February 2011 - Northern Hemisphere

[krisderaeymaeker]

Lovely to see the Asphodelus again. Here it is quite hardy and grows happily outside all year, flowering from mid winter. I've never seen it like yours Kris, with elongated tubes (not stems). Here the flowers sit right down on the leaves. I find it's best grown in a very poor, hard soil which keeps the leaves at a lower less exhuberant size.

Yours is much better then mine Lesley . Yours is the real acaulis and mine should be named as pseudo-acaulis.... But the reason for these is the lack of good light I suppose ?
I think is not hardy enough here , or it has some problems with our moist and wet winter ?
But now I see yours I must trie it outside in a sunny scree sometimes ...

[johngennard]

Gail,that is still a very nice picture.
Cohan,nothing to follow in the wood unfortuneately.
Davey,yes it is my land but over the garden wall so to speak.The wall in this case being a leylandii hedge planted fourty-four years ago to give protection from the prevailing S.W.winds to a then bare plot.The trees were planted as whips about thirty years ago.

[daveyp1970]

John i simply have to applaud your efforts your garden is stunning,incredible all rolled up in amazing.WOW

[Brian Ellis]

Super pictures Tom and John, and Gail yours is good too!  I seem to remember some from last year John and if I am correct then this year I am even more gobsmacked   I'd love to have some woodland to do this to.

[Paul T]

John,

That is absolutely brilliant work.  Congratulations!!

[Lesley Cox]

Cohan, wait for another month for more pics from John's place, or search through last year's at about the same time. I seem to recall bluebells, hellebores and all sorts in the same place or close by.

Gail you eranthis are lovely too, especially in closeup. Sorry, I don't mean to sound as if I'm patting a two-year-old's head, and making soothing noises.

[annew]

John, it looks wonderful, I am green, white and yellow with envy. It just goes to show the truth of the old saying: Every garden, no matter how small, should have at least an acre of woodland.

[Paddy Tobin]

John and Tom,

Wonderful photographs, really enjoyed them. A wonderfully natural growth of snowdrops in Fullarton Woods and nature imitated and improved in John's garden.

Paddy

[Gail]

Gail you eranthis are lovely too, especially in closeup. Sorry, I don't mean to sound as if I'm patting a two-year-old's head, and making soothing noises.

That's okay - I like soothing noises!   

[cohan]

Gail,that is still a very nice picture.
Cohan,nothing to follow in the wood unfortuneately.

fascinating, John! I guess that makes it easier to maintain these plantings? or are there weeds that would happily grow, just no other flower plantings? the only 'bare' forest floor I have around here, is coniferous and therefor the same all year... our deciduous forest is much more open, so the understory is fiercely competitive!

Lesley, I guess that was a different part of the garden

[johngennard]

Yes you are right Cohan,my mainteanance regime does not allow any other species much as I would like bluebells,their foliage persists for too long and would prevent my herbicide spraying for too long and allow the cow parsley to re-establish.I can spray as soon as the aconites and snowdrops have died down and catch the cow parsley before it seeds.After clearing the floor of brash in December I then scatter the seed collected from the garden plantations and leave it to it's own devices.

[johnw]

Helleborus x nigercors ex Ashwood as a plant 1996.  Last Spring we gingerly divided the big old plant and had a few successes.

johnw

[cohan]

Yes you are right Cohan,my mainteanance regime does not allow any other species much as I would like bluebells,their foliage persists for too long and would prevent my herbicide spraying for too long and allow the cow parsley to re-establish.I can spray as soon as the aconites and snowdrops have died down and catch the cow parsley before it seeds.After clearing the floor of brash in December I then scatter the seed collected from the garden plantations and leave it to it's own devices.

Interesting! not many things here die down that early (though I've only started getting spring bulby things) our late cool spring means many of them aren't done till mid-summer! I did plant some Corydalis solida fall before last, and noticed they were gone 'early' but probably far later than elsewhere!

[Ed Alverson]

I would like bluebells,their foliage persists for too long and would prevent my herbicide spraying for too long and allow the cow parsley to re-establish.

John, have you tried applying a broadleaf selective herbicide (like Triclopyr - "Garlon" in the US) to the cow parsley? It wouldn't affect bluebells, even if they are actively growing, because they are moncots.

Ed

[Ed Alverson]

My first hypertufa trough was planted in March 2009 with a number of small plants native to the Columbia River Gorge on the border of Oregon and Washington.  After the NARGS Western Winter Study \Weekend we took a field trip to the Catherine Creek area at the east end of the Gorge to see the early spring wildflowers.  Afterwards we visited a local native plant nursery where I purchased a number of plants for what seemed like ridiculously low prices.  The trough is now maturing nicely, and the grass widows (Olsynium douglasii) are now blooming.  The other two plants are Heuchera cylindrica, which has taken on a nice bronzy color for the winter, and a species of Lomatium with dissected gray green foliage.  I also planted a Penstemon but it did not survive.  The Heuchera and Lomatium are admittedly way to big for this small trough, but I like it anyway.  Both will flower later in the spring.

The grass widows in the gorge are renowned for their early flowering - they begin in February pretty much every year.  Interestingly, wild populations of Olsynium douglasii in the area where I live are much later flowering - they won't start for another 4 weeks at least.

Ed