April 2013 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Jozef Lemmens]

Kris, my oldest plant is now about 6 years old and has always been in a plastic pot. The one of the picture is in a raised bed. The soil is “Vulcaplus Intensiv”. I suppose you know what I mean. There is another plant in the same bed and I have still another one in a raised bed with “normal” garden soil.
I checked them just a couple of minutes ago and they are all still alive.
I don’t use any special tricks or magic. All my plants get more or less the same treatments.
Watering is dependent of the weather. Feeding is between May and August with a liquid Geranium mix.
My raised beds are covered in winter with plastic (plexi) sheets. I keep the plant in pot in my alpine house during winter and goes outside at a shady place when it gets warmer.
Is there anything I forgot to tell?
BTW: I also, have many “dead labels” every year again. 

[krisderaeymaeker]

Kris, my oldest plant is now about 6 years old and has always been in a plastic pot. The one of the picture is in a raised bed. The soil is “Vulcaplus Intensiv”. I suppose you know what I mean. There is another plant in the same bed and I have still another one in a raised bed with “normal” garden soil.
I checked them just a couple of minutes ago and they are all still alive.
I don’t use any special tricks or magic. All my plants get more or less the same treatments.
Watering is dependent of the weather. Feeding is between May and August with a liquid Geranium mix.
My raised beds are covered in winter with plastic (plexi) sheets. I keep the plant in pot in my alpine house during winter and goes outside at a shady place when it gets warmer.
Is there anything I forgot to tell?
BTW: I also, have many “dead labels” every year again. 

Thank you very much Jef ! This would help ! Maybe only one important thing ...., are they getting ful sun the whole day ? 

[ruweiss]

Dionysia iranica and Draba ossetica + D. densifolia are
flowering in the Alpine House.

[Jozef Lemmens]

...., are they getting ful sun the whole day ?

Kris, 1 plant gets sun from about 2 o’clock till sunset. Two others from sunrise till 3 o’clock.
And I use shading nets during the hottest days of the year (+ 25°C)

Rudi, nice Drabas. Is the Dionysia growing in pure sand?

[krisderaeymaeker]

Kris, 1 plant gets sun from about 2 o’clock till sunset. Two others from sunrise till 3 o’clock.
And I use shading nets during the hottest days of the year (+ 25°C)

Thanks again Jef !

[ruweiss]

Jef, you are right, Dionysia iranica grows directly in the river sand,
which I use for plunging my clay pots.in my Alpine House.

[zvone]

Hi!



In spite of bad weather (still)  Petasites albus (today) resists and cheers up!

Best Regards!  zvone

[Tim Ingram]

Spring has finally begun to discover us - we have not had severely low temperatures in north Kent, or even much snow, but it has been consistantly cold pretty much continuously and either plants have stood still or they have flowered for far longer (viz: snowdrops) than normal. The days are lengthening, there is no option but for temperatures to rise, and the garden is waking up.

I have been waiting for the flower spikes of Synthyris stellata to open since buying it in bud in February. Hepatica x media is that soft powder-blue that is quite uncommon in plants. And several anemones are looking good; A. blanda 'Radar' (but sadly this never increases in the way the wild-type does from seed); and two of the hybrid Mediterranean anemones which seed around in the sandy soil - the final one as beautiful as any plant you could imagine with those soft blue anthers.

[Maggi Young]

Seeing those Anemones, Tim, I can believe that Spring has come to Kent.
Super photos of them, too.
Simple flower forms but utterly charming, are they not?

[WimB]

Some pictures taken during the spring weather we could enjoy this weekend!

Adonis amurensis
Anemone blanda 'Ingramii'
Corydalis solida 'Beth Evans'
Crocus heuffelianus 'Dark Eyes'
Hepatica nobilis

[WimB]

And some more:

Hepatica transsilvanica 'Eisvögel'
Ranunculus ficaria 'Double Bronce'
Anemone blanda 'Radar'
Chionodoxa luciliae
Crocus chrysanthus 'Prins Claus'

[WimB]

And the last few for today:

Crocus minimus 'Little Girl'
and Iris 'White Caucasus'

[David Nicholson]

I'll probably get castigated for this as I say it every time I see White Caucasus. It's not white it's a very, very pale blue.

[WimB]

I'll probably get castigated for this as I say it every time I see White Caucasus. It's not white it's a very, very pale blue.

Over here it looks very light blue indeed, but I saw it in flower in nursery Epimedium (we bought it together from the same supplier) where it was pure white. I wonder if the colour might differ depending on the soil, the temperature... Mine grows outside in a crevice between tufa rocks, while the one in Epimedium nursery was grown in a pot in the greenhouse!

[Maggi Young]

Crocus chrysanthus 'Prins Claus' is a cracking flower 

I say it every time I see White Caucasus. It's not white it's a very, very pale blue.

David - it can get very cold in the Caucasus- have you never heard the  expression, "blue with the cold"?