I was out wandering about the yard this morning looking for signs of life. It looks as though things are slowly but surely waking up from their winter rest. Besides the few crocus and Iris reticulata that are blooming the Townsendia, Arabis and Draba have buds on them and should open soon. How are things coming along in everyone else's gardens?
Here is the townsendia. I believe this is a self sown T. incana.
This is Arabis parishii (sp?)
They sure look healthy!
I am under a foot of snow again. But I have 3 species of pussywillow out now, but not the rock garden one (Salix repens Iona form).
I've got a few draba in the same state! And you'll have some nice bloom really soon on all of them.
Thanks for sharing & pls show us the "after" pictures with the full bloom glory
Tam
Nice, Ally. I love the foliage on the Townsendia.
Still 5 feet of snow over my rockery! No signs of spring here for months yet.
I guess that's the value of DG - we get to start early and run late with the huge range of
growing conditions of the members! we're supposed to have snow today but all the crocus
are blooming, anemone's and now my draba are about to pop open. We're definitely on
the "verge" here too.
Todd - we'll all be ooo'ing & ahh'ing over your fresh folliage in July.
Tam
Thanks everyone. They are indeed looking healthy. I'm just getting so impatient to see some actual blossoms. I love the foliage on the Townsendia as well Zuzu. These are quickly becoming some of my favorites in the garden. I've got a couple of other varieties that have buds as well. Tam, I'm hoping to see more pic's from all of you guys too. I don't have any Anemone and would enjoy seeing pics of these. I've been looking back through some of the older posts and have already found lots of ideas and inspiration.
Wow 1' to 5' of snow still. I guess I shouldn't complain about the couple of inches of snow we keep getting. We're expecting more snow this weekend, but it always melts away quickly this time of year. As Tammy say's you will have lush blooming plants when I'm fighting to keep mine from getting crispy.
Leftwood, how bout some pic's of your Salix.(please) Don't they need more moist and acidic conditions?
In fact, most willows don't require wet or constantly moist conditions, although they do prefer it. Acidic? That's a negatatory too, although low pH tends to come with wet areas.
I haven't made the jump to digital yet, so I have no real time photos, but I do have ones from last year. And bad pics are better than none:
Salix chaenomeloides
Japanese Pussywillow, Giant Pussywillow, Rabbit's Foot pussywillow
Salix koriyanagi 'Rubikins'
very small catkins
Salix gracilistylis var. melanostachys
The cute stage
Black Pussywillow - coming up to the Wow! stage
Sorry, don't have the Wow! stage on film. Every time I had a chance to photograph it, the weather was wet and rainy. Maybe this year. But . . . . . . it really is quite spectacular with red stamens that age you bright yellow.
Also, I have
Salix repens Iona Form (with very small leaves)
in a 3 inch pot
And this is the same Dwarf willow in my trough. As with many alpines in new soil, it really overgrew with leaves double normal size leaves the first year. But now it has simmered down, a bit in the second season. This year I expect it to be back to type. This is a styrofoam trough, BTW.
What a fabulous trough! We've had a very prolonged cold spell here but some snowdrops and crocus have braved it. We are about a month behind though with camellias etc. I'm looking for signs of growth in my newly planted troughs and the primulas look as though they are putting on new growth. Spring - hurry up!
That is a fabulous trough. i've not seen willow in any trough - does it stay small?
(What is it about the cute little plants that make us so crazy for them? I guess its
just how cute they are, huh?)
We're taking the cover off the rock garden today. Yeah! I planted a $22 anemonella
right under where one of the weights is and I've been worried about it all winter. I'd
forgotten why I'd left that spot unplanted.
Tam
The Salix repens in the trough is cutting propagated from the Salix repens in the 3 inch pot. The 3 inch pot plant is 5 years old in that pic. I'd say this form (Iona form) with tiny leaves (half inch blade) is a good trough plant, since the root mass will be restricted.
I had another willow in that trough at one time. I think in was myrtilloides. You can see it in the pic in the back right corner - dead. The story is: it never did well there on the north side of the trough, so I turned the trough around, giving it a south side exposure. It took a few days for it to completely croak. That's one thing about these really petite willows: they hate the heat, as they are from arctic tundra areas.
Other cuties in the trough from front row left:
Salix repens Iona Form
Azorella trifurcata 'Nana'
Antennaria rosea var. confinus
Iris pumila a really small heirloom
Scabiosa japonica 'Nana'
Gypsophila bungeana
Hypericum pseudopetiolatum yakusimense-also dead,not winter hardy, but a plant with a high cute quotient.
Viola pedata
Cerastium alpinum lanatum
Achillea ageratifolia
And that willow that died
Tam, do you mean Anemonella thalictroides? Fairly common in our deciduous woods here. I don't think winter survival is anything you need to worry about. They seem to like to grow in substantial duff here. However, they still do fine in my parents' lawn, even after 50+ years of leaf raking and mowing (no herbicides, of course). Their lawn is rather thin, compared to contemporary standards as it is under a high canopy of natural oaks. And much of the original bluegrass has been replaced by a Carex sp.(pennsylvanica?) and a diversity of small wildlings flowers.
Yep - anemonella thalictroides. Wow - I bought two from Asiatica last fall at $22 a pop. And you've got them
in your woods. My concern was that there was a big pipe right on top of one of them. I wanted it clear access
to the surface when it was ready to come up. My DH got the cover off and I took a few pictures. I see the
draba are starting to bloom. (seed from NARGS was just labelled draba sp). I'll download it later & get it posted.
Tam
That's a wicked trough! It looks like a fish box trough I saw at the NARGS meeting in Victoria...what is yours made from?
Tammy, Asiatica is WAY overpriced for their plants. I got an Anemonella from Fraser Thimble farms in BC for $4...you must have bought one of the funky double forms to pay that much.
Yep. It was at Garden Fair last year - Winterthur. I got two different double forms.
And now I'm gonna have to check out Fraser Thimble Farms.... thanks for the tip.
Tam
Yes Todd, that is a fish box from a local supermarket. That one I did not make myself. We have some real experts in our NARGS chapter. I made my first one 2 weeks ago with a box that carried medical supplies (vaccines or such). The walls are 2 inches(5cm) thick! Some people up here claim they get better winter survival in styro troughs as opposed to hypertufa, due to the insulating quality. But then you don't have the evaporative quality in the summer to keep them cool either. Still, in Minnesota, that's not to much of a concern.
Now I have that one and another styro box a friend gave me, and seven hypertufa troughs I made last fall to fill. I am going to be a busy boy!
They turned out really well! It looks like you'll have some fun planting those!
Tam
Leftwood, did you use cement patch mix to cover the styrofoam boxes? And do you have a problem with the cement fracturing during the freeze-thaw of winter? Lastly, did you heat treat the box before you added the cement or did you just add the cement directly.
Our local NARGS chapter will be making hypertufa troughs this coming weekend but I tempted to try a fish-box type. Just need more info.
Wow Leftwood, those are some great troughs, and I love the pics of the Salix. I don't know about not getting the wow stage of the S. repens 'lona'. That is a georgeous plant. I love the shape and the catkins are wonderful. I'm glad to hear that the Salix don't require a lower ph to survive.
Thank you for the list of the other plants too. Being a newbie there are still so many plants I've never heard of, this is what I enjoy about these forums.
Newbie, Ally? You can't fool me, although we are all newbies in certain areas.
I'd say that's pretty much tops for the Salix repens catkins. It's the Black pussywillow that I don't have a pic of the Wow! stage.
And I always want to know what exact plants are in everyone's pics. So I return the favor. BTW, although it is dead in this pic, you can see the same (and very cute) Hypericum in the Styrofoam trough thread, but alive and blooming.
And . . . . care to see other things in blooming? I scanned at higher resolution so you should be able to zoom in with better results.
Notice the scabiosa has calmed down in the second year (in relation to the pic on the Styrofoam trough thread). I thought I may have lost the Salix repens that had bloomed so well that spring, but the leaves finally emerged and was fine.
That's good to hear about the salix coming back this year. I'd have hated to lose such a lovely little shrub. I purchase a little lonicera olgae that I've been keeping a close eye on this spring and it has started to leaf out. It's supposed to be hardy to zone 3, but as with most new things, I'm tentative about how it will do in my yard.
I looked back at the previous years photo of your trough to compare the scabiosa and am surprised by the difference. I didn't realize that plants did that. It looks more in proportion in this picture.
Another example of overgrowing in new virgin soil yet untouched by root competition, and high fertility(for alpines, that is).
This pic is what happened the first season. The pic was taken in October, showing the beautiful red fall colors of Delosperma nubigeum. And as would be expected, no blooms that year.
Other plants in the trough are:
Escobaria leei
Sempervivum 'Red Ace'
Jovibarba allionii
Escobaria vivipara
The following year. Summer pic. The Delosperma had been trimmed back to just within the trough. Much less growth, and a few flowers.
The next year (this season) I expect more flowers.
