Flowers and foliage May 2008

[HClase]

Here in Newfoundland we have an intercalary season called RDF (rain, drizzle and fog) which just stops Spring dead.  The wind is from the NE across the iceberg dotted sea and the temperature hovers just around zero.  Here's a couple of pictures of a plant most of you haven't seen in your gardens for weeks - it's an old double clone.  The first taken today, May Day, and the second 11 days ago on April 20th.  Also a garden visitor that's very interested in crocuses - we put our cat out to chase it away!  No leaves on our Nothofagus yet!  And, by the way, we're well south of Scotland.
Galanthus nivalis double

[Tony Willis]

Not quite so cold here I am pleased to say.Here are some things in flower now.The thalictrum is particularly lovely and very delicate. It is a Spanish hedgerow plant from the Pyrenees.

thalictrum tuberosum
 thalictrum tuberosum spain
 tropaeolum azureum
 weldenia candida

[Paddy Tobin]

Howard,

That bulb nibbler deserves better than a cat; a shotgun perhaps. The climatic difference is astonishing given your more southerly position. Galanthus in flower are a memory here.

Tony,

I adore the tropaeolum azureum, a beautiful plant. Of course, the others are also beautiful but one has preferences. The tropaeolum wins hands down on colour appeal, I think.

Paddy

[HClase]

The climatic difference is astonishing given your more southerly position.

Paddy, that's because you  have the Gulf Stream and we have the Labrador Current.

Can't fire off guns within the city limits (even if I had one), and a snare might catch the cat, so we have to put up with it. A catapult maybe!

[Lesley Cox]

Howard your RDF thing seems to keep you in a state of suspended animation. Apart from the light, 11 days have made no difference to your lovely clump of snowdrops.

Tony the Thalictrum is a delight isn't it? I find it very fragile though. Yours looks rather more robust than mine. The others of course are pure magic.

[johnw]

Howard  - We too are in RDF mode thanks to the Labrador Current and we are at the same latitude as Milan. One week of warm weather gave Spring a jolt here, now the plants are in holding pattern.  I guess we can thank this sort of weather for holding the earliest rhodos back a bit so we are safely past the last frost - 1 May here in the city.

Friends just got back from Annapolis Royal were it was a lovely, sunny and  warm spring day.

Lucky you to be able to enjoy your Galanthus for so long. Ours faded after the warm period.

I will post you some potassium sulphate tomorrow - just enough to get you going until I come over in June.

johnw - +5c and overcast

[tboland]

My double snow drops opened on April 8 (they were literally blooming under the snow so I really don't know for sure WHEN they opened!)...May 2 and they look just as good...day after day of 2-5 C will keep them good until late May at this rate!  Iris reticulata 'Harmony' has been opened 2 weeks now and two days ago Saxifraga sancta opened in my trough.

[WimB]

Hello,

here are some of the plants that are in flower in my garden now:

1 ) Aquilegia scopulorum
2 ) Corydalis (I forgot the cultivar name)
3 ) Gentiana verna var. angulosa
4 ) Pinguicula grandiflora
5 ) Primula auricula 'Argus'
6 ) Primula auricula 'Dusky Yellow'
7 ) Ranunculus ficaria 'Salmon's White'
8 ) Saxifraga pubescens 'Snowcap'

Wim

[Hans A.]

Great photos all!
Here some actual pics of this weekend.

1. Calydorea xiphioides
2. Conanthera spec. (parvula? -possibly hybrid with trimaculata)
3. Lotus berthelotii

[Lvandelft]

Hans, can you tell more about Calydorea?

[Hans A.]

Hello Luit,
Calydorea xiphioides is a endemic plant of Chile (mediterranean zone)  - because of forestation (with Eucalyptus spec. and Pinus radiata) it became very rare - I collected some seeds a few years ago - among Calydorea there were different Conantheras, Leucocoryne and Tropaeolum on the same dry meadow.

[Paul T]

Hans,

I adore that Calydorea.  Wonderful form to it.  I grow C. amabilis (plus assorted Tigridias, Cypellas etc as I love the whole family) but I find it a bit too spidery.  Never come across C. xiphioides before, but will keep an eye out in case it ever appears on any seed lists anywhere.  That Conanthera looks pretty impressive too, and I'm assuming has small purple patches in the throat? It sort of looks that way in the picture, but it could be just shadow.

Great pics.  Lovely to see new and interesting things I haven't seen before. 

[David Nicholson]

Couple of pictures here of a little clump of Sparaxis. These were from garden centre bought corms, planted last Autumn, and don't seem to have been affected by the late Winter/early Spring frosts we had. These are part of my self-inflicted project to see what I can get away with in respect of South African bulbs and corms and I intend to leave them in the garden, with a good thick Winter mulch, and see if they come back next year.

[Kenneth K]

Some pictures taken this weekend.
1. Gentiana acaulis
2. Uvularia perfoliata
3. Anemonella thalictroides 'Cameo'
4. Schizocodon intercedens

[Lvandelft]

Hello Luit,
Calydorea xiphioides is a endemic plant of Chile (mediterranean zone)  - because of forestation (with Eucalyptus spec. and Pinus radiata) it became very rare - I collected some seeds a few years ago - among Calydorea there were different Conantheras, Leucocoryne and Tropaeolum on the same dry meadow.

Thank you Hans. I hoped of some new bulb out in the garden, but...