What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

Hoy wrote:

Lori wrote:

Lewisia longipetala, emerging:

Not very long leaves, though on that longipetala  ;)

Well, no, not on the mingy little specimens I grow!  ;D  I suspect "longipetala" refers to the petals though; Davidson in his Lewisias refers to them as "narrow, equal" and "starry, not oval", (in describing how it was differentiated from P. pygamaea); see L. longipetala in bloom below:

Congrats on some sunshine! I like the pink Anemone- it seems blue and yellow are more common for spring flowers, so pink is welcome :)

How small is the T pusillum?

No photos from me as yet, won't be long though, I hope! Out checking on the garden areas today,the usual suspects are showing signs of life, the ever so hardy sedums, the plain old - plain old varieties, I don't think anything stops them, short of pulling them out. And many of the dianthus, and bergenia, perking up their "ears".  I stopped and checked on the crambe cordifolia I planted last year, wondering if it made it through the winter as it wasn't very large, but I see what looks to be at least a couple of reddish growing points on the exposed crown, naturally I was tempted to poke at them, but at the last minute I found some common sense and left them alone...

Glad to hear of someone else growing Crambe cordifolia around here, Faith - it's a terrific plant!
I have been resisting tugging at things in the rock garden too.

The small bulbs are starting to bloom in greater number now - crocus, chionodoxa, scilla - though no good shows yet. 
A couple of hepatica are starting to bloom today, though my camera didn't the colours correctly.  They are actually more of a deep purple-blue, especially the H. nobilis.
H. nobilis; H. transylvanica:
 

Great Hepaticas, Lori :) Still no garden action here (really curious whether the forecast possible heavy rain- and snow- will speed things along at all, or just make us even soggier - we may be floating by the end..), but I did, to my surprise, see some Petasites in bud in the bush- just emerging from the water, only in one sheltered spot (that I saw, no doubt similar others) with snow still melting into the water just metres away..
more pics here:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=591.msg16594#msg16594

That's a cool Petasites, Todd! I'll have to look it up..

Petasites frigidus is very invasive... I tried it twice and yanked it out twice (gave it a second chance in case my invasiveness tolerance had changed, I guess).  Some of the cultivated ones are just as bad, from observation.  (I've never grown them, having enough invasive things to deal with.)

I wouldn't put them next to anything delicate or rare, but both P frigidus palmatus and sagitattus (if, as I've said, its really accurate to distinguish the species- there are so many intermediate forms, I wouldn't be surprised if my whole region contains hybrids, or if its really one big messy species) are native here and even on my acreage, so I have no fear of them- though likely they behave differently in a cushy cultivated bed than in a more natural context which always includes many other plants... that said, I still plan a planting in the yard so I can enjoy them up close in spring! I can put them somewhere they can spread for a few metres, mixed with other native wetland plants- sagitattus, that is, palmatus is a woodland species here, and often doesn't flower, but has really lovely leaves... it grows even more spread out amongst other plants than sagitattus, but I'd like to try a mass of it, like a whole berm or something- I like the emerging leaves and fall leaves as well..

Todd, did you grow your albus from seed? I still haven't looked it up yet...lol

Thank goodness for alpines- only thing showing signs of life in the garden besides weeds ;) and that with nightly frost, at least as low as -11C recently, and snow frequently, including snow/rain almost non-stop since Thurs afternoon... still, just noticed today a few subtle suggestions of growth to come! These are still small seedlings, second winter outside, but first in the ground in this new bed with semps, so I'm excited to see signs of life;
Saussurea here:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=676.msg16672#msg16672
Plus Waldheimia tomentosa just emerged, no more than an inch tall, my one and only seedling..

I was starting to wonder about the leaves which I have not seen any white on so far, but I found an image on Holubec's site that looks right- I guess its just a greener form...
http://holubec.wbs.cz/1Kunlun-Shan-Xinjiang.html?framebreaker
Potentilla nitida  I have several of these in different spots as well.. just waking up...(the other bed is snow covered again)

Todd-- good thing I didn't look it up yet, then  ;D
As for P nitida, we'll see longer term now that its in the ground- sure would love to see it flower :) There's a funny story there- I was sowing this and Paederota bonarota at the same time, and unknowingly sowed them both in one pot and left the other empty!! I realised eventually there were two kinds of seedlings and just left them like that...lol I have the Paederota planted out as well, no sign of that yet...

Trond, the Holubec collections are from a number of places, some dry but some not- there is a bit of description on the site, I haven't go them all sorted out in my mind... for sure the Sakhalin collections seem to be from a wet place, better for you... I still don't know how any dryland plants will do here, I think I need to site and plant carefully- my rainfall is not so high, but low temperatures mean less evaporation, and spring and fall can be wet.
Interesting about the Waldheimia, the site of Holubec's wild photo has a very similar mix of rock types to the natural glacial deposits in my area- field stones have a similar mix here (though more quartzite here) as does the road gravel- so that photo could have been in a rock garden here  ;D

Finally, we have a bit of sunshine today, though it's cold with the odd little patch of snow still around from yesterday.
Various seedling primroses, planted last year, are emerging, and P. algida (from 2 years ago) shows buds:

Sunny enough for crocus to open:
           

Todd wrote:

Anything from Sakhalin should do fine for both Trond and I.  It is a coolish, wet, windy area.  Hokkaido plants do wonderfully well in St. John's...sakhalin should be even better!  I didn't realize Holubec collected there.

That's exactly what I was thinking :)And I think I might be able to grow some of those things too- a lot of my local woodland plants are species of 'moist woods'; Sakhalin was mentioned on Holubec's site this year, with one photo gallery from there; I don't remember if he did the collecting himself or that was one of the people that collect for him...

Todd, I forgot to mention- the Pulmonaria montana is a very nice colour..

Lori- you're doing better than us- we didn't get any sun till late afternoon- if we broke freezing, just barely! Still lots of snow around from the other day (besides what was here before that!)

This sand bed was started about three or four years ago, and recently extended at the front. It has been a great success  and is leading me to redesign and change some of the plantings in our front garden. These are just a couple of photos and the superb dianthus 'Conwy Star', bred at Aberconwy Nursery.

Everything looks happy there, Tim- the Yuccas are quite spectacular!

Todd- nice combination of the dark Semp with the Draba!

Actually you should see the rest of the garden - not so neat! A lot of alpines lend themselves to this sort of planting (like a very big trough in effect), because you do tend to view them individually, but I like them best when they begin to merge and mix over time. Woodland plants are especially nice in spring just in foliage.

To quick to post...

Tim- this is a lovely combination with the Brunnera etc :)

Fermi - love that Hakea suavolens.  Does MAFF allow seed of it to leave the country?
Todd - Have had success with cuttings of Viburnum bodnantense in the University's misting bed but am still trying with V.carlesii.  Guess it has a lot to do with at what stage you take cuttings from the plants.  They are both prize plants.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

Viburnum carlesii really is a great plant. We just have gap left by a specimen of Daphne bholua which died this winter, and this would make a good replacement. We actually have as spiky a plant as Fermi next to our front door - a Grevillea rosmarinifolia 'Williamsi' which I accidentally allowed to root through from the pot it was in. It flowers wonderfully but has to be curbed to allow visitors through!

I thought I would show a few examples of foliage of alpines since I find this as attractive as their flowers in many cases - these are Leucogynes leontopodium, Stachys candida, Potentilla ovina and Teucrium pyreniacum. The camera often picks up details that you don't notice in the garden.

Tim wrote:

I thought I would show a few examples of foliage of alpines since I find this as attractive as their flowers in many cases - these are... Potentilla ovina... The camera often picks up details that you don't notice in the garden.

What odd foliage for a potentilla!

Just a suggestion of things to come-- Corydalis solida buds, just barely showing among the leaf mulch.. and Primula, I think its an auricula cultivar- I planted two of them last summer, and one flowered in fall! Almost out of the snow, and looks like its ready to go.... I may be planting more of these (one is yellow, one violet) though none of the crazy ones...

More signs of life...
Gentiana punctata; buds on Draba acaulis; Rheum rhizostachyum:
           

Corydalis solida x2; Adonis x amurensis 'Fukujukai', making an appearance; Jeffersonia dubia; Fritillaria pallidiflora:      
             

Lori and Cohan - it is magical seeing all those plants just appearing through the ground, not too different to when seeds germinate. I don't think Draba acaulis is much in cultivation in the UK and most people grow these tomentose species in alpine houses - rather wonderful to see it in a garden setting. In a cool gritty spot I am trying this  x Leucoraoulia hybrid along with the exquisite New Zealand 'edleweiss' Leucogynes leontopodium. Our often hot dry summers will be the testing time but where they are planted moisture levels in the soil should remain high. In the same place is the unusual little umbel from South America Bolax gummifer, which i have not succeeded well with before.