Sandy & Ruby

After ' Barr's Purple' has bloomed comes Crocus tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant'

This variety almost glows the color is so deep. The tommasinianus crocus are said to be somewhat squirrel proof. Well, something ate the blooms from Barr's Purple & Iris 'Pixie' down by the driveway but I suspect a pesky rabbit since they were not dug just grazed.

Sandy had moved to the shade along with the crocus, well,
they didn't move but the sun did on this lovely day after a night rain.

Iris & Crocus

Mid seventies today finally got out in the garden.
Beside the driveway these Iris reticulata 'Pixie' are blooming along side 'Barr's Purple' Tommasinianus Crocus

Had tea on the porch (no scones) and felt something tickling my ear. First tick of the season, it seems rather unfair that we have suffered all this cold & snow & not killed off these pests!

Frozen Photos

After the freezing rain yesterday & sun this morning some  frozen photos from my garden

I bet this Mexican Feather Grass (Stipa/Nasella tenissima) wishes it was at home.

Solar Chandelier? & Frozen' February Gold'

Iced Branches

 Top:  Arborvitae 'Green Giant'
Middle:  Japanese Maple seedling
Opposite:  Buddleia alternifolia

Ice Overnight

We are having some very cold weather everything is incased in ice this 25 degree morning.

Icicles on the garden room roof

Prunus mume 'Kobai'

A warm day today  in the middle of some very cold weather & the Japanese Flowering Apricot is in it's glory. This winter blooming ornamental tree waits for a certain amount of cold temperatures & available light among other environmental triggers before bursting into bloom. Although the exact science is beyond my ken I notice also that not all the flowers open at once allowing new buds to open even though others are browned by frost. A spicy fragrance adds to the allure of this lovely tree.

My specimen is somewhat misshapen as a branch from the sweet gum tree fell on it in a storm but adds to it's quirky nature. It has corky bark and many crossing branches. Don't be afraid to cut these as it blooms on green wood and brought inside the buds open to perfume the room. Apparently J C Raulston was a huge promoter of this tree I got mine from a now defunct nursery many years ago. They come in white and paler pink. Known as plum blossom in Japan the Kairakuen garden has 3,000 specimens. What a sight that must be.

Baptisia arachnifera

My friend Ann brought some dried branches of Hairy Wild Indigo to  book club I really like it's taupe color unusual in nature. I think it would make a fine addition to a dried arrangement. At first I thought it was Eucalyptus

From the link below you can see it is an endangered plant. (This came from a garden source.) So we decided to try to propagate it for our gardens and who knows maybe extend it's range to  Greenville NC. You can see the seed pods at the end of the branches.
Seeds are eaten by weevils (a reason for the decreasing  populations) not all pods contained seed some only one.
http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/collection/CPC_ViewProfile.asp?CPCNum=537

On December 11th I tried some outdoors in a protected pot & some in the potting shed (no heat just passive solar through the windows). Some were soaked overnight to help break the hard seed coat.

Today I took this photo of the unsoaked seeds in the potting shed. The media was wet and enclosed in a plastic bag. In my rain garden Baptisia australis has self seeded so I guessed it might need a wet environment to germinated. Voila! I know it is hard to see but 3 or 4 seeds are coming up.

More on this later