March 2016 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Hoy]

Nice to see spring flowers, folks

At home the first Hepatica was in flower but up here at the cabin it is still full winter! Fortunately not very cold, down to -5C during the night and +4C in the early afternoon.

[Steve Garvie]

Some Central Asian dryland Anemone in flower here (in a frame):

Anemone tschernjaewii


Anemone baissunensis -from the Kuh-i-Tang Mtns, Uzbekistan.


Anemone biflora -has been in flower since late December, the old flowers turn orange-yellow. Unfortunately it gets starggly in low Winter light.

[Lampwick]

Picture taken today.

Saxifraga burseriana ‘Gloria’.

[Yann]

Steve in which kind of compost do you grow Anemone tschernjaewii, i've lost my seedlings due to too heavy compost i guess.

[Steve Garvie]

Hi Yann, I use a gritty sandy mix which has added pumice & perlite with only a small amount of loam. I add powdered dolomitic lime but keep the organic content to a minimum.
The plants are dried-off in late Spring and are kept dry until mid-October. They seem to like plenty of water when in growth but rot easily if damp when dormant.

[Hoy]

Still awaiting the spring up here! Although the snow cover is thinner than usually at this time of the year we have enough to get around with skis.




The creek is open to show the stepping stones we use in summer.




The heather looks almost dead but it is the natural colour on this exposed rock during winter.




Reindeer stuff. We have never seen reindeer at this site but a few km south of here.

[Gabriela]

Trond, although I had my share of snow for this winter I admit it looks beautiful in the combination with the blue sky. Love the reindeer lichen (I assume that's what you were talking about).

[Hoy]

.... Love the reindeer lichen (I assume that's what you were talking about).

Gabriela, I take for granted that everybody knows that lichen is the staple food for reindeer in winter

[Maggi Young]

Hearing of  around a foot (30cms) of snow in Denver today ( last  night ) -wondering if the Californian mountain tops have had a new covering also?

[Robert]

Hearing of  around a foot (30cms) of snow in Denver today ( last  night ) -wondering if the Californian mountain tops have had a new covering also?

Maggi,

Yes, we had another foot (30 cm) of snow in the Sierra Nevada. The storm seemed to intensify as it moved into the Rocky Mountains. The snow in Denver was even reported on our local news.

Trond,

Your photographs are fantastic. It looks much like the high Sierra Nevada Mountain now, except that our mountains are very steep and the flat mountain valleys very small. Generally much more coniferous forest too. No reindeer. 

[suesimpson33]

First year flowering on our tufa wall

[Maggi Young]

Great,  Sue - I'm not turning the recent pictures because I  think they are quite "readable" even at that angle!

[Diane Whitehead]

How lovely!  I've only ever seen dionysias in pots.  (when I was visiting a garden club in England, a young man drove up on a motorbike and brought in a boxful of them).

What are the colourful tubes for?

[Gabriela]

Gabriela, I take for granted that everybody knows that lichen is the staple food for reindeer in winter

Not everyone lives in the reindeer kingdom Trond  Instead of snow we got freezing rains and everything was skating ring- like today. Just one image, I don't think many are in the mood for icy pictures at this time.

[ruweiss]

Now flowering in the alpine house:
Dionysias, the plant on the right is D. iranica, growing directly inthe sand plunge.
The other two are hybrids.
Thlaspi zaffranii is an endemic plant from the limestone screes of the White Mountains
of Crete.
Dielsiocharis kotschyi, a crucifer from Iran.