May in the Northern Hemisphere

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Some absolutely cracking stuff posted here this week folks, but I'll just pick out three (notwithstanding Ian the Christie kind's Oxalis that I always fail abysmally with). LucG's Viola delphinoides x cazorlensis and Veronica oltensis really struck me but a Google Search gave me no ideas on which UK based nurseries might be best to try, did you pick those up whist Chanel hopping Luc?

Also a cracking plant from JohnW, Sanguinarea canadensis 'Don Armstrong. Again nothing turned up by Google in the UK.

Thanks David !
If I remember correctly I picked the Viola up from Robin White's plant stall at the Kent AGS show 4 or 5 years ago... unfortunately, Robin stopped selling plants since... 

The veronica comes from a nursery at this side of the channel....  not sure, but might have been Ger van den Beuken.

[David Nicholson]

Cheers Luc.

[meanie]

All looking good everyone 
I'm especially smitten with Lucs Saxifrag and Ians Oxalis 

In contrast I have little of interest but a few things still please me;
The cold spring suits Salvia gesneriiflora quite nicely. As a winter bloomer it should be done by now but I'm not complaining............


Cornflowers are uber common and require no effort to grow yet still I look forward to them. Probably my favourite spring subject with the camera..............


My Asarum proboscideum is having a particularly good year............


I struggle to get more than a couple of blooms open at any one time on Cammasia yet still I stick with them and put up with the scraggy foliage because I just plain like their simple beauty................


Finally, Ornithogalum longibracteatum in the greenhouse...............

[Mike Ireland]

Some plants from the garden & greenhouse today.
Androsace jaquemontii lilac form
Androsace x marpensis
Calceolaria Walter Shrimpton x 2, first time I have managed to keep this for a second year.
Ranunculus parnassifolius

[Maggi Young]

Things looking good with you, Mike. Calceolaria do  have a hard life - they are martyrs to aphids and slugs - a miracle any survive I reckon!

[Tim Ingram]

David - we have plants of Veronica oltensis if you are coming to the 'Rocky Plants Show' at Wimbourne at the end of the month. This is a really interesting genus, well worth investigating; every time I look in the garden we seem to have another one! (but so far no success with V. bombycina or V. caespitosa - I remember seeing a fantastic picture of the latter on the Forum a year ago).

[astragalus]

Tim, I'm surprised to hear about your problem with Veronica caespitosa, which does really well in a trough.  I think I put a picture on the Forum last month.  Really great plant in the trough and I'm thinking of putting some in the new tufa crevice bed and see how it does.

Back from Michigan.  It was hot there and it's hot here, too hot to plant, definitely too hot to continue building.  Tomorrow should be OK.  We've missed spring this year.  Just putting a few pictures on from Jacques and Andrea Thompson's garden in Michigan.  The first two show how effective simple, easy plants can be.

[astragalus]

The Thompson garden again.  A couple of trilliums and a wonderful hybrid between Anemone nemerosa and Anemone ranunculoides.  I loved this one (Anemone sipiensis) and Jacques very kindly gave me a piece to try.

[astragalus]

A few things from my garden.  I missed so much by being away for 4 1/2 days.
Paeonia tenuifolia was in bud when I left and the heat forced it.  All the petals were dropping when I returned.  The stream garden was suddenly two weeks ahead of schedule, very strange.  The double marsh marigold is managing to hold its own against encroaching Primula japonica, quite advanced for this time.

[carolesmith]

A few things growing in a peat filled bath - the only way I seem to be able to grow them:
Ramonda serbica (a raffle prize at a Discussion weekend, I believe donated by the Bainbridges), Soldanella montana and Adonis brevistyla - a combination which I am very pleased with.

[majallison]

Arilbred irises, which I adore; anyone (Europe only) who'd like some, please send me a PM as I'll need to split these when they go dormant in a month or two. They grow very happily in a sunny bulb frame here in Gloucesteshire.

Here are pictures of the irises in their frame, 'Domingo' (yellow) & 'Heimdall' (purple), 'Concerto Grosso' (reddish purple) & an unnamed seedling

[krisderaeymaeker]

Some flowers of today ....

Calceolaria 'Walter Schrimpton'
 2 times  Jankaea heldreichii

Paeonia obovata Alba

[brianw]

Both a bit short lived flowers, but welcome all the same yesterday
Paeonia, 'Rockii' type. and Podophyllum hexandrum
I have another Paeonia without the deep red marking. Not sure where I got it or what it was named at the time. Otherwise identical.

[astragalus]

Pretty impressive, Kris.

[Leena]

Astragalus, I love the woodland views.
Here is one from my garden now, I'm hoping that trillium will form a bigger clump one day.