March in the Northern Hemisphere

[Véronique Macrelle]

very happy with the development of the leaves on my Arum. It's much prettier when there are fewer slugs! I hope I'll finally see a fleru of A. creticum, which is magnificent this year.

[Véronique Macrelle]

in the greenhouse:
- Viola eizanensis is starting to flower: it's fragrant.
- Ficaria verna ‘Ken Aslet’: I thought it would provide me with some pollen for cross-breeding, but no.
- a yellow Helleborus, unnamed.

[Jeffnz]

Your yellow hellebore is an anemone form, was this your own seedling?

[Leena]

Veronique, beautiful yellow Helleborus! And also other interesting plants.

[Véronique Macrelle]

the yellow Helleborus and this double white come from the production and selection of Sandrine and Thierry Delabroye.
https://www.les-vivaces-de-sandrine-et-thierry.fr/
they open a few doors when their hellebores are in flower (hundreds of them!), often unnamed.
 It's a good opportunity to compare shapes and colours.
I avoid flowers that look upwards, though, as I find they get damaged in our winter rains.
 I like this shape of anemone.
 I don't usually buy such expensive plants, but it was between 2 Covid confinements . and at the 1 open house they were able to hold (there weren't many people there) I felt I had to support them ... while enjoying myself



Are hellebores self-fertilising? In 3 years I've never had any seeds formed on this yellow, despite manual pollination.

[Jeffnz]

A visit from bees is required for pollination, even then there are flowers that do not get pollinated and therefore no seed set.

[Mariette]

A nice range of flowers, Véronique!

Indoors, the lovely scented Neomarica candida is flowering.



These crocus came as Crocus exiguus to me - I like the striped ones!



This pale blue form of Scilla / Chionodoxa sardensis has still to bulk up.



Scilla bifolia feels at home in my garden. In the past, I planted blue, pink and white ones, which started to mix their genes. The purplish ones show the influence of the pink forms.

[Mariette]

There are light blue Scilla bifolia, now.



Blue ones with white ovary. (hybrids?)



And definitely hybrids.

[Véronique Macrelle]

 I also have Scilla bifolia. A wild form from eastern France that someone gave me, but I find that it doesn't reproduce much, so I'm thinking of moving it to another spot for next season.
the violas are flowering very well this year, which isn't always the case. on the other hand, V. prionantha is usually huge, but this year they're all quite small or late. on the other hand, I've finally had enough of Viola eizanensis, which is explosive this year. I've never had so many: some flowers are over 3 cm long, as in the photo.

To keep a species of Viola, you always need to have a good number of individuals (you're never safe from sudden death) and accept that they sometimes grow in the pot of another plant, because that's what they prefer, it seems...

-Scilla bifolia
-Viola jooi, freshly opened flower
-Viola jooi
-Viola eizanensis
-Viola prionantha