April 2018 in Northern Hemisphere

[Robert]

It certainly is Robert, very colourful.

Thank you David, things are indeed very colorful now.

Now a few more photographs.



Cornus nuttallii is looking great in our Sacramento garden. Sorry, the lighting made photograph difficult, but I just had to share the beautiful monment.

I discovered a good selection in the wild and grafted it onto Cornus florida as a rootstock. The graft is very compatible. Cornus nuttallii is much easier to grow in the garden when growing on C. florida as a roostock. The tree has been in our Sacramento garden for over 10 years.



Cornus nuttallii - A close up of the flowers.



One of many Azaleas blooming in our garden now.

Yesterday, my wife and I removed about 20-30 Rhododendrons-Azaleas from our Garden. We are keeping only the “cream-of-the-crop”. We also removed a huge Cupressus cashmeriana. It was a nice tree, but our small garden does not have much room for big trees. Now we have much room to plant smaller woodland species and rock garden plants.



A much better photograph of Mimulus bicolor.

Mimulus torreyii and Lupinus stiversii are coming on well. I will be overjoyed if I can get Lupinus stiversii established in our garden, as well as many more of our annual California native Mimulus species. So far, so good.

[Maggi Young]

The Bulb Despot, Ian Young , posted a new video  yesterday, before  he went off for a few days on the West Coast of Scotland, to take part in the Erythronium Festival at Inverewe - here is a link to the video, followed by some photos I took today of some of  the plants  he features

[Maggi Young]

and....

[Leena]

It is such a colorful time for many now.
Here it is still mostly white, but spring is advancing fast with many plants and noses to be found every day.
This is H.niger today, it was already in bud in January, but survived well through the winter covered by snow (and some spruce branches to keep off the rabbits from eating them).

[Robert]

Leena,

There is such a beauty to the new growth emerging with the lingering snow. It does not snow in Sacramento, California, but I can enjoy scenes like yours when visiting the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the spring. Thank you for sharing such scenes.     



A nearly white Iris macrosiphon in our garden yesterday.

[Hoy]

Spring has sprung at last. Today the we hit the 12C mark and the temperature is still above 10 now in the evening. But it takes time to wake the dormant plants. Only the spring bulbs are in flower. The earliest ones are already finished.

An unknown tulip species.




Iris reticulata hybrid.




Narcissus cyclamineus. These are from seed and one plant is always a week or two before the others.




The yellow ones are the common garden form but the others are seedlings. All my crocuses are planted in the lawn. Just a few corms have multiplied, mostly from self seeding. The biggest flowers are more than10cm across.




Mostly vernus offspring.

[Yann]

that's a very nice patchwork, it's really the start of spring.

[Gunilla]

All my crocuses are planted in the lawn. Just a few corms have multiplied, mostly from self seeding. The biggest flowers are more than10cm across.

None of my crocuses are planted in the lawn but they grow there anyway  I like it.

New buds open every day now when the winter cold (hopefully) is over.

[Gerdk]

Flowering since a week here

1 + 2   Anemone pavonina ex Macedonia - survived the extreme weather conditions once again
3 + 4   Corydalis marschalliana

Gerd

[Hoy]

Almost summer today. 17C and still 12C at 8PM. Seems it will last at least another week!

Corydalis seedlings went from barely visible to blooming in one day. Also the Erythroniums bursted into flower today.

[Maggi Young]

Here the weather is never two days the same. At least the flowers are working hard to cheer us! 

[Hoy]

Here the weather is never two days the same. At least the flowers are working hard to cheer us!

Maggi,

Yes, you seem to have a lot of flowers already. It is not that long since your garden was covered by snow if I remember rightly.

Regarding weather, usually it changes from one day to the other but this year has been exceptional. Long periods with sunny dry cold weather - and now seemingly a long period of rather sunny and warm period.

I wonder, what next?

[Maggi Young]

Real Spring and then glorious summer, I hope, Trond!!

[Robert]

Hi Trond,

It seems like you have had some wild swings in the weather. What has been the over all effect on your garden? From earlier posts, it seems that there was some cold weather damage, however clearly some plants are doing well.

Here we are having typical spring weather - some warm days, then cool and rainy weather, then back again.

[shelagh]

Not sure I can match some of the splendid pictures above but just had a quick flip round a very very cold Bury garden.  We have had endless grey days, plenty of rain, a little snow and biting winds this winter.

A Camellia given me by a friend as a single Supermarket stem.
 A Cruciferae I can never remember the name of. ...... edit to add  : Pachyphragma macrophyllum
A double Ranunculus just coming into bloom.
A favourite of ours Haquetia epipactis.
The wonderful Melycitus alpina, in full flower.  At a Glasgow Show a few years ago we put a magnifying glass next to it so people could see the flowers. It's a member of Violaceae.