March 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Robert]

Akke,

The book by Janis Ruksans is called “Buried Treasures”. Timber Press published it in the USA in 2007. It would be nice if I got the name of the book correct. Oh well, James Clerk Maxwell was known to make mistakes in his mathematics, so I guess I am not the only one prone to mistakes. I read the book a number of years ago and enjoyed it immensely.

Below are some photographs of a plant nursery in Occidental, California. The nursery closed over 15 years ago and the founders of the nursery are in the Other Existence.



A scene of the nursery near the entrance.



Another view of the nursery.



The garden was attached to the nursery.



It was easy to drift into the garden.

[Robert]

There was a pond in the garden.



The garden had many very interesting plant species and was very well designed.



Cupressus cashmeriana was one of many trees growing in the garden. I was given cuttings off this tree, which rooted well. Jasmin and I grew one of the cuttings on in our Sacramento garden. Unfortunately, the tree became too large before we could control its height and we had to remove the tree. It is kind of sad for me to lose this tree.



Marshall and Lester’s house was at the upper end of the garden and overlooked the whole garden. When business was slow, Marshall would invite me to the house for tea and we would talk plants for hours. I was very fortunate to have such a mentor!



The nursery is closed.

[Akke]

Robert

Thanks for the beautiful pictures, the old nursery looks so peaceful and harmonious. I appreciated the Limnanthes alba very much as well, really thoughtful, good luck with the seed-gathering, it would sound better if you could do so without (destructive) fires.  Sorry to hear about your Cupresses cashmeriana, it certainly looks attractive.
‘Buried treasures’ isn’t available in the public library system, I didn’t check the university or the hortus botanicus library yet.

While thousands of Crocuses are flowering, some stood out. Spotted them thanks to Spot, she was investigating with her nose.

Behind an old grating some Crocuses (chrysanthus cv?) are growing between equally old tiles. As a species/cv probably not very interesting, the place they’re in, is. Ants?

Jasmin

Language leaves enough room for humorous (non) accidental misunderstanding, I can think of plenty examples comparing Dutch/Frisian and Dutch/German. Personally, I think it’s sort of strange that starting a conversation in English is considered normal around here, while starting in German is rude, it seems to me that mostly germans take the trouble to learn Dutch. My father had, including/espacially English/Americans, something to say about foreigners living here and not bothering to learn the language, well he was really good at them, fluent in five and different levels at a few others. He taught me the basics but was proud that my Italian ended up superior to his, rusty by now, still useful sometimes.  At the moment I still try to figure out how to relate to my mother, financial crisis and corona didn’t do my situation any good either. No pressure, your stories help me think;).

Pondering about Suiseki, creating the new mini-moss-garden-to-be, me and neighbour (joint-venture)!had a resemblance in childhood memories about stones looking good. Some, to us, collectionables were used, mostly I tried to create different circumstances. Previous moss-miniature took about four years of utter neglect. The new one was a bit more designed, trying to create different conditions, the result is better then the first set-up.

Ps seeing and listening to our birds, are Naomi an Dariya doing ok?

[Nik]

Beautiful pictures of the nursery, Robert!
Spot has a good sense of appreciation, Akke!

Here is our backyard just after sunset today. As you can see, it is still winter here and not much happening. I still find it calming.

[Nik]

Oops, all of them showed up 90 degrees counterclockwise. Don’t know how to fix it…

 edit:
... Maggi fixed it for you

[Akke]

Nik

Still beautiful pictures.
It happened to me before, the advice to modify (cutting edges in my case) worked.

[Nik]

Thank you, Maggi!!!

[Nik]

Here is again Hamamelis x intermedia, this time without the snow. It is the only thing in bloom in our yard. Sadly, hungry deer ate most of the flowers and small side branches that they were on, but there are few survivors.

[Akke]

Nik

Even better right way up, the ‘balancing’ rock is attractive as before. I’m not sure if I saw the small tree in previous pictures, I hope you’ll share some more pictures soon.
It’s sad that yout only blooming plant was badly damaged, what’s left of Hamamelis x intermedia is beatiful.

[Nik]

Akke, the small tree is a dwarf Japanese maple cultivar ‘Rhode Island Red’. It was severely damaged a couple of years ago by a birch tree falling on top of it during a wind storm. As a result, more than 75% of the branches had to be removed. Here is a picture from last spring, and I’ll definitely post new ones this season.

[Akke]

Lovely, Nik

[Rick R.]

All Hamamelis and related are deer and rabbit magnets.

I grew a Cashmir cypress as a houseplant for 7 years.  It was incredibly beautiful.  it seemed to do fine under normal house conditions.  The tree succumbed to a root disease, I think. 

[Robert]

Spring weather can be erratic and our weather has been very erratic since the end of February to 1 March 2022: Five days ago we experienced record low nighttime temperatures and now we have record-breaking high temperatures. The weather has always created challenges for gardeners; however extremes in the weather are now becoming more frequent in our region. The extreme wintertime dry weather has continued. A new record has been broken for the most days without measurable precipitation in Sacramento, California during the winter season: 53 days. The forecast is for rain in the next couple of days, so the record appears that it will end at 55 days. [Pray we get rain!  Even though the low pressure and storm are touching the northwestern corner of California, this heat hardly seems an indicator of rain potential. Neither of us, nor the weather service models, seem capable of any accurate prediction anymore.]

Pictured above is a new garden bed that I cleared of weeds and can start planting over the next few years. I do not want to plant “just anything”, so I will ponder my choices carefully. With long range gardening plans it is helpful to be optimistic about the future, including the impacts of the weather on one’s garden.



The first flowers of Eschscholzia caespitosa are opening in our garden. These days, I never plant this annual species as they reseed readily without my help.



Eschscholzia lobbii is another annual species. This species too has started to reseed in the garden without my help; however I still plant tubs of this species to enjoy each season.



This tub full of Eschscholzia lobbii and Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia var. chrysanthemifolia is a product of nature. I never sowed the seed in this pot; they just came up on their own without my intervention. We are enjoying this combination immensely. The lacy Eucrypta foliage is delicate, a sweet textural combination with the Eschscholzia.



Last autumn I bought a cheap package of California wildflower seed mix to see what might come up. I was pleased to get some Nemophila menziesii var. menziesii in this mix. There appears to be some genetic drift in the commercial seeds: All the wild plants in our region produce much deeper blue-colored flowers and have a much more compact habitat of growth. In the future, I will grow some plants from wild seed and compare the results.

[Robert]

I grow Diplacus pictus in containers. The plants are relatively small and the flowers are small too. In a container the plants can be massed or combined with other small plants. In a container the small flowers can be observed closely and appreciated.



More Diplacus pictus in bloom.



Out in the open garden Sisyrinchium bellum is starting to come into bloom. These days I grow only our local native species and continue to weed out the non-native Sisyrinchium species and hybrids.



I have a container full of Ranunculus occidentalis var. occidentalis coming into full bloom. This perennial variety demands completely dry soil conditions during its summer and early autumn dormancy. I am experimenting with plants in the open garden (with summer irrigation) to see if they might bloom during their first season of growth and can be thus be handled as an annual.



Different forms of Primula (Dodecatheon) hendersonii produce flowers from early February to Late April. It is one of my favorite species. I am now in a position to continue breeding these beautiful plants. Like Ranunculus occidentalis var. occidentalis, this species demands dry conditions during their summer to early autumn dormancy.

[Robert]

Rhododendron moupinense x johnstoneanum is one of the few Rhododendrons still growing in our garden. This hybrid thrives despite our summer heat and blooms consistently every spring. [As an indication of climate change, we always had to cover the plant in the past to protect the flowers from frost.  Last week’s frost would have demanded flower protection.  This week’s heat allows us full enjoyment of the flowers.]



The flowers of Rhododendron moupinense x johnstoneanum are quite large. The white, flushed pink flowers are striking set off against the deep green foliage of this hybrid.



Moraea macronyx consistently blooms and preforms well in our cider-block garden. While dormant during the summer, they are kept dry. As we produce more, we will test this species in other locations in our garden.



Our Japanese Maples are beginning to leaf out. Many varieties have dramatic foliage when the leaves first emerge in the spring. Acer palmatum ‘Higasayama’ is one of our favorites in this regard.



Violas are so very common, however a tub full of Violas is very colorful for many months and their fragrance is very pleasant especially near a pathway.