April 2017 in the northern hemisphere

[Gabriela]

Chris,
Beautiful pictures with the woodland just coming out from the winter sleep; and that's for sure a lot of Haquetia!

[ian mcdonald]

It is warm and sunny today. Three butterflies which are firsts for this spring are small white, large white and comma img. 1020374. In the scree there is a single plant of meadow saxifrage S. granulata img. 1020375. Sometimes found in wet meadows but also on wet rocks, as in Perthshire. An uncommon wild flower of our area is spring cinquefoil. P. tabernaemontani/neumanniana. This one is in the scree img. 1020381. Rhododendron Wee Bee is in full flower just now img. 1020382. A common but pleasing flower, Anemone blanda in the raised bed above the dry wall img. 1020383.

[Robert]

Ian,

I enjoy seeing butterflies in the garden. 

I plant Aristolochia californica in our garden to attract the Swallowtail butterflies. The Swallowtail caterpillars strip the Aristolochia foliage every year, however between the nectar from flowers and the Aristolochia foliage for the larva, we have many Swallowtail butterflies.

I like the Potentilla. I used many of our California native Potentilla/Drymocallis/Dasiphora is our garden.

[Robert]

A few nice plants in our garden before the stormy weather arrived.



Dianthus alpinus



Dianthus simulans - it seems fairly close to the species. 



Heuchera micrantha - from wild seed gathered in El Dorado county, California.



Heuchera micrantha - I like the foliage of the wild plants.



Some Lewisia seedlings grown from open pollinated seed in our garden.

[Hannelore]

Compilation of sights in my garden today

[Robert]

Delosperma floribundum in its new home in our front border. It will bloom like this most of the summer!



Maianthemum stellatum grown from wild seed gathered near Camp Creek, El Dorado county, California. The flowers looked nicer last year (weather?). I hope to get the red berries this autumn. At least it is settling down well in our Sacramento garden. 

[Rick R.]

I regret that I didn't take binoculars with me (and my professional digital camera ), because than I could just sit in one area and search it through like a live scanner.

The binoculars are a great tool to use when search for specific plants.  I use them when looking for certain uncommon trees in winter, too.

[Leena]

Leena,
Thank you very much! I always enjoy the photographs that you post. Like Trond, your garden must be just waking up? or maybe things are much different that I imagine in Finland. I guess, depending on where one lives, there could still be snow on the ground or maybe the weather is much warmer?

Thank you, Robert! 
Yes, spring is here, but it is very slow this year. In the south of Finland there is no snow any more, but 250 km north (my parents place) there is still some snow. In part of my garden the ground is still frozen.

Snowdrops are flowering and some of them still only coming up, and the first crocuses are also now flowering. Most Hellebores are still in bud, and H.multifidus, which is the earliest for me, has not advanced much in the last two weeks. The earliest Helleborus niger is in flower. Adonis amurensis is flowering. Bulbocodium vernum is flowering.

[ian mcdonald]

Binoculars allow you to identify plants on ledges without the risk of falling.

[Maggi Young]

Leena, it is lovely to see your garden coming to bloom now.

[Leena]

Thanks Maggi, it is such a good time now when something new is happening almost every day.

[Robert]

Leena,

I agree with Maggi's comment. 

It is lovely to see your garden come into bloom. Some of the species that you are able to grow are so different from what works in our part of California. It is very fascinating.

The ground is still partly frozen in parts of your garden!

We are having "normal" weather here in our part of California. It did indeed "snow on the dogwoods" (a local saying) yesterday.



This photograph was taken yesterday at 600 meters in the Sierra Nevada (foothills). The day before I was attempting to get to Poho Ridge. At this elevation, 1,145 meters, Cornus nuttallii our native "Dogwood" species can be found growing in the forest. At this elevation there was most likely 15 to 30 cm of snow. The previous week it was 25 C most days, and about 20 C at 1,145 meters.

[Leena]

It is lovely to see your garden come into bloom. Some of the species that you are able to grow are so different from what works in our part of California. It is very fascinating.

 
And I envy (in a good way) your long growing season. But there are good things here, we don't for instance have many pests which would require warmer weather and shorter (or no) winter. Narcissus fly has been reported from Finland in the 1950s, but it is very rare here and in the Finnish gardening forums no-one has seen it or it's damage either in Narcissus or Galanthus.

[ian mcdonald]

The sun and warm weather is bringing the wildlife into the garden now. Today were first records this year for male brimstone and male orange tip img. 1638 and img. 1010501 (old photos). Also seen was the first record this year of a single house martin flying over. Cyclamen balearicum has just come into flower in the greenhouse img. 1020385.

[Hoy]

Nice to see your garden flowers and butterflies!

Still late winter/early spring here in the mountains although it is less snow than normal at this time of the year.

Looking east:




looking west:




The meadow just around the cabin is free from snow but the soil is still frozen.

The rosettes of the sticky catchfly are green during winter, or like this one, red:




Footprints of a moose that walked here in the afternoon when the soil had thawed a little.




Pulsatilla vernalis will be the first to flower if the hares don't eat the buds!