April 2025

[Too Many Plants!]

Ixia Paniculata

[Wylie]

Babiana melanops that I got from the Fall BX.

[Martin Bohnet]

Almost half of April is done, and we actuly had the very first rain this month - well 2.1mm. Anyway, time for a first wrap up - the month started with the crazy blue of Corydalis fumariifolia

- not a bad start indeed. Staying with blue, I'm actually not sure if this Anemone blanda

Height:	10-20 cm (3.9-7.9 inch)
Flower Colors:	white, pink, purple, blue
Flower Season:	early spring to mid spring

isn't virused - is there a virus making flowers double their size? Also, the species seeds around quite a bit for me, so hybrid vigor?
Definitely a hybrid is Muscari azureum x pallens, EX09_533 from Antoine's donation. To finish the blues: Mandragora, one of those things I'm still surprised they are hardy, and Bellevalia trifoliata

, the latter one is a current picture, like all that are to follow.

Staying with Hyacinths, the next is a Hyacinthus orientalis cultivar - sold as "Gloria mundi" from 1767. I'm always skeptical with "rediscovered" historic cultivars, but it is definitively an interesting variant. Follow-up in the "White and fuzzy" category is Sanguinaria canadensis

. Last one from the open garden is Bongardia chrysogonum

.

Lets close with some  things that have their pots finally out: Tropaeolum tricolor

and Tropaeolum brachyceras

madly intertwined, as always and, last but not least: my Pleiones flower again - seems last summer wasn't as bad for them as the one before - despite being warmer on average, they seem to have suffered less as the maximum temperature was 35°C and not 38°C as the summer before. As the cat dropped my pleiones a few times, I'm not sure about the cultivars. The one in the back seems to be "Glacier peak", the pink one should be Pleione limprichtii

Height:	0-10 cm (0-3.9 inch)
Flower Colors:	pink
Flower Season:	mid spring

. The ones in front? unsure. Simply formosana alba?

[Too Many Plants!]

Babiana melanops that I got from the Fall BX.

NICE! I acquired this sp. as a bulb a few years ago. Planted in the ground (like all my SA bulbs you see me post), never to be seen again! 

[MLoos]

This was too fun not to share. 

Corydalis malkensis (white)
Corydalis solida (red, Baker's mixed with other reds from friends)
Scilla bifolia
Helleborus torquatus

After the snowdrops and Eranthis, still brimming with Puschkinia and Chionodoxa

Michael
Interlaken, NY Zone 6

[Too Many Plants!]

Happy Easter to all the PBS Geophyte peeps!

Watsonia Aletroides

Given to me by a generous SA bulb aficionado...

[Arnold]

Lachenalia nervosa

One of my favorites.  Has lovely scent, has increased and is the last of the season for the SA bulbs.

[Wylie]

It has been 3 years since Ixia viridiflora bloomed in my garden, so I think some seeds fell into a pot and germinated on their own. I have a person who helps out in my garden, and they are very enthusiastic about cleaning everything. I have noticed there aren't as many naturalized bulbs now. It is something I have to figure out a solution.

[Martin Bohnet]

Let's start with a special greeting for @David Pilling : not too blue parrot 

Ok, let's get serious: here's Bellevalia longistyla

, next two are Geranium transversale

and Fritillaria meleagris

'Eros' Antoine Hoog shared in the fall EX. Nr 5 is Allium karataviense

Life form:

bulb

- all these images were from last week, so let's use Helonias bullata

Height:	10-30 cm (0.3-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink
Flower Season:	mid spring
Life form:	evergreen rhizome

to show the passing of time - from just opening up (male phase) to right now (female phase). What you can't see is that the stem now has elongated from 10 to 30 cm.

so while the first flush of spring flowers is through, there's enough to share anyway, be it Iris confusa

(or wattii? who can tell them apart without direct camparison?), Moraea marlothii

or Glaucidium palmatum which finally flowered for the first time - one of my pre Brexit panic orders.

And finally: Through both are at the very beginning of the genus' season, they are on very different ends of the size scale: the small Paeonia tenuifolia

and the HUGE Tree Paeonia 'Shima Dajin'

[David Pilling]

Let's start with a special greeting for @David Pilling : not too blue parrot 

Beautiful plumage the Norwegian Blue (parrot).

[Arnold]

Tulipa altaica   Northern most growing Tulip