May 2012 in the Northern Hemisphere

[WimB]

Here first time flowering in the garden (had some flowers before in pots ) : Ranunculus seguieri.

Superb, Kris! Love that Ranunculus!!!

[Mike Ireland]

Kris the Ranunculus seguieri are wonderful.  Not one that appears to be around so often, must search it out.

[krisderaeymaeker]

Kris the Ranunculus seguieri are wonderful.  Not one that appears to be around so often, must search it out.

Thanks Mike ! Could find this one some years ago at Gerd Stopp's nursery . 

[krisderaeymaeker]

Superb, Kris! Love that Ranunculus!!!

Thanks Wim , I hope that it grows well for the next years . 

[WimB]

Thanks Wim , I hope that it grows well for the next years .

It's in very capable hands, so I'm sure it will!

[Lampwick]

We have had rain, rain and more rain.
I haven’t been able to get in the garden much and the few days we have had a bit of sunshine I was other places.

I can’t compete with the great pictures which have been put up recently.
Mike; That Asperula suberosa is magnificent, a real “show-stopper”, is it under cover?

Well folks, here is my meagre effort. More foliage than flowers!

Photos taken over the last three days.

Anemone nemorosa 'Robinsoniana'
Berberis x stenophylla 'Corallina Compacta'
Gaultheria (Pernettya) mucronata
Hebe pinguifolia 'Pagei'
Hebe 'Pink Elephant'
Hebe 'Silver Dollar'
Leucogenes Leontopodium

[Gerdk]

Diane + Luc,
Thank you for the additional information. The delphinantha x carzorlensis cross must be an extraordinary plant - according the pics it has a whole lot of hybrid vigour.
Luc, I hope you'll inform us about the future behaviour of your gem.

Gerd

[Zdenek]

Androsace ciliata
Callianthemum anemonoides
Ornithogalum sibthorpii
Ranunculus hybridus
Saxifraga sempervivum
Trollius laxus

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Diane + Luc,
Thank you for the additional information. The delphinantha x carzorlensis cross must be an extraordinary plant - according the pics it has a whole lot of hybrid vigour.
Luc, I hope you'll inform us about the future behaviour of your gem.

Gerd

Will do Gerd ! 

[Mike Ireland]

John
The asperula suberosa posted is growing in an unheated/open sided greenhouse.
My original plant, bought from Bob Potterton over 30 years ago is still going strong in a large piece of tufa which has always been outside in the garden.
It appears as a brownish 'clump' of tangled soft stems throughout the winter but always comes back into life,  (as Bob Potterton used to say, "like a good doer")
Photo attached from a couple of years ago.  In the garden it is again just coming into bud.

[brianw]

I should have some P. grandiflora seed available soon if anyone wants some. Just a few pods from 1 early plant. My main pot with several plants is not showing any buds yet. An odd year for sure. I grow most of mine frost free as I would rather have the wet trays and air in the frost free house than in with the alpines in winter and spring.

[olegKon]

Spring is progressing
1. Sangvinaria canadensis Multiplex
2. Pulsatilla alpina
3.Jeffersonia dubia
4. Dicentra cuccularia "Pink Punk"

[Maggi Young]

Oleg, how good it is to see how fast the plants are moving after your snow has gone.
Your Jeffersonia is much nicer than ours, I might add  - we hope that the babies from your seed will take after their parent!

[Tim Ingram]

Wonderful to see so many plants. The Asperula has never grown so well for me so I shall now try it in tufa - it is one of the most beautiful alpines in flower, so fragile looking and yet so exquisite. Jeffersonia dubia really is fine!

These three plants are to do with anticipation on different scales in the garden. Yucca whipplei has been throwing up a flower spike for a couple of weeks now and is showing signs of the floral structure to come. It is still quite a young plant that I hadn't expected to flower for some time yet. Amsonia tabernaemontana is one of my favourite perennials and can have these dramatic dark shoots when it first emerges in the spring. A slow plant to establish but long lived and tidy in habit and with great autumn colour. The starry soft-blue flowers are delightful. And finally Edraianthus serpyllifolius. I haven't grown this for long but the flower buds really stand out - one of a fine genus which I have learnt more of through the Forum.

[Tim Ingram]

I missed out the description of the Erythronium! This is a hybrid that came from Wol and Sue Staines at Glen Chantry and has done very well in semi-shade under dwarf apples (probably helped by liberal supplies of good home made compost). I am not sure of the parentage.