Saturday, March 17, 2012

Signs of life

It's an unusually temperate 12°C today so I went out on the balcony for a look-see. There are already signs of life out there. The chives being able to overwinter was a given, but I was doubtful about the rest of the perennials. Glad at least some of them appear to have made it, and pleasantly surprised that the Violacea pallida is making an appearance for the second year in a row.









Friday, March 16, 2012

Happy (Belated) Bloomsday

Way back in January, one of my mystery wintersown pulsatillas bloomed. Last winter I had wintersown pulsatilla pratensis subsp. nigricans, p. patens, and p. campanella but I had lost track of which pot contained what species. This certainly isn't p. pratensis, but I'm still not sure if it is campanella or patens.


Yesterday, another one of the mystery pulsatillas bloomed. It has an ever-so-slightly purple tinge.

Neither is obviously p. pratensis. I am guessing the white one is prairie crocus (p. patens), and the purple one is p. campanella.