February 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Robert]

Our high elevation forms of Erythronium multiscapideum are now coming into bloom. They appear to be less tolerant of the current unseasonably warm and dry weather than our lower elevation forms of the same species. My reference to elevation is relative. Erythronium purpurascens grows at a much higher elevation than the “high elevation” Erythronium multiscapideum site. The two species cannot be confused. If the “high elevation” Erythronium multiscapideum are hybrids with Erythronium purpurascens, then they are very ancient hybrids, now well separated from E. purpurascens in a phylogenetic sense.

Our low elevation forms of Erythronium multiscapideum are just starting to open their flowers now.



The first flowers if Eschscholzia lobbii are now starting to open. I got a late start with Eschscholzia lobbii ‘Sundew’ this season, so they will be coming into bloom later in the season. This makes things easier when one wants to maintain seed purity!



Gagea fibrosa is a sweet little plant. They are easy to grow, cheery when in bloom, and easily grown from seed.

[ruweiss]

Pre-Spring is rather early this year, severe late frosts could be fatal.

[Robert]

Rudi,

Your garden is looking good.

Our temperatures have been well above average. Now the forecast is for the weather to turn cold with low temperatures from 0 C to -2 C. This will cause a great deal of damage in our garden if it indeed turns cold with -2 C low temperatures.  :'(  The 7 day forecast is for precipitation on day 7. It has not rained in over 40 days! 44 days without rain during the winter months is the record. This record might be broken. We are constantly watering. It is winter, it should be raining!  :'(  Maybe my tears will water the plants.

[ruweiss]

Many thanks, Robert.

[Robert]

Rudi,

I enjoyed your photograph with the green plains in the background. The woodland scene with the Crocus was very nice too. I hope that your garden can avoid a killing frost this spring. Two years ago, mild warm weather in February was followed by a hard frost in March. Many plants in growth were killed to the ground. They did resprout later, however there were no flowers later in the season and no fruit on the fruit trees. The same scenario seems like it could repeat in a few days.

Anyway, may your garden escape frost damage this spring and thrive. I look forward to seeing more scenes from your garden. You grow species that are not familiar to me. Ranunculus calandrinioides is one example. Thank you for sharing the photograph.

[Akke]

So many beautiful pictures and drawing. Jasmin, your drawing was actually my first mental picture, in the second one it was a black cloud with a silver lining against a bit of blue sky. Lovely.

Mike
Good to hear everything is fine at your place, not much damage here as well (wind direction wasn’t too bad at the worst part).

Fraxinus excelsior at the park didn’t survive, I liked this one.
 


Rudi, Robert
I hope your gardens won’t suffer from frost, our february average is expected to be (near) record. As usual this is accompanied by a lot of rain, we’re getting plenty of that today and it’s still going on, more strong winds are forecasted tonight.

Nice to see Crocus Tommasianus in so many places, they used to be enjoyable but simple to me, I appreciate them even more now. I’ve hand pollinated ‘just a common variety’ with ‘Roseus’ and if ‘Ruby giant’ isn’t too late, I intend to do the same.

Robert

You have so many attractive Californian species, another thanks for sharing these lovely plants. I’m not familiar with most of them, this year I hope to see my first Erythronium, but that’s also lack of experience, not just availabity. More exploring to be done😀.
Pulmonaria officinalis is in my book of Stinzenplanten (Gagea Lutea is mentioned, but possibly indigenous), this one does seed around here, it’s growing in the pavement. On the subject of Stinzenplanten I’m not sure if the ‘experts’ agree, some seem to be more comfortable with a list, while others put emphasis on definition, it’s not my discussion (although I have my own inspiration) Stinzenplanten are described as imported long ago (not many dates are mentioned, C. Tommasianus is actually ‘young’ introduced;1847) from abroad or other parts of the Netherlands and doing so fine here (no care necessary) that they seem natural. Sounds like your Narcissus tazetta ssp.  chinensis fits right in, people might have a different opinion.

[Nik]

At 3 pm it is -1C and glorious sunshine today. The creeping thyme seems quite purplish and the first new sporophytes are signaling that spring is about to arrive soon.

[Akke]

Nik

Your purplish Thyme looks beautiful, is it always like this, or does it get greener with higher temperatures?

Jasmin, this was more or less what I imagined, adding a bit more of grey to the clouds and maybe some sunlight on the flower. This one was staged, Crocus cyprius is easy to move, I just got it out of shelter.

Every cloud has a silver lining they say, in this case bad weather (storm and stormy weather since wednesday night) gets accompanied by pretty skies.

Problems with water are the opposite of yours, we’re having too much at the moment and ( not helped by wind direction) it’s difficult to get it out. Water level on the city canals is expected to rise until tomorrow morning, it could cause additional damage.

Not disturbed by any of this, Scilla rosenii pops up and is trying to flower at once.

This is a new one and I already like it😀, ‘the little blue bulbs’ do have a  certain appeal for me 

Jasmin

Good luck with the slavery, my chicken was just bossy, chasing the cat away from its food even when it made room for her and her children to eat. Bizarre and sad news, 87 rooks were killed in the storm when the tree they were hiding in broke.

[Nik]

Hi Akke,

These are beautiful pictures!

My creeping thyme is green any other time. With purple flowers.
I was just outside looking at a young deer eating partridge berry (MItchella repens) in our backyard moss garden. They try to help too much. They ate most of the witch hazel flowers I had in the front yard. Oh well, it is what it is…

I love all of your updates of spring coming to the Northern Hemisphere.

[Robert]

Nik,

The golden moss (I presume) is very interesting. Were they planted purposely? Another plant I know nothing about, nevertheless they are very attractive.  We also like the purple thyme.  We really enjoy seeing and hearing what is happening in everyone’s gardens.

Akke,

The discussion about the Genus Crocus certainly has me thinking. All the species that I grow in our garden do extremely well, both spring and autumn blooming species. Per our Crocus discussions, it seems worth my effort to explore the possibility that other species might do equally well in our Sacramento garden. As stated earlier, I am devising various experiments to better understand the complexities of getting them to set seed in our garden. I have requested Janis Ruksans book “Crocuses” from our public library; however you made reference to a book “The World of Crocuses”. I cannot find any references to this book. Can you provide any additional information, such as the author or publisher?

I will share the results of my research.  I like to investigate the technical aspects of why plants do what they do given various environmental variables. Yes, I like and want an attractive garden that is fun to enjoy; however the science behind the plants is also very interesting and pleasurable.

I hope that your garden faired well in the windstorm. Spot (this is your dog’s name?) looks very regal perched on the Ash log. [Very attractive]

[Jasmin]:  Your crocus with the sky is really dramatic.  Just this evening we are getting the deep, dark clouds I longed for when I photographed the Okami cherry. 

We started to protect all the tender things we could, but tomorrow we will have others to add.  The deeper cold is set to arrive Wednesday through Friday.  The coastal Delta region is lower and more susceptible, as your country is to high water.  Our area is a bit higher; however, the two major rivers—the American and the Sacramento—dominate here, and they have plenty of creeks and streams.  So, we, too, always have varying degrees of flood potential.  This is where development has been a dismal disaster:  They built so much of the floodplain, and channelized the rivers, creeks and streams forcing the water into a more destructive force.  The natural terrain and plants served to absorb and cushion the water.  We need water so desperately, and we pray it comes gentle, rather than some of those torrential downpours.

Sad about the rooks, poor dears.  Your hen sounds like she was an excellent mother.  As for my demanding dears, Naomi is such a natural.  In many ways she is the easiest, although no one can handle her except myself.  Dariya, however, likes the self-pleasuring, but has never liked the egg part of the deal.  She has always acted traumatized when she has an egg.  This year she is extremely fussy and restless every time.  She is healthy, and there is no egg-binding, so there is no reason for the drama.  Unfortunately, a sex change is not possible.



[Robert again]:
Our weather is shifting dramatically. Temperatures are much cooler and the wind is cold. We might get some rain tomorrow and the next day. This would be a blessing. It might also snow at our Placerville property in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Frost is forecasted after the storm clears. Some locations in the Sacramento Valley might dip to -2 C to -3 C during the early morning hours. I have a few plants I need to protect. Also, the pace of our garden has slowed dramatically. I am happy with this.

I am also noticing a major shift in the Rossby Wave pattern in the Northern Hemisphere. The east coasts of North America and Europe are likely to see a new weather patterns in the next 7 to 10 days. The NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) and AO (Arctic Oscillation) indexes are still in positive territory; however they are beginning to trend lower as the jet stream shifts. The weather is always interesting and full of surprises!

The first flowers of Iris macrosiphon have opened. I prefer our California native species versus hybrids. I have made some nice selections of Iris macrosiphon and other local native species. I hope they all bloom this year. I would enjoy sharing photographs. Their flowers range in color from white to deep inky purple and a large variety of shades in between.



Iris ‘Harmony’ blooming with the last flowers of Cyclamen coum.



Akke,

I had to edit this comment when I saw your photograph of Scilla rosenii. I grew this Scilla cilicica from seed. Yes, the tiny Scilla species are great container plants! It would be nice to grow other species.



I grow a number of trees in containers that would become much too large for our garden if I planted them in the ground. Pictured is Cercis occidentalis coming into leaf.



I grew this Western Redbud, Cercis occidentalis, from seed gathered from a tree that I have been visiting since the early 1970’s. It set flower buds this year and will be blooming for the first time very soon.

[Robert]

I also enjoy our native California Buckeye, Aesculus californica. I appreciate both the new growth in the spring as well as the drying foliage in the early summer. Its early dormancy is completely in rhythm with our summer dry interior California climate. I am hoping that my container grown specimens can eventually display their mature smooth white bark. The bark is very attractive when viewed during the autumn and winter months.  [Jasmin:  The white flowers grow on upward-reaching spikes that look like candles.]



Late this afternoon Jasmin alerted me that the first flower of the season opened on Nemophila maculata. There are plenty more that will be opening as the season progresses.



Many more Erythronium multiscapideum are opening in the garden.



We cannot have too many Erythroniums in our garden!
[Jasmin:  Now that weeds are being conquered, and mulch set, there is a great deal of space—an exciting blank canvas to fill with treasures!  Just this afternoon we were enumerating plants for this area.]



Our only named variety of Pulmonaria in our garden, Pulmonaria ‘Benediction’
[Jasmin:  I like the purple-flowered Pulmonarias, but it is the pinks that have the more interesting white-speckled foliage.]

[ruweiss]

Akke and Robert, many thanks for your kind comments and the good wishes,
that late frosts will not be too severe. Off course I wish the same to you.
Last year a severe late frost did much harm to our roses in our meadow garden,
a rambler rose froze down to almost ground level. This place is a frost pocket,
our other garden by the house is much warmer. We started our Cyclamen coum
population about 30 years ago with 4 tubers from the Turkish Black Sea region
and it seems that these plants enjoy our climate. They now spread all over the
meadow and also at the drier places under the conifers.
Crocus tommassinianus had a rather slow start, but now the seedlings spread
quite nice.

[ruweiss]

Robert,
Ranunculus calandrinioides is from Morocco, but grows quite well in our climate. It flowers very early
in the year and goes underground in the summer. The flower in the picture is from a plant
in a covered frame, but the flowers of my other plant in my crevice garden starts also flowering.

[Akke]

Nik

The way you enjoy your garden is invigorating, you seem to appreciate everything that’s happening. Thinking about moss gardens, we, me and my neighbour, are doing the same.

Robert

You explained (January 31) about changing leaf colour, would this be the same? It’s not very likely that I can see this on my creeping Thyme this winter, given the weather forecast.
The situation here is much better, water level is going down and there’s less precipitation, previous two days we got the normal average of February. It seems a lot of work has been done since 2012 when lower levels led to more problems, apparently undoing the channelizing helped.
Regarding development in lower areas, a lot of that in the Netherlands, this is more or less political. Policy doesn’t seem to be based on likely possibilities in the near future, best-case scenario’s are favourite, at least we’ve learned to leave some space for flooding.
I really hope that your plants will not be damaged by frost and some rain over there. Things turned out okay here, some flowers were broken  because of the wind, got some sheltered, it could have been much worse.

Your pictures are so colourful, Nemophila maculata is looking much better than on the package (commercial) ones. Iris macrosyphon is another beautiful local species, more pictures are certainly welcome. Only local Iris here is pseudacorus, since the water is cleaner it’s fine and some are even growing on small floating duckling islands. Instead of saying how lucky you are, the thought to look around  better,  crossed my mind.
Sounds very logical that your Buckeye has summer dormancy, yet, I would never have guessed right at the pub quiz😀. Our local chestnuts are unfortunately infected, an experimental treatment with heat is applied on some of them around here, time will tell. Another tree, your Cercis occidentalis, is something to look forward to, found some beautiful pictures. Is it just pruning to keep it containersize and would it work for Quercus? It would be a nice thing to do for my neighbour with an oak that probably fell out of the sky (crows?).

Enjoying a bit of filtered sun this morning, some very fresh green against the dark evergreen is a pleasant sign of spring.

Just a park scene.

Another bit of Crocus

I wished for a picture with the flowers open, but the sun made the bark of the Beech tree light up.

‘The World of Crocuses’ is written by Janis Ruksans, thumbing through it, I found delicious Crocuses that would (at least at flowering time) be happy outside here and others that wouldn’t be happy here at all, first kind suits me best beside the ones I had.  There’s also seedlings of dutch garden Crocuses sown last season, they seem to be sprouting now. You’re investigating, I’ve started trying things, it is fun and a beginning,😀 I hope to be able to share some useful information as well.

Scilla cilicica is sweet, when did you sow it? Flowering time for the little blue bulbs planted here, is starting. In general my expectations would have been, much earlier flowering at your place. Repotted Harmony is not here yet.

Jasmin

I like animals with their own character, Dariya and Naomi have enough of that I think. Lucky (my chicken) even let me swap the eggs, hers wouldn’t work. Hopefully there’ll be some pictures of the yougsters in a couple of weeks.


Rudi

Just read yout comment, thanks. Normally severe frost aren’t going to happen anymore here. Three storms within a week shouldn’t happen normally either.

[Akke]

A lot of sun today.


Scilla decidua


Crocus chrysanthus ‘advance’


Crocus korolkowii, the one on the left, didn’t survive the storm.


Colchicum hungaricum ‘velebit star’, tiny but beautiful.


Ornithogalum lanceolatum is flowering.

It felt and looked like spring today, I hope your plants are allright, Robert.