Spring Reversions

13 April Some peonies are quite far along; these are in the uppermost species bed near the house/walkway. Even the common garden peonies, latest to emerge, are showing their red asparagus-like shoots just about everywhere on the property. The particularily tall plant here (2nd pic) is a Paeonia mascula, nice marble-size buds already showing.














16 April An inch or 3 cm of snow last night, temperature down to -4C. The more precocious shoots (or taller ones if you will) are bent over quite far. Will they recover to full upright?

17 April Sunny and warm (8C-ish) so the snow didn't last long. Question answered, plant seems undeterred.











Last night (18/19April): more of the white stuff, but temperatures just at 0C. At 11a.m. I measured the snow depth at 4 inches or 10 cm with some melting in progress so it might have been an inch or a couple of cm deeper when it fell.


Rhododendron "April Rose", which might actually open in April this year!! Took this pic only because it shows fairly well the amount of snow still hanging around at 11 a.m.





Here, the reason for black or almost black Hellebores! (an orientalis hybrid). The "pitting" in the snow is from clumbs of it falling off the maple tree branches above as it melts.










Red Elderberry, Sambucus pubens, deploying buds seasonally decorated... but most of the decoration has melted off already.










And a collection of species peonies, the next 3 pics. I admit I was expecting to find the tall mascula from above folded flat and was surprised to find that it like most of the less advanced shoots had managed to shed most of the snow and were standing mostly upright. So much for a certain individual's (not me) trite and dysfunctional motto of "No expectations, no disappointments"



















Red maple trees still flowering; if the seed set is reduced by these cold snaps the squirrels will be unhappy (and nursery customers less likely to get a free red maple shoot in every potted plant purchase)

More Spring Things including a National Symbol in a form we don't usually see

Acer rubrum, the Red Maple, flowers high in the canopy (and for convenience about 8ft away outside one of my upper windows). Sweetly fragrant, and a spring fragrance which was a mystery to me for years until I was lucky enough to find a branch down at nose level (that branch since removed, since it was also at eye level!). The close-up is from back then, 26 April 2000. Anthers are open on most of the flowers in the first photo, but not yet open in the close-up, hence the lack of yellow. However there is some natural variation in the colour of the flower from one tree to the next. Sugar maple, Acer saccharum, blooms somewhat later, with smaller less showy yellow-green flowers-- and no scent that I've located yet.












Some other Spring things:


Chionodoxa sardensis, Glory of the Snow, the brightest blue I've seen in a flower except for a few gentians. A different species of this is more commonly grown, has larger flowers but not as blue. Every spring I am amazed that this little thing is still alive (and increasing!) since it is in an area replete with weeds.




Hepatica nobilis. Used to be a clump with dozens of flowers but the darn deer are fond of it and browse it to the ground, usually when in full flower. So it loses a lot of energy each year regrowing a few leaves to replace those that went into the deer salad.





Not finished with the Hellebores yet:


A double form of Helleborus orientalis hybrid, grown from seed obtained from I don't know where anymore, it has taken a few years to see the first flowers on some of the plants; it looks like about half will be doubles but the others aren't yet in a state useful to photograph yet.




Another hybrid, this one showing that the cold snap caused damage to the flower despite it being in a tight bud still at that point-- the anthers are all dead (the little cone of brown things in the middle)





And here, Helleborus niger, the Christmas Rose, already pollinated so the sepals are turning from white to a pinkish shade of tan (on other plants they go to green or something between or ...). There is something in the leaf litter that likes to eat the sepals of this species, but it leaves the orientalis and hybrids alone. Might be just because the flowers of niger are so low and touching the litter whereas the others have longer stems and are above all that.




And one final spring thing for today, a few colour forms from seed, of Corydalis solida, a small but showy spring ephemeral that grows from a bulb and is quite adaptable as far as sun and shade are concerned.

Frost damage after a disgustingly cold snap

Friday 26 March- overnight low here -8.5C, Saturday high -3C, Saturday overnight low -12C. (Schizophrenic weekends; the forecast for the valleyfor the coming weekend approaches +20C!) Then daily highs above freezing and generally warming temperatures. Hellebores showed some damage in places depending on plant and location; mostly it was brown patches on open sepals, or stems that turned a bit translucent and folded over. Were the reproductive parts of the flowers damaged? I don't know- the flowers face downwards, so perhaps enough warmth was trapped in the parasol to keep the ovaries from freezing, if not the anthers. Following photos show some of the damaged and undamaged flowers.

Frost damage on Helleborus orientalis/caucasica, above. The first 2 photos are of the flowers featured a couple of days ago, the third is the plant recently shown with snow on it.

A group of potted Helleborus niger; those on the south side of the group (first photo) were seriously frost-damaged, others on the north side of the group (second photo), not.



Helleborus orientalis hybrid, the plant near the warmest foundation. Some flowers affected, some not. Predictably, those closest to the foundation are still fine.

And some daffodil (Narcissus) stems likewise folded following frost damage:

Broken Thermometers

Back to winter here:



Snowdrops dropped by snow...









Helleborus niger, white flowers well camouflaged.









And the dark red Helleborus orientalis hybrid, can't you tell?








Forecast low for tonight -8C, with a high tomorrow of -7C??!!! Meanwhile +19Cin Firenze (northern Italy) just now.

More of the Hellebore

The first two are blooming for the first time; they are either two stems of the same plant or two plants of the same seed batch sharing a pot, I can't tell right now! The seed was labelled as Helleborus orientalis/caucasicus. Not quite white, more cream to pale yellow. From the first photo I have to assume it has been in hidden bloom for quite awhile now, since the pollen is all gone. I admit I hadn't really been looking very hard.

Helleborus niger in full flower, the same plant as 17 March.

A nice deep red, almost black Helleborus orientalis hybrid, flowers somewhat darker than the camera saw.

Spring flowers already?

First, yes it's true I am back at posting to this blog again! Can't promise that I'll keep it up regularily or long, but we'll see as we go along. The multi-year gap involved here was spent gettin my head together on nursery and personal issues and managing to mesh gardening with cycling (still not a done deal, but getting there).

So.

A very early spring, a good two weeks earlier than usual. Nor was it a very cold winter either, overnight lows rarely going below -15C. More, there has been a good run of sunny days to break the frosts, whereas we have been more used to cloudy or wet springs (or at least that seems to be the case from looking back at my cycling records!!)

Two days ago crocus leaves were starting to show in a couple of sand beds, and Helleborus niger buds were swelling and semi-open. Today, crocus flowers are in bloom and the Hellebore is noticeably open. Other Hellebores are starting to show flower stems in bud erecting themselves above the ground. Probably black alder bushes are in bloom too, but they are not showy and I haven't walked into their area very often since I ran out of dogs.




A pair of yellow-flowered Hellebore plants just showing through the snow down the hill from the house. The first is just a bud at ground level right now, the second further along. One of them is a species and the other is a hybrid, but their labels are still under the snow so I can't be more specific now.













Snowdrops, budded but not quite open. These are in deep shade beneath a large Rhododendron.








A large Helleborus orientalis (Lenten Rose) hybrid quite far along because it is situated not far from a basement wall close to my wood stove, so the ground there is the warmest in the yard.







A well- and long-established bunch of crocus in the root zone of a Spiraea bush (hence all the branches laying amongst them). These probably first opened a couple of days ago but I didn't notice them until today. How is that possible?!
These are no particular species or cultivar, just a generic crocus patch which started as a half-dozen corms sometime in the early 80's. I suspect there has been some self-seeding in addition to the corm offsets.


A couple of species or botanical crocuses in a sandbed. The yellow ones are pretty obvious, the pale lilac-coloured ones are shyly hiding beneath the leafs of a yucca.








Helleborus niger, the Christmas Rose. This in a bed along an unheated section of the basement and beside the sidewalk. Sunny at this time of year, shady once the trees leaf out. I planted a pair of these close together, but the other one in the pair blooms in November, and yes, still showed some remnants of white sepals as Christmas approached. These are not as vigorous for me as H. orientalis and its hybrids.

Miscellaneous Spring Garden Stuff, continued

Helleborus orientalis or probably a hybrid thereof, the Lenten Rose. Once again, a plant located near the foundation of the basement fireroom, although a couple of feet out. Just buds showing so far, although plants of this species elsewhere on the property are barely showing their tips. Lenten Rose and its hybrids are the more commonly grown Hellebores, at least in this country. Their flowers range in colour from whites to greens, from all shades of pink to red, deep purple (almost black), blue shades apparently, and may often have spots.


An excellent surprise still, the third year running: foliage buds of the Blue Himalayan Poppy, Mecanopsis betonicifolia or M. grandis or a hybrid of those. Plants which flowerd last year are not showing, they grow "pups" or sidebuds and then frequently die but the youngsters take over the show. No sign of self-seeding yet.


A peony root searching for "more cold please". Not all of them do this, sometimes it's just how the mulch breaks down or the frost heaves or erosion occurs. I'll probably cover this a bit later in the spring. This is Paeonia kesrouanensis. I know this because there is a label on a stick just beside it-- not from looking at the buds!



Arum italicum pictum, Italian Arum. Non-flowering-size plants. I didn't realize they showed up so early! A bit of frostbite on one of the painted leafs. The pictum form is supposed to have the white-patterned leaf, but these are grown from seed and I'm not sure whether to expect all of them to develop a pattern as they mature.