cyclamen coum
They’ve been calling for snow all week in Victoria, but so far so good, today was a beautiful day. Stunning beautiful sunshine graced us with an appearance from sunrise to sunset. I don’t want to jinx it by it seems spring is coming early in Victoria this year. It was nice to absorb some vitamin D and take in the sights and sounds of the backyard garden. I spent the afternoon testing out my new camera, snapping photos and getting a closer look. I figured it as good a time as any to do the Garden Highlights of February.
Iris Reticulata springing into action, I planted them about 3 years ago and it still blooms effortlessly every year.
I’ve been watching the buds on this pulmonaria for a week now and they just started to open. Pulmonaria (also known as lungwort) is a great early spring flower, shade loving and relatively care free. I planted this last season and it’s growing quite happily. As the flowers age they turn a deeper purple and each bract of flowers ends up looking rather multicolored. After the blooms fade, the leaves take full stage and flant their cool speckled foliage.
The flowers of my euphorbia wulfenii have unfurled and now stand a full attention.
The eremurus foxtail lily is further developing and starting to open. Sadly I might have lost the flower stalk on the left to rot, I dusted it with fungicide and I’m hoping for the best. There is still hope yet.
This is where the cyclamen coum ended up, planted beside the emerging leaves of an eryngium “Jade Frost”. Which I might add was one of my favorite plants from last year. happy to see it survived the winter.
Last but not least, another spring favorite, the Dicentra spectabilis is well on it’s way to being a crowd pleaser. I’am always amazed in how quickly these plants grow. In the next couple weeks it could easily grow a couple feet tall, I’am excited for it’s sprays of heart shaped flowers.
You see, even though it’s gray outside, the plants are proof enough that spring time is well on it’s way. Only a couple more months of gray and cold ladies and gentlemen.
I think I have a problem. Snowing. Raining. Sleeting. Hail. It doesn’t seem to matter how uninspiring it is outside I still seem to end up at a garden store on the weekends. In the last couple years I started spending a lot less time in bars and pubs and a lot more time in garden centers and nurseries. It’s a sickness really, here I am happily blogging on a Saturday night talking ab0ut plants once again. It makes my mind’s eye smile, I don’t know what it is about them but I find them incredibly fascinating. Perhaps it’s deeper then just you and me, perhaps I’m connecting to my ancestral urge to be one with nature. I have no idea. It is a good time in history to be a plant collector, the variety is endless, and so far I almost always find something new, eventually.
Onto this week’s plant hoarding. Three new additions to the collection.
The latest to the collection, Cyclamen Coum, a new saintpaulia (african violet) and a Gasteria of which I’m still trying to track down the variety name. Yes, I needed these. Right?
