Winter slowly releases its grip...

[Lori S.]

I think it is often not reasonably possible for a vendor to guess where a plant may be hardy.  I personally prefer to go by my own instincts or faint hopes to try what I feel has a good chance of being hardy here.  (Published zone ratings, for the cold end of the scale, I mean, are often so wildly incorrect as to discourage people here from trying plants that are actually perfectly hardy.)  The number of instances where intolerance of certain conditions (particularly wet) has been misinterpreted as a lack of cold hardiness seems enormous.  Current natural range is a good starting point, but even that only reflect only current conditions in those areas, not the possible variation in conditions that occurred through the "history" of the species.  My thoughts, anyway...

Your armeria looks as it should - very nice!  What's in the opposite corner of the pot?

[Lori S.]

And first flower... the first of the Bulbocodium vernum, on time.

[cohan]

I think it is often not reasonably possible for a vendor to guess where a plant may be hardy.
Your armeria looks as it should - very nice!  What's in the opposite corner of the pot?

i fully agree, and i know that's why, by default, they cant reasonably say much more than 'it grows for us' especially for species relatively new to cultivation, where there also isnt much anecdotal info to go on; ideally, it would be nice to have some idea of native conditions, as you say--often, again, on 'newer' species, that info is virtually unavailable, so it would be nice if vendors could pass along what they know, which of course, is only as much as THEIR  sources supplied...lol...and a database of who is growing it where and how would be  a real dream---of course, i'm not expecting vendors to be responsible for that, but it would be an interesting program for a vendor to undertake--a feedback database of some sort...

i know zone ratings are dicey, but they can at least give some starting point--depending on the source of the information--i dont put too much stock in the lowest ratings given by  those in warmer areas: i have seen sempervivum rated as much as zone 6! when i know many species are fine with zone 2! but if someone who has some knowledge of colder conditions rates one thing as Z2, and another Z5, i will at least try the 2 first--especially now when i am starting from scratch, i will go with surer bets to start, and get more adventurous later...

thank goodness for natives--i know THOSE are hardy...lol--speaking of which, i have seen alberta natives listed as zone 4 plants...lol (for those outside the region, there are a couple of areas in alberta that may be zone 4, but not much of the province--mostly zone 3, 2, and lower..)

i find its VERY  tricky living here--in a larger population centre, you could expect to find a number of local growers with at least partially overlapping interests whose experience you could benefit from, at least as far as regional climate, of course nothing is guaranteed from one yard and spot to another, but i dont even know anyone in my REGION growing much of anything i am interested in... you are my nearest contact thus far, and our climates are still quite different, even if experiencing similar  extreme minimums..

i think probably what you are seeing in the pot with the armeria is some chunks of native moss that i collected from the yard on relatively exposed sunny spots (what little i my yard could be described that way...) and stuck in several places in the pot; there are also several no name semps which are now nearly all out of the snow, and a couple snippets of garden sedums, at the very back, not yet showing..

i'm going to look more closely at the bulbocodium its a name i know, but very little about the plants...early bloom is a great thing!

[ashley]

And first flower... the first of the Bulbocodium vernum, on time.

Lovely bulbocodium there Lori.  The first flowers of spring are always so special

[Lori S.]

Thanks, Ashley. 
(Another snowfall started this evening, that promises to drop 10-20 cm of snow... another brief step back into winter, argghh!)

More of my musings, as the new alpine bed of 2007-2008 melts out of the snow...
Some Delosperma spp. are proving to be quite hardy... Delosperma aff. congestum (winter colour; once again, "Thanks, Krystl!" - from seed in 2003); young plants of Delosperma basuticum and D. nubigenum (in its brilliant winter colour), planted last year.
Androsace armeniacum var. macrantha... or so it was supposed to be (grown by a coworker from seed), though I'm not certain now that the leaves match that ID... ?
Heterotheca jonesii
Draba acaulis - looks like it will be quite charmingly furry!
I was curious as to whether Saxifraga longifolia and others in that association would be hardy here.  So far, so good for this S. longifolia hybrid...(which, I was relieved to find out, should not be monocarpic, unlike S. longifolia. 
Veronica bombycina ssp. bolkhardagensis has wonderful silvery foliage and promises to be lovely in bloom!

[Sinchets]

Hi Lori- lovely to see your plants in an interlude between snow. Great to see happy and hardy Delospermas- I hope to have some growing here soon. What I wanted to say though was that if the Androsace seed was from a seed exchange it could be anything. I've had seed labelled as A.armeniacum var macranthum before which proved to be very untrue. I have had seed turn out to be A.septentrionalis or a similar species- which is okay but not what I was expecting.

[cohan]

Thanks, Ashley. 
(Another snowfall started this evening, that promises to drop 10-20 cm of snow... another brief step back into winter, argghh!)

lori-i was wondering if you were getting this same snow--ours started in the middle of the night, several inches already; i'm about to go out and start shovelling--lots of paths and long driveway etc... blowing snow later on is likely to be the most troublesome part...

glad to see you have some good news for me for once on hardiness i'm quite eager to try delos too...

simon---you likely already know martin in denmark? he has quite a few delos, i think, and his lows should be near to yours..i think he may even be on this forum....

[Sinchets]

hi Cohan I am trying Delosperma seed this year from Alplains Seed in the US- I know they grow quite a few species and varieties at Denver Botanic Garden that seem to be quite tough. I think it's more likely conditions here are closer to the ones they experience- we have snow for 3 months, but  can have 3 months with very little rain in summer. I will look out for Martin on here.

[Lori S.]

So which delosperma are you trying, Sinchets?  When you are talking about your conditions being closer to what they experience, do you mean closer to those in Denver, or in the Drakensbeurg?

Winter tightens its grip again... 25cm of snow, and not returning to 10 deg C until Friday, ugghh.  Well, the snow does set off Rosa rubrifolia nicely, but we've already had more than enough time to appreciate it!
Back to happier days (err, yesterday, that is)...
Saxifraga x elizabethae
Vitaliana primuliflora var. cinerea
Townsendia leptotes, looking very viable.
Sagina x boydii, not looking so good at all.

[Sinchets]

Oopps sorry Lori- I meant similar to Denver- the ones i have seed of have no name yet- just ex Sani Pass- I also have Aloinopsis spathulata which will be 1 year old  soon and seems to have overwintered well when it reappears between snow storms- it's under snow again this week.

[Lori S.]

Yeah, I thought to Denver (but as I don't know your climate, nor much about that of the Drakensbeurg, I thought I would ask, LOL!)
How interesting... I grew Aloinopsis spathulata last year, and am waiting to see the results.

[cohan]

hi Cohan I am trying Delosperma seed this year from Alplains Seed in the US- I know they grow quite a few species and varieties at Denver Botanic Garden that seem to be quite tough. I think it's more likely conditions here are closer to the ones they experience- we have snow for 3 months, but  can have 3 months with very little rain in summer. I will look out for Martin on here.

you are right, simon, you sound much drier than martin... here's the link, anyway:
http://www.northern-nursery.dk/
here, actually, the bulk of our precipitation is normally in summer: classically in june, though the last couple of summers have been wet all the way through\
beavercreek and wrightmans in canada both offer plants of at least 3-4 species also..

[cohan]

How interesting... I grew Aloinopsis spathulata last year, and am waiting to see the results.

lori and simon- i'm very interested to hear how you both do with the aloinopsis, this one i had not heard of (hardy species, i mean, i know the genus as indoor plants)...beavercreek was also listing a Crassula species from Drakensbergs, i think..has anyone tried that?

i posted my weather pics to weather now; its snowing again, though worst is supposed to be over; i think maybe we had just abit less than you, lori--maybe around 6inches, though we could get a bit more; we are supposed to be 8C by friday...today was not supposed to be above freezing, but it was definitely melting--not enough to make  a dent in the piles of snow, but once cleared, the remnants were melting, and off the car etc..

here is my one showing planter...lol--as of yesterday, today buried again... one of these semps looks a little dicey, but i have never lost a semp before in winter, we will see...

[Lori S.]

I haven't managed to find a sempervivum yet that wasn't hardy here... and if I did, I suspect that would almost categorically make it an echeveria, wouldn't it?  Well, okay, I'm oversimplifying.   
No, have never tried any crassula.

 

[cohan]

I haven't managed to find a sempervivum yet that wasn't hardy here... and if I did, I suspect that would almost categorically make it an echeveria, wouldn't it?  Well, okay, I'm oversimplifying.   
No, have never tried any crassula.

i do wonder about the semp from morocco, atlanticum? not sure of the name, just now, i've never grown it..
..but i've never in the past lost any that i have grown, tough little guys..
beavercreek mentioned the crassula surviving montreal.. i think martin, in denmark, had a species or two of crassula, but his lowest temps are around -20C