February in the Northern Hemisphere

[Robert]

Despite the stormy weather, many early spring blooming plants are coming into flower. Pseudotrillium rivale is looking nice. To date, this is the only “Trillium” species that thrives in our garden. It produces seed and seeds about the garden freely.



Erythronium multiscapideum is also beginning to bloom. Pictured is our Deer Valley selection of the species. This selection spreads slowly and consistently produces abundant crops of flowers each season.



This selection of Primula (Dodecatheon) hendersonii is a breakthrough. This selection has, at least, some tolerance to summertime moisture in our Sacramento garden. It is derived from a colony of this species that appeared in our Placerville farm orchard many years ago. Our orchard receives regular irrigation during the summer. This colony of plants has thrived and has continued to spread despite being subject to moist conditions when the plants are dormant. Some of our high elevation forms of this species also exhibit tolerance for some summertime moisture. In most cases, this species requires dry conditions during its summer dormancy. Developing lines that are tolerant of summertime moisture will be a tremendous addition and bonus to our garden.



Narcissus dubius var. dubius grows well in our garden. The tiny pure white flowers are a delight. I enjoy this species greatly.



I spend most of my time breeding miniature Narcissus. I developed this Jetfire hybrid many years ago. It definitely does not fit into the miniature category, however I do not have the heart to throw it out. On the contrary, I like this selection a great deal. It has the characteristic of alternating partly reflexed tepals that I find interesting and attractive. The two-toned ruffled cup is also nice. It is fertile both ways. Needless to say pollen is being spread around, and other flowers of this clone are being pollenated.

[Jasmin]:  Today is 10˚ C.  This morning the streets were obscured by dense fog.  Now it is uniform medium grey.  Once in a while some sky or sun peeks through.  Last night it rained intensely for an hour or two.
     The above flowers invigorate me:  spring indeed is coming.  If Robert dared dispense with the Jetfire hybrid, I think he would encounter a very unhappy wife.  So I think he will not want that.  Seeing the Pseudotrillium rivale so beautifully enhanced by the rock encourages me to want to get more rocks for the garden.  We have so many other little treasures, and sometimes it is hard to remember where they are when they are dormant, and labels can so easily be dislodged by wildlife, the wind, or my weeding.  How many of us have accidentally spliced a bulb, not remembering its location?  I doubt I am the only one, just one of the few to admit such atrocities and embarrassments.  Yes, the perfect rocks would assist the situation.

[Yann]

It seems early spring is wet from California to Scotland, long forecasts announced a wet spring in northern hemisphere.

[Robert]

It seems early spring is wet from California to Scotland, long forecasts announced a wet spring in northern hemisphere.

Hi Yann,

From your comment it appears there will be good wildflower displays in Europe this year.

Here in California, the 2023-2024 precipitation season is shaping up to be the third good season in a row. We have not seen this in over 20 years. There will likely be a good wildflower display this year. For me the question is, do I travel south or north this season? And then, for me, there is plenty to do locally.

[Mariette]

Robert, Your narcissi and trillium are very beautiful! At flowering time, I love to scent the house with bunches of narcissi.

If the weather stays as stormy and wet as it has been since the start of the year, there may be wildflowers, but no circumstances to enjoy them. In our area, plenty of rainfall encourages tall grasses, brambles and nettles  to grow at the expense of more welcome flowers. Indeed, it was so stormy and wet till now, that I was able to take pics of crocusses only twice. This one was taken in my neighbouring son´s garden.



The crocusses there, which are self-sown seedlings from those in my garden, show a good deal of variation.



The bumblebees suffer badly from the inclement weather, a few days ago I saw three of them clinging to the closed crocusses shaken by the storm. I found already many which died due to the difficult condtions.



Crocus ´Yalta´ is one of the few varieties which last for several years in my garden, though not clumping well.



Ilex aquifolium ´Ferox Argentea´ looks good independant of the weather.

[ashley]

Very beautiful tommies Mariette
Yes I like 'Yalta' too.

[Mariette]

Thank You for Your kind comment, Ashley!

Getting older, I confine myself to enjoying chance-seedlings  instead of breeding, as I did years ago. For instance, I went for primulas which blend well in mixed plantings, nowadays things like this pop up in the garden.



I like this one, with a hint of a white rim and white shading in the centre - unfortunately splashed with mud by the endless rain.





Pulmonaria-seedling and Arum italicum - seedling.



Lonicera elisae

[Andre Schuiteman]

Not many rock garden plants are already in flower at this time of the year. Most of the colour is provided by bulbous and tuberous plants (geophytes in short). One of the few non-geophytic exceptions in my garden is Arabis aubrietioides, which has been in flower for almost a month already. This species from Turkey is well-named, because it not only resembles an Aubrieta, it also seems to be as vigorous and easy-going as one. My plants were grown from SRGC seed from the 21/22 seed distribution. The seed germinated in about two weeks from being sown in early March (I was a bit late that year).

[Robert]

Currently, we are getting a break between storms. The weather is dry and relatively warm [Jasmin:  A toasty 16˚C!]. The weeds are growing rapidly! Most of my time in the garden is spent keeping the weeds under control.



Our Deer Valley form of Erythronium multiscapideum is coming into full bloom. It consistently and abundantly blooms well each season. In addition, this form stays compact, spreading very slowly and producing fewer long slender rhizomes as most other forms of this species do. The Deer Valley form of Erythronium multiscapideum is found in chaparral settings growing under White-leaf Manzanita, Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. viscida and other chaparral species in Gabbro based rocky soils.



Our local foothill form of Primula (Dodecantheon) hendersonii is also coming into bloom. The form pictured is from our Placerville property. They are generally sterile, producing very little viable seed. I believe they may be triploid forms, distantly derived from Primula hendersonii x clevelandii hybrids. So far, attempts to cross them with other fertile forms of Primula hendersonii have failed. I have a batch of Primula clevelandii seedlings coming along and will attempt to cross them with the mostly sterile forms of Primula hendersonii. Hopefully I can do this next season.



Our Magnolia kobus is blooming again.



A number of years ago I cut the Magnolia kobus to the ground. It was becoming gigantic – far too large for our garden. The tree began to sprout from the base, so I attempted to chop out the roots. This was extremely difficult, especially since I did not want to harm any of the nearby plants. I gave up on this idea and instead decided to train the tree in the niwaki style. At first there was a great deal of hard pruning and shaping with no flowers. Now we are getting flowers again. Training is an on going project which will always need to be maintained to have the Magnolia “look” right. I guess this is like sculpture, but I am no Michelangelo.

[Jasmin]:  When we first planted this Magnolia, it was misidentified as a stellata, dwarf type.  I loved the flower scent.  This garden experiment to maintain the tree will remain a long journey.  We shall see where we are at in 20 more years!



Here is another selection of my Jetfire hybrid Narcissus that I do not have the heart to throw out. It has its imperfections but I like the flushed light yellow pigment in the creamy white tepals.

Now to get back to pulling weeds!

[Maggi Young]

From Anton Edwards, editor of The Rock Garden, twice-yearly journal  of SRGC - taken in the Perthshire garden of Anton and his wife, Margaret.....

Spring on the ground; winter in the trees.

[ruweiss]

Spring is very early this year:
Salix caprea Mas