyard (home of FOGS) last year, have survived and are coming up in good health.  Over in the tiny bog that one of our members created last year, the Lobelia cardinalis "placemats" look full of health.  In my own garden Lobelia cardinalis alba, Arum maculatum and that wonderful Polygala appear not to have been hurt at all by our really terrible winter.  Calycanthus floridus is just a mass of disjointed twigs - it did suffer.  However, some of those twigs, which I brought indoors and put into a vase with Cornus mas branches, have begun to leaf out, as has a small pot of Begonia sutherlandii.  No pictures yet but perhaps soon?  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[Hoy]

Here it is back to square one - 10cm of wet snow this morning! But as the ground no longer is frozen I hope it will thaw during the day. This is quite normal for March weather though.

Fermi, wether it is Lycoris radiata or not don't matter to me! It is a nice plant anyway.

Kelaidis, you do not lack plants! I believe you have a lot of sun in daytime but that you experience freezing temps during nighttime?

[Kelaidis]

Hoy,
     We get over 300 days of sun a year (more than Cairo and Athens! They have more clouds in winter than we do)...but we get frost until May. We often have Magnolias crisped...although the coming week is supposed to stay mild. I would be surprised if we don't get some very cold days still this winter.

[Lori S.]

Beautiful shows, Panayoti, Mark and Trond!  Wonderful fall flowers from the other side of the world too, Fermi!

The big melt is on here, and as this year's heavy snow rapidly disappears, it's encouraging to see signs of life...
Some native and exotic plants in juxtaposition -  bristlecone pine, Astragalus angustifolius and kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)

 
The following few are new from last year:
A teensy rosette of Dionysia involucrata, looking reasonably lifelike...


Papaver kluanense


Physaria alpina


Anacyclus marrocanus


Eriogonum saxatile


Elsewhere in the garden:
New growth on Caltha leptosepala


Evergreen foliage on Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum' and a hellebore: