January 2016 in the Northern Hemisphere

[rgc]

Best day here for ages. The snow has now gone and the temperature is about 10C.

The Cyclamen coum have been in flower since before Christmas, but the first bulb to flower in the garden is Iris 'Katharine Hodgkin'. None of my snowdrops have opened their flowers yet. Picture taken this afternoon.
Bob

[majallison]

Primula palinuri, Iris histrioides 'Major' (I think), dark Cyclamen coum...

[Robert]

Thursday I logged -16C/3F and today +4C/39F! The snow is melting rapidly.

Trond,

What a temperature change! 

Do you ever get heavy rain on top of a deep snow pack and then flooding? This is fairly common here in California.

[Hoy]

Robert,

We often have abrupt temperature changes, usually in winter, but this is a bit more than normal.
Floodings when it rains on deep snow are not uncommon farther inland and higher up in the terrain - and much later in the season. The last years it has happened several times.

Take a look:

https://www.google.no/search?q=sn%C3%B8smelting+og+flom&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGgJHmwr_KAhVIBSwKHdQ0AHsQ_AUIBygB&biw=1280&bih=628#tbm=isch&q=+flom+Odda

https://www.google.no/search?q=sn%C3%B8smelting+og+flom&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGgJHmwr_KAhVIBSwKHdQ0AHsQ_AUIBygB&biw=1280&bih=628#imgrc=-sJiM3AP4hUL6M%3A

[Chris Johnson]

Just two flowers on the Iris this year.

[Yann]

in the early morning...

[Robert]

Trond,

Yes, I took a look at the type of flooding you can get in Norway.     We rarely get it like that. There are many flood control dams here in California. This helps ameliorate the situation somewhat. In the mountain canyons the flooding can be very serious and dangerous, but, then, nobody lives there. Sometimes the flooding takes out a bridge of a major highway. Generally nobody gets hurt.

[Lampwick]

Iris 'Katharine Hodgkin.
Growing outside in the corner of a trough by the kitchen door.
I'm sorry folks, but I don't have anything more worth taking a picture of at the moment!
But it is nice to see that other members are doing well with this lovely Iris.   

[jomowi]

Iris reticulata 'Gordon' in an outdoor raised bed.  Yesterday there were 3 open, today 12, but then it has been an unseasonal 14 deg. C today.

[Lewis Potter]

As part of a bit of coursework for college on Interior plant displays, me and the rest of the class took a trip to RHS Wisley. I didn't take my proper camera but I wish I did, so all I had was my phone. I was surprised at how much was flowering. An alpine house of this size is a very distant dream of mine. .  Here is some of the best.

Crocus 'Midas Touch'
Primula allionii 'Emily Charlotte'
Dionysia 'Zdenek Zvolanek'
Fritillaria striata
Iris Purple Gem

(I uploaded them the correct way up, why they are laying down I don't know)

 edit by maggi - sometimes happens with phone pix - I think  I have corrected them.....

[Robert]

The sunny mild weather here in California has brought the first few plants into bloom.

Acrtostaphylos manzanita - An excellent select form with bright pink flowers from Shasta County. Last year it did not bloom at all. This year it is putting on an excellent show of flowers.

Crocus biflorus ssp isauricus - At least this is what I purchased it as.    Anyway, a good grower with our climatic conditions. There are more in the ground that will bloom a little bit later.

Cyclamen coum of all sorts. The flower buds started showing color in December, however the flowers did not open until now.

[Gabriela]

The sunny mild weather here in California has brought the first few plants into bloom.

Acrtostaphylos manzanita - An excellent select form with bright pink flowers from Shasta County. Last year it did not bloom at all. This year it is putting on an excellent show of flowers.

Crazy colour! Why not try to get someone to propagate it by cuttings and have it into cultivation?
I tried Cyclamen coum once but I think it flowered under snow and disappeared (same like few early Galanthus).

[Robert]

Crazy colour! Why not try to get someone to propagate it by cuttings and have it into cultivation?

I do propagate the deep pink Arctostaphylos and make them available at our Sacramento Farmers' Market.

I think the camera and lighting conditions have much to do with the appearance of the color. My camera is quite simple and I make the best of the limited number of manual settings it possess. This gives a small amount of control over the situation. I have to agree the colors sometimes do not turn out well and sometimes are crazy, or even terrible. 

[Leena]

I tried Cyclamen coum once but I think it flowered under snow and disappeared (same like few early Galanthus).

I don't have experience with cyclamen flowers, mine are still just seedlings, but I have been also sceptical about very early Galanthus when there is a lot of snow and winter lasts forever. Then snowdrops start to flower under snow. We have had couple of good winters with not so much snow, this winter I don't know yet. After the snowy winters I decided that late snowdrops are best to grow here but now after the early springs also early snowdrops have had time to settle and maybe they will cope better with also snowy winters, only time will tell.

[Maggi Young]

I do propagate the deep pink Arctostaphylos and make them available at our Sacramento Farmers' Market.

I think the camera and lighting conditions have much to do with the appearance of the color. My camera is quite simple and I make the best of the limited number of manual settings it possess. This gives a small amount of control over the situation. I have to agree the colors sometimes do not turn out well and sometimes are crazy, or even terrible. 

 I think in this case "crazy"  is  crazy = wow, great !  That's a really good plant!