April 2015 in the Northern Hemisphere

[K-D Keller]

A yellow series from today.

Draba aspera, Erysimum kotschyanum, Saxifraga x elisabethae "Foster`s Gold", Dionysia aretioides and Iris bucharica "Conquest".

[Matt T]

Such a good, rich yellow on that Sax. Lovely. The wee Erysimum is nice too.

[ebbie]

A fine yellow series.

My oldest Ranunculus calandrinoides. For 16 years in my rock garden without protection.

[Maggi Young]

Ebbie! That Ranunculus is superb - never seen better.   

[Steve Garvie]

Wow!!!
A superb Ranunculus calandrinoides Ebbie!


Yulan (Magnolia denudata)

I planted this 25 years ago when I had no real knowledge of gardening (nothing changed there then!). I stuck it in the wrong place and far too close to the house. It has survived a Siberian winter and numerous drastic prunings by Scottish Power and British Telecom engineers. The first flowers appeared eight years ago and it seems to present a reasonable display every 2nd year. I really wish I had placed it more carefully as it can be very impressive in flower. The flowers are huge and appear white but when viewed in shade they have a delicate pink suffusion. Late March/early April frosts, heavy rain and strong winds play havoc with the large delicate flowers. Flowering spans a two week period with a week at its peak. Given all the adverse variables I never usually see it at its best. The absence of recent frosts and a settled non-windy sunny spell have allowed a reasonable display ......until this morning! Strong overnight wind and rain have spoiled the display as white handkerchiefs now blow in the wind!

View of an individual flower taken from a bedroom window three evenings ago:


A view of part of the tree in flower:


Marian holds a ruler up to show the size of a single bloom:


It survived the very cold winter of 2010 with some bark-split and die-back (the Magnolia is on the very left of this image; the Rhododendron rex to the right of it died of bark-split):

[fermi de Sousa]

..I planted this 25 years ago... The first flowers appeared eight years ago and it seems to present a reasonable display every 2nd year. I really wish I had placed it more carefully as it can be very impressive in flower. The flowers are huge and appear white but when viewed in shade they have a delicate pink suffusion...

Steve,
You lucky man! I think the reason the tree took so long to flower could be that it's not a Yulan, but a Magnolia campbellii hybrid!
It looks stunning,
cheers
fermi

[meanie]

I planted this 25 years ago when I had no real knowledge of gardening (nothing changed there then!). I stuck it in the wrong place and far too close to the house.

That gets a wow from me too.

My seed grown Vestia foetida has been far quicker to bloom - seed to blooms in just over a year at a height of 110cm..................




Uvularia grandiflora.............


Erythronium "Kondo".............


Finally I have managed to get a good capture of the colours of Cantua buxifolia.............

[astragalus]

Ebbie, your ranunculus is spectacular!

Unfortunately photographed in my garden - a Lewisia cotyledon pulled right out of the ground by the antlered rats.  The garden is too big to protect all of it with chicken wire. This was the third time it was pulled out of the ground and just left there, how insulting and irritating Now replanted yet again but I don't have high hopes for it.  There was still ice in the ground when I replanted it.  And how do I know it was the antlered rats?  They left their hoof prints as calling cards.  Lewisia tweedyi is the only one they actually eat for some reason.

[johnw]

Steve  - Wonderful magnolia there.  Certainly looks like a campbellii hybrid face on and I suppose too upright to be denudata 'Forrest's Pink'.  What sort of cold took out your Rhododendron rex? You've got me worried.

johnw 

[Carolyn]

Things grow so quickly at this time of year. Suddenly there are at least 6 buds on this Paeonia obovata alba - but the foliage is so spectacular just now that I wouldn't mind if it did not even flower.
The erythroniums are rushing to flower now. Here's E. tuolumnense Oregon strain.
Another favourite which stays looking good with its ferny foliage is Corydalis cheilanthifolia, very easy from seed.

[Philip Walker]

An easy but lovely one,Armeria juniperifolia 'Bevan's Variety'
Soldanella carpatica x pusilla
Dicentra cucullaria

[Steve Garvie]

Steve,
You lucky man! I think the reason the tree took so long to flower could be that it's not a Yulan, but a Magnolia campbellii hybrid!
It looks stunning,
cheers
fermi

Thanks Fermi.
I bought it either from Burncoose nursery in Cornwall or Glendoick (Perthshire) -I had orders from both nurseries at the same time and can't remember which it came from. I had assumed the name was correct but the flowers don't look typical of M. denudata. Could it be a campbelli x denudata?
I had always considered M. campbelli to be too tender to try; my tree survived -17C here in 2010.

Steve  - Wonderful magnolia there.  Certainly looks like a campbellii hybrid face on and I suppose too upright to be denudata 'Forrest's Pink'.  What sort of cold took out your Rhododendron rex? You've got me worried.

johnw 

John the Rh. rex succumbed to bark split after the cold winter of 2010. It got down to below -17C here on a few occasions. Rh. macabeanum also died back to almost ground level from where a painfully slow new growth has emerged. I also lost a large Rh. yunnanense and an arboreum but Rh. kesangiae survived unscathed.

In my early gardening years I was totally unrealistic about what I should grow. I bought a number of the larger rhodos without really having enough space or a suitable microclimate for them.

[johnw]

In my early gardening years I was totally unrealistic about what I should grow.

That was my problem too but in fact it paid off in spades as we found out we could grow a lot more than thought thanks to cool summers and nights.  The problem later was "I was totally unrealistic about how many I could look after"!

Our rexs have taken -17c but if cold comes very quickly early in the autumn it is lethal.  I remember a 10 footer exploding when the temp plummeted from 55f to just below 0F in a few hours on Boxing Day in the late 70's.

john

[Leena]

Galanthus nivalis and Hepatica transsylvanica

[K-D Keller]

A late "thank you very much", for the kind comments to the yellow series.