A harvest of daffodils
Wow, what difficult choices to make this month for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day! While the weather continues to dance between super hot (85 degrees this week) and freeze warning for tonight the plants have been accelerating their flowering to make up for lost time. One of the purposes of this blog is kind of a pictorial record keeping that allows me to go back and compare what was happening in other years at the same point in time. While I can see some plants that are right on time (like the bloodroot or the trout lilies) this is on the whole the latest flowering for many species that I have seen in the past 5 years. During the past two weeks I’ve finally been able to do a lot of planting of things carried up from North Caroline or ordered in from Washington State. Even the vegetable garden finally got started last week. The ground tilled up really nicely but I’ve never put peas in this late.
I could post many pictures of the beautiful daffodils that are coming up in the yard, pasture and forest, but I’m going to focus on some of the smaller and more unusual flowers. I brought up a hardy orchid from Plant Delights and have put it in the Monolith garden. Here’s hoping it doesn’t freeze tonight.
Calanthe ‘Kojima Yellow’
Nearby is a very hardy little yellow corydalis from the NARGS plant exchange last fall.
Corydalis cheilanthifolia
It’s fern-like foliage should be well-suited to the new garden which has many bulbs and shade-lovers for when the leaves come out. A couple of the bulbs are species tulips, including this lovely blue-eyed tulip.
Tulipa humilis ‘Alba Caerulea Oculata’
Tulipa humilis ‘Magenta Queen’
Back in the alpine bed there are some more species tulips.
Tulipa aff. turkestanica
Nearby is a little Primula that I liked the pictures of in the Far Reaches online catalog. In fact, I must have liked that color a lot because it turned out I had bought the same plant last fall as well. Fortunately it is a charmer.
Primula x forsteri ‘Bileckii’
Next to it I’ve put an Oxalis which also looks like a keeper.
Oxalis enneaphylla rosea
The Daphnes were particularly hard hit by this winter’s wicked twists and turns. The normally reliable Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ is a mess. Most of the flowers were frozen off and the shrub looked highly questionable but I am seeing new growth now on what looked like dead wood so it seems like just a one year loss. On the other hand three of the new small Daphne’s bit the dust and only one has survived. Probably the best looking Daphne on the property is the diminutive Lawrence Crocker which is just coming into flower.
Daphne ‘Lawrence Crocker’
A couple of old favorites are showing up this week. The little double flowered anomenella is fully in bloom as is its single-flowered cousin.
Anemonella thalictroides ‘shoaf’s double pink’
Anemonella thalictroides
The Epimediums are starting to bloom with ‘Lilac Seedling’ leading the way.
Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Lilac Seedling’
Jeffersonia dubia far outdoes its american cousin, not only for beauty of flower, but for length of bloom. The J. diphylla was gone before I even had a chance to photograph it.
Jeffersonia dubia
My favorite little trillium is Roadrunner.
Trillium pusillum ‘Roadrunner’
It’s hard to match the wavy edges to the flowers and the dark foliage.
Other interesting flowers are the Hermodactylus and Pusatilla.
Hermodactylus tuberosa
The black on this iris relative is almost like velvet.
One of the troughs has a cute little pasque flower that I got from my son.
Pusatilla patens
Let me close this posting with one of many Hellebores so that you don’t think I don’t appreciate the Hellebore flowers in the yard right now.
Helleborus hybridus Golden Lotus
Even with the weather gods being incredibly fickle there is much to be thankful for in the flowering kingdom.
Erythroniums Take the Springtime Stage
Erythronium tuolumnense
It seems that all our spring flowers are determined to come at the same time. They are like children at the supper table competing for our attention. At this moment the trout lilies or fawn lilies are jumping up and down with beautiful individual flowers that will be here for all too short a time. This is the first year that the above Tuolumnense fawn lily has bloomed for us. It has been used in hybridizing other Erythroniums, in particular the highly successful ‘Pagoda’, and I can understand why. It’s a brilliant yellow that contrasts with the fallen leaves that cover the ground below it.
We began growing the common trout lily (cf. the mottled leaves similar to trout markings), sometimes called dogtooth violet because of the shape of the bulb, years ago when we were building a raised bed around the deck. The constrained area leads to an annual extravagant annual flowering.
Erythronium americanum
Erythronium americanum flower
When I planted some of these same plants in the woods they have succeeded dramatically, spreading by underground stolons every year. I have six such patches, but not a single flower. My theory is that since they can make marvelous progress underground they seem to see little reason to flower. Fortunately the new species I’ve planted in the yard are more cooperative. This year we had the first flowers from two species.
Erythronium dens-canis ‘Rose Queen’
Erythronium japonicum
Notice the fine drawing on the interior of the E. Japonicum tepals. Almost as if someone were trying to remember that these flowers are related to tulips. There are more Erythroniums to come but I think this may be my new favorite.
Flowering at the same time as trout lilies almost every year are the bloodroot. It’s just like clockwork.
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
Within two days or so these will have come an gone, followed by lovely and distinctive leaves that get to be be quite large. However, there is a double version that has a much longer stay and it’s exquisitely beautiful as well.
Sanguinaria canadensis ‘Multiplex’
Sanguinaria canadensis ‘Multiplex’ spreading
Think of them as miniature peonies that multiply with no care or upkeep…
There is a lot of other activity in the garden right now and no way that I could capture it all. But I should include just a little update on some of those hepaticas that I featured previously. The lovely little Hepatica japonica ‘Wakakusa’ has opened its double petals even further and has lost nothing in the process.
Hepatica japonica ‘Wakakusa’
At the same time I found a little seedling from Thimble Farms that has a dark purple coloring that I haven’t had here before.
Hepatica japonica ‘Thimble Farms Purple Seedling’
And I also have the first flowering of a seedling from Hillside Nursery with a very pretty pink and white coloration.
Hepatica japonica ‘Hillside Pink-White Seedling’
Lastly I have a birthday gift to share. I was given three Arisaemas that are very striking in the new garden.
Arisaema taiwanense
Marvelous coloration — these are really fun to watch.
Time for Corydalis
Corydalis solida ‘Purple bird’
I was walking in our woods this week and found this lovely Corydalis that I had planted last year. Anything that has overcome our brutal winter and the voracious deer that thrive in our woods deserves to be celebrated.
There are over 450 species of Corydalis and 150 of those were only discovered after 1980. They range from forests to mountains to meadows and are encountered as tuberous ephemerals, evergreens, and annuals. Though they are found all over the world, the center of this incredible diversity is Western China and that’s where the newer species have come to light. For the avid gardener new hybrids are adding to the mix of growing opportunities. Loosely speaking, most of the Corydalis you will find in commerce are divided into forest plants (woodsy soil) or mountain growers (fast draining rock garden mix).
Last year I ordered in a variety of the tuberous types to populate the new garden beds we’ve made and we’re starting to see the results.
Corydalis marshalliana lilacina
Corydalis caucasica
Corydalis ledebouriana
Corydalis solida ‘Decipiens’
Corydalis solida ‘Gunite’
Corydalis angustifolia ‘Talish Dawn’
Corydalis schanginii ssp. schanginii
Most of these are beautiful flowers with compact, deeply divided, almost ferny, foliage. The exception is Corydalis ledebouriana which is anything but compact. Growing from a single tuber it has exploded in the Alpine bed. To give a sense of this I took a picture of Corydalis ledebouriana from above. I’ve drawn a yellow line around the C. ledebouriana and blue line around it’s neighbor C. caucasica to contrast the two plants.
Corydalis ledbouriana – explosive growth
Seen from the side it looks like this.
Corydalis ledbouriana & Corydalis caucasica
Don’t confuse the Gymnospermium which has similar-looking leaves at the front of the picture. From a single tuber the C. ledebouriana is overwhelming its neighbors, including an Edraianthus and a Saxifraga. I’m sure I will have to move it to someplace that allows it to be rambunctious, but I was curious to see how far this would go. I saw nothing on the web that would leave one to expect this kind of growth.
All the Corydalis I’ve shown above are ephemeral and the foliage will gradually disappear after flowering. Another type of later flowering Corydalis has evergreen foliage, even in our climate zone, and will flower later in the season.
Corydalis ellipticarpa
Corydalis omeiana
You can see that Corydalis are becoming one of my favorite flowers…
A Highly Desirable Hepatica
Hepatica japonica seedling
This is a beautiful little Hepatica seedling that I obtained from Thimble Farms last year. The purple stamens offset nicely the light pink in the flowers. Apparently I was not the only one to treasure these flowers. I returned from Boston on Tuesday night and took these pictures. By Wednesday morning they were all gone — every one.
Hepatica japonica seedling flowers before they disappeared
I can only presume rabbits since they have been the main pest in my yard this year. I’ve now sprinkled the hepaticas with anti-rabbit stuff but who was to guess that a member of the ranunculaceae would be eaten. I’ve been growing Hepaticas for ten years and never seen a one bitten by any animal. All the buttercup family members are supposed to be bad tasting if not poisonous to animals. This must be part of my annual test of faith as a gardener.
Other hepaticas have survived the onslaught, so maybe it was an evening binge for the rabbit and he felt sick about it the next day.
Hepatica nobilis ‘Deep Red w-white’
Hepatica acutiloba pink
Hepatica japonica ‘Wakakusa’
This last is one of two very expensive japanese-bred imports that I got last year. Unfortunately its blue companion did not survive the winter. I saw a lot of heaving of the hepaticas out of the ground this year, principally the ones that had just been planted last year. I guess the older stock has deeper roots.
One of the outstanding new acquisitions from Augis Bulbs last year was a beautiful Fritillaria.
Fritillaria stenanthera Cambridge
I put it in an ideal spot. Unfortunately it was the same ideal spot I used for an Adonis. So I will hope they will share their living space like good companions.
Other spring flowers are arriving on the scene now.
Iris danfordiae
Chionodoxa forbesii ‘Pink Giant’
Scilla siberica ‘Spring Beauty’
Note the incredible blue stamens on these scilla.
Scilla siberica ‘Spring Beauty’
Primula vulgaris
Draba aizoides in the Small Trough
The Peony buds are always striking coming through the soil and nothing more so that the Molly the Witch.
Paeonia mlokosewitschii emerging
There are many daffodils and corydalis in bloom as well, but I’ll saved them for another posting. Let me finish with the headliner in the greenhouse this week.
Calandrinia spectabilis
The calandrinia were grown from seed last year as part of the North American Rock Garden Society seed distribution. I only just finished dividing the many seedlings this spring.