March 2010 Northern Hemisphere

[Ragged Robin]

Gerd, thanks for your reply - one day....can't resist!

[Maggi Young]

The amount of flowering depends on how "hard" the winter was - that means for us did we get a period of frost or not. About the number of flowers, I'll give it a try.

Can you make that more clear, please, Luc.... does frost mean more flowers or fewer flowers?

[LucS]

Clearly more flowers, as with many true alpines.

[Maggi Young]

Good news for the beginners here who wonder about the growth of plants in colder weather , Luc, thank you.

[JPB]

Luc, what a beautiful Pulsatilla slavica!!

Here's my Coris monspeliensis in flower now.

Hans

[David Nicholson]

Very nice Hans.

[Ragged Robin]

It looks as if it should be growing on a coral reef - what a great combination of colours Hans 

[Mike Ireland]

A few early saxifraga starting to flower.
Sax Allendale Ballet (SEP45 x Lilacina)
Sax Excellent
Sax Peach Melba

[Mike Ireland]

Two bulbs grown from seed.
Narcissus Nylon yellow form
Romulea zahnii from Silverhill Seeds

[Maggi Young]

A lovely selection, Mike.
 Saxifraga 'Allendale Ballet' is a corker.... one of Ray Fairbairn's bairns, I presume?

[Mike Ireland]

Yes Maggie I believe it is.  This I think is one of his best, Sax Allendale Elf

[Paddy Tobin]

By Jeepers, Mike, that's a topper of a plant. Paddy

[David Nicholson]

Lovely example of Narcissus 'Nylon' Mike.

I'm a bit thrown by your Romulea zahnii though! I though I had one but it certainly isn't like yours and I have appended a poor picture of it from 2008. When I bought mine I did some research and information was hard to find, and indeed it still is (but I found quite a few of your pics on various web sites. On the PBS Wiki Jane McGarry desribes it as a European Romulea, Romulea bulbocodium ssp zahnii and the picture she shows is a plant with a fair bit of purple in it. This is more like my plant and indeed one search I did brought me Cotswold Garden Flowers and Bob Brown describes it as being purple. Can you "sort me out"?

[ashley]

Strange isn't it?  R. zahnii doesn't seem to appear in the Monocot Checklist or other databases but is offered commercially & regularly crops up in seedexes.  Certainly it resembles R. bulbocodium, albeit with longer stigma branches than the forms I grow.  Lovely thing though

David, yours reminds me of one I raised under (yet!) another name but best matched R. gigantea as shown here on the PBS Wiki.  What do you think?

Great fun these romuleas

[David Nicholson]

It's certainly possible Ashley, I wish my picture was better. I can't remember it flowering last year and I don't have a 2009 pic of it but my records tell me that I re-potted it last July.