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.

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.

Mystery seeds

These germinating seeds turned up in the herb planter on the balcony rail. Any idea what they are?

Backyard wilderness

I snapped a few more pictures of the patch of mystery-could-be-anemones down by the compost heap earlier this afternoon. It looks like the plants are getting ready to flower.

Next to the maybe-anemone patch, I also spotted a few of the lovely violas that have been gently rampaging around the front yards (such as they are) in the neighbourhood. My landlord will inevitably mow them down, and I would dearly love to see them next spring in my big cedar planters. What's the best way to move one or two of them upstairs? Alternately, what do the mature seed heads look like?

Mystery compost heap neighbour

Trouble in the compost heap? Mine seems to be full of fruit flies and sprouts this week, but it doesn't appear to be turning things into compost very quickly these days. I blame it on the cold and drizzly weather, but I secretly wonder if something's gone wrong. Maybe it needs a good aerating mixing.

I must've done something right in the past though, since the whole area around the heap is a lush, dense sea of these leaves growing 6" off the ground. No flowers that I can see. I wonder what they are.

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Edit: Preliminary guess due to a complete fluke while browsing OntarioWeeds.com is that it’s Anemone canadensis, so it should be flowering soon.