Late winter seems to specialize in little flowers at your feet. Cyclamen, snowdrops, winter aconites have all been in plentiful bloom (okay the cyclamen aren’t usually plentiful but the pleasure they give is bodacious) and flowering merrily along with them are the crocuses. Read more »
Oh, those crazy Ranunculaceae – clematis, buttercups, delphinium, nigella, hellebores, aconitum, meadow rue, columbine – all in the same family. You could build the whole herbaceous part of a garden out of members of the family Ranunculaceae and have a flower in bloom most every month of the year. Read more »
Galanthus sp.
Louise Beebe Wilder (who died in 1938) wrote of snowdrops (Galanthus sp.) saying that she’d seen them force their way upward in mid-winter, “through solid ice and blossom, each surrounded by a tiny melted circle in the ice as if the chill little blossoms emanated a slight warmth before which the frigid element must needs give way.” I believe if I lived in a harsher climate, I would better appreciate these tough little beauties. Read more »
Crocosmia, probably ‘James Coey’/'Carmine Brilliant’
I used to be quite the sucker for exotic plants, but after numerous deaths I’ve become a bit more selective. So it’s not surprising that many years ago while trolling through bulb catalogs I was pulled in by all the alluring unknown summer-blooming bulbs. Glads and dahlias? Bah! I wanted those sexy South Africans: Ixia, Sparaxis, Agapanthus, Galtonia, Crocosmia. A fair number of those bulbs joined the legion of plants I’ve killed but the Crocosmias have proven themselves to be hardy stalwarts in Seattle. Read more »
A. sphaerocephalon with Sedum (pale green) and a penstemon (possibly ‘Blackbird’) with matching blooms
Maroon balls on sticks definitely liven up the garden. Often mixed plantings meld into one big mish-mash so you need plants that will stop the eye. The balls of Allium sphaerocephalon, the drumstick allium, dancing among other plants definitely get your attention – adding interest, even whimsy to the garden. Read more »
Fritillaria meleagris
Fritillaria meleagris has more aliases than any criminal: snake’s head fritillary, checkered daffodil, chess flower, frog-cup, guineahen flower, leper lily (really want one of those), lazurus bell and checkered lily. By whatever name you want to use, Fritillary meleagris is a little sweetie of a springtime bulb, 8-10″ high dangly bells in purple and white tweed. or less appealingly to me, all white. Read more »
