My serrata's are way more reliable than macrophylla.
spring 2017
Mine are too. Maybe I'll keep some of the serrata. Maybe I'll drop a couple in the parks around town and I'll get a nice surprise every couple of years when I walk my dog. Or maybe the deer will get a treat. But there are just too many other plants.
How big is Jeffersonia diphylla compared to J dubia? I was surprised how small Jeffersonia dubia was. It didn't seem that way in the photos.
Same small stature. And like most of these woodland spring bloomers, another obvious deficiency is the period of bloom, which is all too brief. But I like the progression. Each plant gets about a week to do it's thing, then on to the next one.
Jeffersonia foliage stays around (and looks nice) a lot longer than some of the others. So I have a bed with a bunch of small foliage plants (dwarf hostas/asarums/heuchera/hepatica where jeffersonia fits in nicely.
Anemone coronaria
Primula 'Cobalt Blue'
Primula 'Kenneth Dearman'
Viola odorata 'Apricot'
Anemone blanda blue
This message was edited Mar 31, 2017 11:24 PM
Nice! I don't have great luck w primulas since they sulk with our humidity. But I've been trying some different varieties and am pleased at least to see foliage coming up on two of them, not sure if they'll actually bloom.
WOW, Evelyn. Love that forgotten primula especially.
Evelyn, Your Anemone is quite nice.
All lovely, Evelyn! The Anemone blanda blooms are perfection! And the apricot viola is adorable. They would look good next to the blue ones in my yard. I was pulling them out but found out that they host fritillary caterpillars. The presenter also said that the mother doesn't lay her eggs on the plant but nearby so they depend on a scattered pattern of viola to survive.
Oh, THAT'S what makes the violets scatter about. I just thought that they like to shoot their seeds around. (Maybe both!)
Yeah, the seeds do that and scatter. It gives the caterpillars a better chance to find one. Very nice. I just noticed the first of the pansies showing up at the nurseries here.
Hello Weerobin. I am in the St. Louis area on IL side of the river. Are all you plants blooming and leafing out 2-4 weeks earlier than normal?
Quote from Loretta_NJ :
Yeah, the seeds do that and scatter. It gives the caterpillars a better chance to find one. Very nice. I just noticed the first of the pansies showing up at the nurseries here.
I put those pansies in the color bowls in November, since the petunias were getting a bit ragged. I should try to display a bit more creativity when it comes to color bowls, but the violas and pansies survive frost after frost and layers of snow as well.
I won't plant any this spring, just use what I have already planted, as it will get hot and then not look so good. They are good for at least 6 months. I also put a few in my shady garden, which is sunny for the moment and they are looking nice there as well.
Hi, Greenbrain. Yes, our spring definitely arrived early. Which is why the hard frost a week or two ago was particularly devastating on that new fresh foliage. I'm not sure we're out of the woods yet, as I have been worrying about a forecast low of 33 next Thursday - hope it's doesn't turn out to be a few degrees cooler ...
My dogwoods are getting ready to bloom, which is pretty ridiculous for this time of year!
6 months is a good run for pansies and violas. I have bought my first flats and that I can only expect to look good until June or July. Wee, magnolias are just starting here.
I just noticed that my oldest Nanking cherry bush already has tiny green cherries. One didn't make it and my daughter cut it down today. So weird to have cherries forming already. Tulips are blooming. Crabapple tree is the show stopper right now in full bloom. Hydrangeas leafing out. Peonies have buds. Pear tree just finished blooming. Periwinkle finished blooming. Rose bushes leafed out nicely. The mints, (lemon balm, spearmint, and catnip) all very bushy.
I edited my post with the pictures, so names could be added. Sometimes I forget these things.
Whoops! My bad! :-(
This message was edited Apr 2, 2017 8:19 PM
Quote from oxdriftgardener :
WOW, Evelyn. Love that forgotten primula especially.
I remembered, It is Ken Dearman
Out of town last weekend, arrived this afternoon.
First order of business, of course, see what's blooming.
Fortunately, things are still happening.
#1 Arisaema sikokianum. I thought this was a dud, but a few years after I planted it, lo and behold, here it is! Still a small plant - hope it continues to grow.
#2 Paeonia wittmanniana. A little bedraggled from rain last night, still looking good.
#3 Chloranthus japonicas. I love this guy. White bottle-brush flowers atop vigorous spreading stems every spring.
#4 Amitostigma enomotoe. An interesting Asian orchid, which I assumed meant immediate swoon & death in our climate. But amazingly enough, it continues to thrive. Wispy grassy spring foliage topped with tiny pink blooms.
#5 Dicentra cucullaria. A volunteer, I think.
I was complaining earlier in this thread about primulas sulking in my yard.
To my great astonishment, I found a beautiful primula strutting her stuff.
This is P vulgaris Belarina Amethyst Ice.
A few more:
#1 Houstonia caerulea (Bluets) - still going strong.
#2 Anemonella thalictroides Shoaf's Double. Admittedly, these are tiny, but so pretty. They bloom early before their more thuggish neighbors get going.
#3 My favorite epimedium, E warleyense. Bright orange flowers, non-fussy plant.
#4 is an example of Plant Lust overwhelming common sense. This is Syneilesis palmata Kikko. Syneilesis does well in my yard, so I was excited to see this new beautifully variegated cultivar. So I plunked down way more money than reasonable, only to see my new Kikko languish and die off before end of the season. I thought 'lesson learned'. But suddenly 3 yrs later, here's a slowly spreading clump of beautifully variegated foliage. It apparently loses it's variegation with the heat of the summer. But looks nice today!
Congratulations on your beautiful primrose. It's a great color.
E warleyense never stays around for me for some reason but then it could be the plants I bought weren't really established. The Syneilesis is elegant.
Beautiful as usual Wee. Does that expensive palmated plant flower? Foliage is certainly unique.
Wee ~ Would you like me to send you a lilac-colored primrose? It was sent to me by springcolor (Julia) here on DG. It has been the very best Primula for me and has survived our hot, dry weather (which it really does not prefer). It just multiples a little each year. I did not get the name from Julia, and I never saw it at any website.
Look at that healthy thing. Evelyn you are the queen of primrose growers.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
What a nice offer, Evelyn! But I've killed way too many primroses to think it would stand much of a chance. I think they generally love other climates (?England) than your hot/dry or my hot/humid. Thanks again for the offer.
Ox, syneilesis flowers are pretty forgettable - it's all about the foliage.
Syneilesis acontifolium has finer, more dissected foliage than S palmatum.
Here are a couple pictures of S aconitifolium from my yard -
First is a picture of the emerging shoots in spring.
Second is the full grown foliage. Nice texture for shade.
Wee ~ Well, let me know if you change your mind. As you see, I could spare a small piece easily.
Thanks for the info Wee. There's nothing wrong with a nice foliage plant. Funky!
Wee ~ That S. aconitifolium is very special. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Very nice texture for shade!
I had a chance to buy Syneilesis at the NARGS sale 2 years ago. It was on my list but I didn't do it at the end. Of all the things I picked up that day and didn't live, I definitely made the wrong choice. Maybe this year. How is the soil and moisture conditions for yours?
Mine's in fairly dry shade. Gets minimal early AM sun, shady rest of day. Seems unfussy.
Had a great spring weekend - first really nice spring-like weather.
I wanted to show a couple of my species peonies looking great.
First is 'Molly the Witch' (P mlokosewitschii)
2nd is a tree peony P rockii. Filled with wild-looking white flowers. A dozen blooms or more.
And a couple more woodland perennials blooming now.
#3 is Arisaema ringens. Clumps getting bigger each year with multiple blooms. Easy.
#4 Epimedium x rubrum 'Sweetheart'.
I had planted a 'mouse-tail plant' (Arisarum proboscideum) several years ago and promptly forgot about it until I ran across it's strange blooms last year for the first time. This year, I've been on the lookout for it - very cute blooms (#1)
#2 is another pasque flower, P ambigua.
#3 is my new double bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis Multiplex). I had a fabulous patch of double bloodroot enlarging over 20 years until winter before last when some burrowing varmint devoured the entire patch - not one survivor. So I bought a single new plant and am going to patiently wait for him to make babies.
Quote from Loretta_NJ :
All lovely, Evelyn! The Anemone blanda blooms are perfection! And the apricot viola is adorable. They would look good next to the blue ones in my yard.
Loretta ~ I grew the apricot violets from seed that I got from Chilterns Seeds in England. Would you like some of the seeds?
Here is today's picture of Primula vulgaris 'Kenneth Dearman'.
Evelyn, that would be great if it isn't too much trouble. I know they can be weedy but I've been expanding my violas since they have a roll to play. Your Kenneth Dearman is a very pretty color and so impressively healthy!
Wee, more beauties! What can I say?
Loretta ~ The Primula take a while to get established. If I don't keep moving them around, they increase in size a little each year. The Primula 'Cobalt Blue' is very tiny. It doesn't appear to have grown any at all. I will just have to give it some time. I am sure that this year's weather should encourage it, as it has been raining so much. I don't know when I will be able to get out in the garden again. It rained yesterday and all night last night. It appears to have stopped temporarily. Weeds are growing a "mile a minute"! 😧
Things are recovering from that brutal cold snap. Finally some pictures worth taking.
1 Jeffersonia dubia finally
2,3,4. A few of red pasque flower
5. Flowering quince 'Contorta' one of a few buds that didn't burn from the cold.
