April 2019 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Gabriela]

A few scenes from our Sacramento, California garden before I get busy again.
One of my best deciduous azalea hybrids. It is part of a grex that we call 'Tatiana'. Its growth is very compact, about 1 meter in 20 years. Very floriferous!

Another one of my hybrid azaleas. Nothing to get excited about, but I keep it anyway. I no longer have space to breed azaleas, so all the azalea breeding lines in our garden are a dead end. This does not bother me, I have plenty of other creative breeding projects to work on. 

The deciduous azaleas you show every year are very beautiful Robert!
Now that there is more space I will add one if it happens to find available. There is a line of cv. called Northern Lights series, very beautiful. The Rhododendrons, even if hardy, can look horrible most winters with burned foliage.

[Gabriela]

Good Luck!  I have also germinated many seeds of various Calochortus species, but wasn't willing to coddle them over winter, and they resided in my "pot box" outside that seems to be a half zone warmer than my normal winter.  Never had any of them survive a winter.  Claude Barr tried very hard with Calochortus, and even with heavy mulches, wasn't successful.  He surmised that the bulbs couldn't tolerate freezing temperatures.

I know that C. tolmiei is out of question to grow here but I will give it a  try with C. leichtlinii. Like Robert mentioned, it often grows at high altitude.
There must be few Calochortus species that can tolerate freezing - for example I don't see any reason we couldn't grow C. apiculatus which I saw it flowering last summer high up in the Lizard Ranges in SE BC.

[Robert]

I know that C. tolmiei is out of question to grow here but I will give it a  try with C. leichtlinii. Like Robert mentioned, it often grows at high altitude.
There must be few Calochortus species that can tolerate freezing - for example I don't see any reason we couldn't grow C. apiculatus which I saw it flowering last summer high up in the Lizard Ranges in SE BC.

Gabriela,

Calochortus minimus grows at very high elevations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There are a number of others, such as Calochortus nudus. I have a great deal of climatic data for the areas in which they grow in the Crystal Range, California.

Too all Forumist,

However, it is a little more complicated than just winter low temperatures. Snow field species have very distinct characteristics that need to be considered. I will have more on this in my botanical diary as time progresses. Also, I wish that everyone on the forum would consider that too often attempting to get a first generation plant to adapt to their garden is like trying to win the lottery (i.e. especially a species from a location where climatic conditions are very different from the home garden). Protecting first generation plants and then growing on to the 3rd or 4th generation can bring amazing results. I do this all the time and am now able to cultivate species that would never work in my garden from 1st generation plants from the wild. There is much more to this too. All the topics above would require an essay or maybe even a book, but the bottom line is that all sorts of things are possible with the correct techniques.

Very busy right now, but I will get back to things soon enough. 

[Robert]

Hi Trond,

There is plenty of snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains too.

At 5,500 feet (1,676 meters) there is still 96 cm of snow on the ground. And it is wet snow! The snow has a moisture content of 18.30 inches (464.82 mm). At the higher elevations there is even more snow!

The snow cover changes dramatically with elevation. At 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) there is basically no snow (generally a few traces in shaded areas). With the warm temperatures and increasing solar radiation the snow at 5,500 feet will last about 2 more weeks. At the higher elevations there will be snow into June and at the highest elevations there will likely be snow fields that never melt this season.

[Leucogenes]

Every life cycle of a plant has its charms...  A nice example is the seed stand of Townsendia leptodes.  I like such details...  nature is the best designer.

[Yann]

so pretty, i'm not able to keep them alive...

Far away from its forests Arum dioscoridis (or an hybrid as suggested by Oron, the spots do not spread more than 4cm inside the gorge) in the drought

[Diane Whitehead]

There must be few Calochortus species that can tolerate freezing

Gabriela,

I saw lots of Calochortus macrocarpus growing in the B.C. Interior.  Gerritsen and Parsons wrote this about it:

In the wild, Calochortus macrocarpus thrives in extreme conditions - cold down to - 35C, heat to 43C, and less than 38 cm of rain most years.

[Leena]

Freezing nights seem to be over now, and everything has started to grow.
Some pictures from yesterday.

[Carolyn]

Leena,
Lovely to see ALL the spring flowers blooming together, while in the UK they are spread out over 3 - 4 months. I'm sure you must savour every moment now that winter seems to be over.

[Yann]

Behind the house the orchids started their show and the aerial Paris quadrifolia attract insects.

[Hoy]

(Attachment Link)

Hi Trond,

There is plenty of snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains too.
.....................

Robert,

Here the amount of snow are quickly disappearing due to the nice weather. Much of it just sublime.
The snow on the knolls has already disappeared. It wasn't much to start with either. But in the birch woods there are still much - 1m or more.

[Hoy]

Freezing nights seem to be over now, and everything has started to grow.
Some pictures from yesterday.

Very nice Leena! Your plants look very healthy

[Gabriela]

Gabriela,

I saw lots of Calochortus macrocarpus growing in the B.C. Interior.  Gerritsen and Parsons wrote this about it:
In the wild, Calochortus macrocarpus thrives in extreme conditions - cold down to - 35C, heat to 43C, and less than 38 cm of rain most years.

Thank you Diane. I also have on my 'possibly cold hardy' list - C. lyallii and C. nuttallii. I would like to see them in their habitat first.
This is not a genus that interests me much, but when there are seeds, they get sowed

[Leena]

Lovely to see ALL the spring flowers blooming together, while in the UK they are spread out over 3 - 4 months. I'm sure you must savour every moment now that winter seems to be over.

Thank you Trond and Carolyn.
I would rather have a longer spring like you do, but I do savour every moment and every spring flower! I'm taking a little time off work so that I can just be outside in the garden every hour. Spring is so special time.

[Gerdk]

Rhododendron vaseyi - just flowering

Gerd