Narcissus ‘Rinjveld’s Early Sensation’

It’s been a strange winter so far for this Garden Bloggers report.  No real snowfall and temperatures that have fallen to 20 degrees on occasion but have mostly been well above normal, even near records for some days.  Total precipitation is about 50% above normal.  The result is that many flowers are up earlier than usual but get blasted in between glorious flowerings.  A case in point is the camellias which have had many flowers but then get browned off when the temperature dips.

Camellia japonica red

Camellia japonica ‘Pink’

On the whole we are just enjoying some our early spring flowers earlier than usual.

Adonis amurensis ‘Fukujukai’

Jeffersonia dubia

Eranthis hyemalis

The Hellebores are particularly resilient at this time of year.

Helleborus viridis

Helleborus x hybridus PDN Yellow

Helleborus x lemonnierae ‘Walberton’s Rosemary’

This is one of the nicest new hybrids.

Of course one also expects to see snowdrops at this time of year, but they are spreading nicely.

Galanthus nivalis ‘Viridapice’

Galanthus nivalis ‘Blewbury Tart’

The first full flowering in the alpine bed is the Draba hispanica.

Draba hispanica

In the greenhouse the Cyrtanthus breviflorus and mackenii are flowering.

Cyrtanthus breviflorus

And our only Geissorhiza is in flower too.

Geissorhiza inaequalis

Finally we made two trips to Gettysburg Gardens where I discovered some lovely examples of Veldtheimia bracteata.

Veldtheimia bracteata

These are magnificent plants, sometime called forest lilies, that can easily grow to 2 ft tall with long lasting flowers.