March 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Hoy]

Just some impressions from a walk along the riverbank of the Wupper, a tributary of the Rhein (Rhine). There is a riparian forest with an impressive richness of spring flowers

Please Enjoy

Gerd

Ja, danke schön!

I have still to wait a couple of weeks till the windflowers open here

[Maggi Young]

I was surprised to see the windflowers out, too... they are a great favourite of mine... Anemone nemorosa were my late Mother's favourite wildflower

[ashley]

Hacquetia epipactis

[Hoy]

Ashley, you beat me! I can just imagine the color of the "petals" of mine!

[ruweiss]

Now we are lucky to find more and more flowering plants in our gardens.
It was amazing to me, that Ran.calandrinioides survived our long lasting
winter. When I cultivated it in the Alpine house, it suffered so much from
mildew and it was really no fun to look at  it.
The Pulsatilla' s flowers are rather poor this year, against the display
from former years.
Yesterday I noted these happy flies tasting the freh sap of this wounded tree.
It surely was a kind of pub for them with free beer for everybody.

[cohan]

Gerd-- great place for a walk in spring!

Rudi--that is a wonderful  Ranunculus-- I love the leaves and the colour!

[Natalia]

Rudi, what magnificent Rununculus and Helleborus!

[ruweiss]

Natalia and Cohan, thank you for your friendly comments. The pictures of the Pulatilla are from
the same plant how it performed in the last year, I only hope, that it still stays for a long time
me.

[Armin]

Rudi,
your Pulsatilla is great!

[David Nicholson]

Rudi, lovely plants and lovely pictures.

[WimB]

Rudi, love your plants, especially the ranunculus is stunning!!!

[David Nicholson]

These are very cheap and cheerful but nonetheless provide some lovely colour.

I'm not sure if the blue Chionodoxa are hybrids or not but I started with a packet of about ten bulbs about five years ago and the patch is now a good meter square and seeds all round the garden too. The Narcissus are February Gold.

Pink Giant is a first year planting.

[Gerdk]

Thanks to Maggi, Trond and Cohan!
Gerd

[cohan]

No flowers here yet!
But I managed to find a bit of colour and texture in the woods just past the edge of the acreage.
Full album: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/March132011ForestTextures#

First some birches, presumably all Betula papyrifera, which range from white to dark, with reddish and purply tones, even on the same tree on various trunks and branches...

   

Lichens and fungi..

       

Spruce branch with ice..

[WimB]

Wonderful pics, Cohan. I like the lichen especially.

Here are some plants which were flowering during the last week.

Anemone blanda 'Ingramii'
Anemone blanda 'Radar'
Anemone nemerosa 'Virescens'
Olsynium douglasii 'Album'
Ranunculus ficaria 'Aurantiacus'
Ranunculus ficaria 'Brazen Hussy'
Ranunculus ficaria 'Collarette'
Ranunculus ficaria 'Wild Red Back'