March 2010 Northern Hemisphere

[Sinchets]

That really is a different looking Ribes, Gail. Does it set fruit like the others?

[Gail]

It is meant to set fruits that start red, ripening to black but I must admit I've never noticed any on my plant.  Whether that is just me being unobservant or whether it needs a second clone for cross-pollination I don't know.  I'll watch more closely this year....

[Sinchets]

Thanks, Gail- maybe the birds get there first 

[Paddy Tobin]

I grow the ribes laurifolium also and have never seen fruit, that I recall. It gives a lovely display at this time of year with a kind of lime-green flower.

Paddy

[TheOnionMan]

How hardy is Ribes laurifolium and where is it from?  Is it evergreen.  Unique flower presentation for a Ribes, a genus I like

Ribes laurifolium is from China, introduced here by Ernest Wilson in 1908.  It is evergreen and hardy (sorry I don't know zones) but in winters with very cold winds the leaves get a bit browned off at edges.

Thanks Gail.  I should've asked the first time around, are the flower fragrant... as you know some Ribes species have spicy sweet perfumed flowers.  So, it is amusing yet sad that I have a Ribes odoratum that in inodorous, one that I grew specifically for the scent.

[Gail]

I brought a sprig inside but even in the warm kitchen I can only detect the faintest hint of a fragrance.  I have the yellow flowered R. odoratum (same as yours?). Mine is lightly fragrant and the currants are edible - though not, it must be said, particularly palatable without lots of sugar!

[TheOnionMan]

I brought a sprig inside but even in the warm kitchen I can only detect the faintest hint of a fragrance.  I have the yellow flowered R. odoratum (same as yours?). Mine is lightly fragrant and the currants are edible - though not, it must be said, particularly palatable without lots of sugar!

Yes, mine is R. odoratum too (thanks for name correction, I sometimes type faster than I think), but mine must be ssp. inodoratum 'HaHa'
I keep it just because it puts on a pleasant display of yellow flowers and fruits, but I must get a strongly fragrant one; experienced a plant in a friend's garden 30 or more years ago, and the fragrance was heavenly.

[Sinchets]

Just coming into flower here in a raised bed:
Thlaspi crassum

[cohan]

my friend was on the roof yesterday checking a chimney and swears there were bees out, but i can't imagine what they would be doing--nothing in flower here for a long time yet--pussywillows are probably coming out, but wouldn't likely be flowering yet, i think, have to go out there and look (in the wild)...

I'm thinking your friend disturbed some bees that were in the chimney or in the roof somewhere and "forced " them out for a quick fly round.... they'd be crazy to be out naturally with you yet, I would have thought?!!

its a possibility, although these are just thin metal chimneys, and a plastic plumbing aeration pipe, so i doubt there is anywhere for them to hide;
my main theories (apart from them being some kind of fly masquerading as bees) were either early queens out looking for nest sites or domestic honey bees for some reason roused early...
i do see bees in early cold weather when the first flowers are out--willows, petasites, caltha--but that is late april at best, more often may..
maybe i should go out today and look for pussywillows...

[cohan]

Just coming into flower here in a raised bed:
Thlaspi crassum

i have to say i am fascinated with these little thlaspis--i think because their big weedy cousin-known locally as stinkweed (arvense? off the top of my head..) is such a common weed here, i had no idea there others--growing these cute little things would be like growing the other taraxacum species....
i have seed for the purple species from the alps but of course, not being white, its not so reminiscent of the weeds..

[Tony Willis]

That really is a different looking Ribes, Gail. Does it set fruit like the others?

Hillier indicates it is dioecious and therefore both forms are necessary for berries to form.

[Gail]

Hillier indicates it is dioecious and therefore both forms are necessary for berries to form.

Interesting, thanks Tony.  I wonder how you sex a Ribes?

[derekb]

Hillier indicates it is dioecious and therefore both forms are necessary for berries to form.

Interesting, thanks Tony.  I wonder how you sex a Ribes?

Have you tried shaking it???

[Sinchets]

Just coming into flower here in a raised bed:
Thlaspi crassum

i have to say i am fascinated with these little thlaspis--i think because their big weedy cousin-known locally as stinkweed (arvense? off the top of my head..) is such a common weed here, i had no idea there others--growing these cute little things would be like growing the other taraxacum species....
i have seed for the purple species from the alps but of course, not being white, its not so reminiscent of the weeds..

The swarf ones I have aren't longlived, but do set lots of seed. Thlaspi rotudifolium should be flowering soon from selfsown seed from last years flowering, and the one I have as Thlaspi biebersteinii has made it about quite a bit too.

[Lesley Cox]

Robin, I'd happily send you seed of the Scolipus except that sadly, mine doesn't. Maybe I need another clone to sit with it. But many other Forumists grow this plant and some at least do get seed each year.