Flowers and foliage January 2008

[Maggi Young]

www.mobileliveryservices.weebly.com

Probably better than 'spin'...

For this  comment Carlo wins the "optimist of the day award".... this prestigious awards consists of a bar of finest chocolate... naturally, with the current world situation, the SRGC cannot take the risk of any item , such as this prize, being tampered with, contaminated by any noxious substances etc, so I have taken it upon myself to exhaustively test said choc bar and, while I am delighted to assure Carlo that it was fit for purpose and quite untainted, my tests have resulted in the ingestion of the prize..... I could send the wrapper, I suppose, or might I be being TOO optimistic to believe that would be acceptable??

[dominique]

With bright sun to day, some shrubs are already in flower

[dominique]

and Chimonanthus praecox with his hyacinth perfume

[Maggi Young]

There is still plenty of water in your river, I see, Do!
My red Hamamelis, which I tink may be Diane, but I am never quite remembering it, has finally come out, she is usually much earlier than this. The yellow is late, but is in a shadier spot.
I don't have the Chimonanthus... though I love scented plants.

[Lvandelft]

Beautiful Chimonanthus! It's on my wish-list now.
Hope it does like Ph. 6.5 or 7 ??

[Paul T]

Lovely pics everyone.

Tony W.... that Cyclamen psudibericum is just glorious!!  Haven't seen a pale pink like that before.  I think I've seen pics of a pure white, as well as the traditional bright pink (which is what I grow and love), but not that lovely pale.  Outstanding!!

[dominique]

Maggi, my garden is along the River Doubs and the snow of the Jura begin to turn in water. It is always a charming spectacle to see many waterfowl, herons, aigretts and swans which go on the water or along without see us.

Luit, Chimonanthus is not exigeant on the PH. I have seen it on calcareous grounds too.

[Katherine J]

Here in Hungary there are Hamamellis and Chimonanthus only in botanical gardens 
Men think they are not enough hardy for our climate, though they thrive in sheltered positions, I've seen in arboretums very nice plants. They are absent in nurseries too.
Most people does not care for winter-goodlooking gardens here.

[dominique]

Katherine
if you want, I can send you seeds of them or cuts if success or perhaps seedlings of a friend who sow them in autumn.

[Katherine J]

Thank you very much Dominique, but I can obtain seeds here. The truth is, that the garden in which we live is not our own, this is a house with 9 flats, and everybody has something to comment (and nothing doing) if I want to plant something, so I have my plants in pots. Maybe someday, in another place.
I was jus moaning about the absence of gardening culture here.

[Lvandelft]

Luit, Chimonanthus is not exigeant on the PH. I have seen it on calcareous grounds too.

Thanks, I'll give it a try when I can find a nice grown plant!

[Lesley Cox]

I'm surprised that no-one is calling the Chimonanthus by its "common" name, of "wintersweet," the most appropriate common name in the world surely. I actively look forward to winter for that delicious, cold scent and I'd bottle it if I could. Like the wonderful perfume of Philadelphus `Belle Etoile' which is out at present, the wintersweet is one I can quite literally smell in my dreams and I've many times woken to have either scent right there in my nose, even though it may not be their flowering time.

Wintersweet takes many years to flower from seed which I suppose is why most nursery stock is grafted. The variety 'Luteus' has a bigger, all yellow flower and similar perfume.

[Tim Murphy]

Lots of species hellebores in flower here at the moment.

1. Helleborus vesicarius.
2. Helleborus vesicarius.
3. Helleborus atrorubens from a small site in southeast Slovenia.
4. As above.
5. Helleborus atrorubens from a site west of Zagreb where a good proportion of the flowers are spotted and veined.
6. Helleborus croaticus from the largest site I know of for this species in northeast Croatia.
7. As above.
8. As above.
9. An as yet un-named species from high up in the Velebit mountains, Croatia.

[Maggi Young]

Great to see the flowers starting on your hellebores, Tim. They are all looking very healthy....looking forward to seeing more, of course!

[Tim Murphy]

That's good to hear Maggi because there will be many more to come over the next few weeks :-)

Helleborus niger is looking good this year too. All of these plants have been grown from wild collected seed as have all of the Cyclamen purpurascens growing in amongst them. Our damp, cool summer meant that some of these C. purpurascens had 50+ flowers on them last year.