2026 virtual garden tour...

Happy New Year to all my gardening pals!

There's not much to find in terms of colour in the yard this time of year but I did find some...

Like this Anenome coronaria, which I've seen unfolding very slowly over the past couple of weeks. There's a white one budding up not far away...
Here I thought I found a primula without slug damage but upon closer inspection of the picture I do see some, minor though it is..
Few and far between now there are still some Fuchsia magellanica flowers to be seen..
'Tis Helleborus season of course, in this case it's 'Mahogany Snow'...
... and this is what I refer to H. "Langley" since it came from my brother Chris when he was still living in Langley..
And that'll be it for starters.... how about yours?

 

I was out earlier today doing some close-up photography, in this case of mosses and lichen found on a shallow draped hypertufa container we have with a small 'forest' of Western Red Cedar seedlings. The image you see here is a composite of 14 separate images....
Here's that Anenome coronaria, didn't notice until I processed the image that there's a very small spider on the bottom edge of the flower...

 

YEAH! First of this season's snowdrops....
When I started to line up the subject flowers there were some leaves very close to the lens, they were Anenome coronaria, and because they were so close and have this feathery structure they provided this sort of greenish fog-like atmosphere which I felt just made the picture. I'll go out again tomorrow and try again. From mid-morning on we should have nice bright light again and then it's once more with feeling!

 

Before this season's snow.

 

This is almost like an abstract painting; very beautiful. Margot

 

Thanks, Margot! I'll try some more tomorrow when we have bright light again....

 

I was out today with my camera and tripod and spotted this Weigela florida variegata putting up buds before any leaves. Didn't see a hint of leaf buds anywhere on the shrub but I DID see 3 flower buds, go figure... It's too bad Primulas are such a slug magnet this time of year, well, most any time of year I guess...
It's not just the Primulas though, is it..

 

After 4 days of fog the relative humidity is still around 100%....
Does make for interesting pictures though....

 

I picked up a couple of Cyclamen @ Gardenworks a few weeks ago and while they were displayed in the area with a banner that indicated they were cold hardy, when I got home and looked closer at the tag in the pot it would appear as they might not be. So, when it came to choosing a location I put them under the canopy of a rhodie we have up front and simply kept my fingers crossed. It must have helped. I took this picture yesterday after we'd had about a week or so of below zero overnight temperatures and I venture to say their location must provide just enough cover that the overnight temps were moderated sufficiently. The Cyclamen hederifolium I have in another, more open location showed the typical morning limpness after the frosty night, not these. We'll see how they continue to do...
Galanthus elwisii is coming into its glory. They have naturalized quite nicely over the years along with G. nivalis and I have spread them around over the past couple of days into spots where squirrels had dug up crocus bulbs over the fall and the darned things are still at it.
It's WAY too early for this to be happening but there you are. It's Hosta clausa breaking already. I first spotted it around the 10th or so and now 17 days later I see 3 shoots coming up! They are in a sheltered area but fully exposed to the outdoor temps and would have gone through the week of overnight freezing and as a result I would expect to see some signs of frost damage to the first leaves to unfurl, Oh well, c'est la vie!

 

Good morning Raincoast!

snowdrops are very pretty this year —- I’m finding small patches of them I didn’t know I had

and the deer have not touched them

whereas the munch my grape hyacinth down to an inch tall :(

the pink Rhodo is Christmas Cheer (photo)

 

Here in ditchmond we don't have a deer problem, too urbanized where I am. We do have issues however with smaller mammals, such as rats, squirrels and recently feral bunnies. By and large the bunnies, so far, leave the ornamentals alone, rats and squirrels are a different story. You may recall my lament from last fall where the squirrels were going after crocus bulbs and tulip bulbs as well though the latter are typically too deep for them. Snowdrops have been left alone, too much alkaloid from what I gather and I suspect that's what you're experiencing with your Galanthus as well. According to this source deer are not particularly attracted to them.
I'm surprised to see your snowdrops are 'Flore Pleno', mine are showing leaves but no buds as yet, never mind blooms.
The earliest to break for me is Galanthus elwisii and they didn't disappoint this winter but as you can see they do make slug fodder. The next one to flower will be Galanthus nivalis, they're in bud and in select locations they're starting to open up. I'm always looking out for something unusual happening in my flower patches and about three/four years ago at the back of the largest patch of elwisii I noticed a sport. It was left in place to give it an opportunity to multiply and once I saw several most were dug up and transplanted to a somewhat more visible location closer to the edge of the bed.




I purchased some Daffodils a couple of years ago and their first season was spent in a pot. By late fall that year it became clear the medium wasn't draining well enough so out the bulbs came and into a spot in the front yard. No flowers last year, only leaves. It appears as if they're settling into their new location as you can see.
In spite of the squirrels' best efforts there are still quite a few crocuses to be found, thank goodness!
I have a few more pictures to go but I need to make a work flow in my image editing to allow me to apply downsizing to select pictures quickly to accommodate the size limitation of the forum. My newly acquired camera's files are too large, I have to shrink them before posting....

 

The first hosta is unfurling, this Hosta clausa var. normalis.
The first of the Iris reticulata opened up yesterday. This is 'Clairette'.

 

We've had a sizable patch of Galanthus elwisii for a good many years. I'm always keeping an eye open for anything unusual occurring with anything in the plants we have and this is one I found about 3-4 years ago. The green patch is not solid but is broken into two sections. When first discovered I made a point of marking it so I could determine the year after if there were any additional ones. Sure enough there were and I now am growing this sport in a couple of locations. I refer to it as Galanthus elwisii 'Steveston'... guess why....
I'm seeing more and more Iris reticulata coming info flower. This here is Iris histiroides 'Katherine Hodgkin' which I've had for a few years and I suspect it's not impressed by where it is, likely doesn't drain well enough to its liking in winter. Relocation is in order....
The Anenome coronaria are budding up very nicely. I like the furry back of the petals! I have three colours of it, white, purple/blue and this red in various shades. It does self seed but have not (yet) found it to be invasive...
The other thing I noticed while scrutinizing the plants in the yard is this growth in one of my Rhododendrons, looks like a type of fasciation going on here...

 

It seems odd that this year the Iris reticulata seem to be all over the place in terms of flowering, some's earlier, like this 'Louise', while others such as 'Frozen Planet' were in bloom at this time last year and there's nary a bud in sight. 'Clairette' has some flowers this year, they were later last year... There's nothing like having things the way they are: unpredictable! Makes life more interesting!

 

An a-typical view of Galanthus nivalis...before you ask, no, didn't help keep it upright like that...

 

So ask me if I'm excited already.... I discovered this white flower on one of last year's Dicentra formosa seedlings. The flower is not quite mature yet so it's a little too early to start comparing it some of the other white forms already in the trade. As you can see this one has a greenish tip, most of the others I've seen online have pinkish ones. A second scape is forming and it has white buds on it as well. Originally I'd put the pot aside to take to the Alpine Garden Club spring sale @ Van Dusen at the end of March but obviously this isn't going anywhere. I'll post some more pictures once it's a bit more mature....

 

This is not something I'm growing - it's in a condo planting next to the sidewalk two blocks from me, and I thought it was the cutest thing ever. These have been posted on the forums for ID several times, mostly ID'ed as Hepatica nobilis. Now it seems to be Anemone hepatica (syn. Hepatica nobilis). It's the one without the pointy-tipped leaf lobes.

 

My wife and I were @ Mandeville earlier today, looking for some specific plastic saucers, which we did find.... and there was this funky looking Primula that had my name on it....

 

I got this Corydalis last fall in a mixed bulb package with some other spring flowering bulbs. Haven't quite nailed the ID but I think it is Corydalis solida 'Beth Evans' and I'm happy to stand corrected...

This is a continuation/follow-up of last Friday's post. The other buds on the scape of this bleeding heart have now started to open up and you can see the later ones showing more pink, even the first one, the one that got me excited, has started to show a blush of pink. I was hoping they'd all open up near-white but that's the way she blows. When I showed my neighbour the plant with just the one flower she indicated she has them coming up in her yard like that every year, so, I'll have a close look once she tells me they're in bloom in her yard...

 

These Narcissus bulbocodium 'Arctic Bells' are putting on an amazingly lengthy show. The first of these 2 flowers opened up back on February 6th, so it's well over a month and only now do I see any hints of the blooms starting to fade, quite nice to see!
This Lamprocapnos spectabilis is doing things the wrong way around: it's putting up flowers before the leaves have unfurled...

 

@Pieter, nice to see the Dicentra and now-named Lamprocapnos in sequential postings.

 

Not my garden - this Kerria japonica 'Flore Pleno' is growing in a lane next to a house in my neighbourhood. I love how visible the green stems are on these before the leaves come out. The flowers are nice and bright but don't obscure the stems.


I posted this Magnolia 'Caerhays Belle' in the Magnolia forum, but it's a big neighbourhood attraction right now, so I'm posting it here too. It's a street tree, planted by the Parks Board.

 

Over the past 3 years I have added several cultivars of Corydalis solida, starting out with 'Purplebird', then adding 'White Knight' -which isn't in bloom as yet- and last fall I added what likely is 'Beth Evans'.
Iris tuberosa is starting to flower, this being the first for this season.
It's difficult to tell with certainty, but I think this ladybug has been around this Anenome coronaria for over a week it would seem. Over that time frame it appears to have darkened in colour....

 

Somehow cannot believe I'm the only one with flowers in the yard....

 

Your neighbours must enjoy seeing the beauty in your garden. Maybe they will eventually be inspired to plant more flowers in their own.