Flowers and foliage March 2008

[Armin]

This will cheer you up, Luc. This a close up from mine earlier this week

Mark & Luc,
very nice Tulipa humilis alba caerulea occulata.
It seems I've lost my 3 bulbs as no sights of grows

[ranunculus]

Ranunculus are high up on my favourite list of flowers

...And on mine John...And on mine!!!!

Lovely images sir!

[mark smyth]

mentioning Ranunculus, last year Anthony gave me a plant of R. bullata. It died down very quickly due to neglect. It came into growth in the autumn. It is now dying back again. The only change this time is it's outside in a pot. Any idea what's wrong? I was hoping to see flowers this year

[Anthony Darby]

mentioning Ranunculus, last year Anthony gave me a plant of R. bullata. It died down very quickly due to neglect. It came into growth in the autumn. It is now dying back again. The only change this time is it's outside in a pot. Any idea what's wrong? I was hoping to see flowers this year

Did you not get flowers Mark? Mine didn't flower either, but they are not dying down yet. Hopefully they will flower this autumn?

[John Forrest]

Here are 3 pics taken when the weather has been kinder than it is today.

1 Cyclamen pseudibericum, which is growing strongly again after a die back in the middle of the corm. I scooped out the rot and cut back to new tissue and powdered with sulphur after letting it dry. The hole was filled with grit and repotted. It has taken a couple of years to get back to this but I'm so gald I didn't give up on it.

2 Draba longisiliqua from seed collected by Holubec.

3 The Magnolia stellata is just at bud burst and I thought the backlighting looked rather fetching.

[Maggi Young]

JoF, I am so pleased that your remedial work on that gorgeous cyclamen paid off; would have been awful to lose it.
I never thought I would hear myself say this - or even see myself write it  -----that Draba is lovely!    It actually looks like a cushion plant in flower and not a green bun with ghastly yellow fireworks stuck on it! I  AM impressed 

Magnolias present good photo opportunities at every stage, don't they? So dramatic.

[Lvandelft]

John this Cyclamen is unbelievable.
I admire your performance, having so much patience and skill.   
But it is really rewarding.
Early Magnolia's here all suffered from frosts and are brown already. 

[Lesley Cox]

Three lovely pics John of super plants. You're not keen on drabas Maggi? Draba longisiliqua is one of the best in my book being quite as "choice" as DD polytricha and mollissima but flowering more solidly -as above - and Sooooo easy to proagate. No seeds on mine but little bunches of tiny cuttings root in sand in no time at all. My best plant is in a biggish pot and has had leaves over it all summer which started out as some shade to keep it cool but they've overgrown it and even sat on it yet the cushion is still grey-green and flawless, with no sign of legginess or damped off patches.

[Gerdk]

A Sunday morning walk in an alluvial forest near the river Wupper:
After a long periode of cold and rainy weather this morning I had a beautiful time with mild sunshine watching flowers in a forest about 20 km from my hometown
Here are Anemone nemorosa, A. ranunculoides, Arum maculatum, Corydalis solida, Ranunculus ficaria, some cherry blossoms and a beautiful house at the border of the forest

Gerd

[Gerdk]

And here is the rest

Pachysandra terminalis - a garden escape which seems to enjoy the woodland conditions here

The bank of the river Wupper (a tributary of the Rhein-Rhine)

and the cherry blossoms - forgotten in no. 1

Gerd

[johanneshoeller]

The first gentiana

[Maggi Young]

The first gentiana

So, perhaps this IS Spring?? 

[David Nicholson]

A nice Sunday walk Gerd.

[Katherine J]

Here is our sunday walk:

[Paul T]

It is so cool seeing all these things growing wild on people's walks.  So strange for those of us who find some of these things rare and unusual.  Great to see them in situ.

Thanks so much for the pics.