March 2021 in the Northern Hemisphere

[cohan]

Some woodies in yesterday's snow-- Acer, maybe amurense; Prunus tomentosa showing its heavy moose pruning; Salix acutifolia grown from a florist cutting many years ago, heavily pruned as mom planted it in front of her house (a few metres, but would be very shady). Tilia cordata recovering not too badly from a severe haircut a few years ago (not by me).

[cohan]

3 views  of edges of the Xeric Native Beds, showing some 'Marginal Gardening' in this case it means semi-cultivated areas with a mix of wild/pre-existing/self-sown native plants and deliberate plantings of both native and exotic species. Last is some native/wild trees with Amelanchier alnifolia /florida in front.

[Maggi Young]

astonishing how pretty snow is - especially when it's at someone else's place! 

[cohan]

astonishing how pretty snow is - especially when it's at someone else's place! 

yes lovely ..lol... and should I ever move away from it, I have pictures to last a lifetime...

[cohan]

Just got through everyone's flowers for the month-- so many beauties

[Andre Schuiteman]

Rhodothamnus chamaecistus is well known to visitors to the Dolomites (at least to those who care about plants) but it is rare in cultivation and hardly ever offered in the trade. Still, wild-collected seed is often found in seedlists, and on 28 December 2015 I sowed some from the AGS seedlist of that year. The pot stood unprotected outside, half buried in a tray with sharp sand. The seed is fine as dust and the seedlings are correspondingly minuscule. The first germination occurred on 25 April 2016 and by 15 October that year they had produced 5 or 6 tiny leaves. The next two years saw a few losses and a continuous battle with encroaching moss and by August 2018 there were five seedlings left, which by then were all of 5 mm tall. I decided it was time to prick them out and planted each in a separate pot, in a gritty ericaceous mix. Two more died, but the three survivors finally developed into something less than microscopic and they are still alive today. In 2019 I transferred two of them to a planter which receives morning sun only. The most vigorous one produced what looked like a bud in the autumn of 2020, and so it was: the bud started growing in March this year, and yesterday the flower opened, five years and three months after sowing. So, it can be done, but I can't blame nurseries for not trying to mass-produce this enchanting little shrub.

Although in the wild this species only occurs on limestone, I convinced myself during a trip to Monte Baldo several years ago that they actually root in a dense, black peaty soil formed by decayed plant matter. They grow perfectly well when treated like a dwarf Rhododendron, without any lime.


Rhodothamnus chamaecistus seedlings, six months old.


The same, three years and two months old.


The same, four years and seven months old; the first bud is already visible.


First flower, five years and three months after sowing.

[Maggi Young]

Rhodothamnus chamaecistus is well known to visitors to the Dolomites (at least to those who care about plants) but it is rare in cultivation and hardly ever offered in the trade.  So, it can be done, but I can't blame nurseries for not trying to mass-produce this enchanting little shrub.

And yet  the Scottish plantswoman Lyn Bezzant  used to share  it  around  by  dint  of  digging  it  up and  cutting it up with a bread knife  every  few  years!

[Maggi Young]

a few more from Ian Christie ..




Erythronium dens-canis



Pulsatilla

[Andre Schuiteman]

And yet  the Scottish plantswoman Lyn Bezzant  used to share  it  around  by  dint  of  digging  it  up and  cutting it up with a bread knife  every  few  years!

Is that the lady who used Eritrichium nanum as a bedding plant? Joking aside, it will be a while before my Rhodothamnus will be big enough to survive such a treatment.

[cohan]

Good work, Andre!

Maggi-- full steam ahead in the Ukraine, it seems-awesome