May 2023 photos

[Martin Bohnet]

new month, new flowers...

First flower in the bog is Helonias bullata

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

, which shoots its flowers higher day by day. Until recently I'd stated the bog is mostly care free besides the slugs, now I'm suffering from Blackbirds who found out how nice my sphagnum is in their nests. I'm thinking about chaining my cat to the bog....no, I'm not, but it could help with those blackbirds...

I've checked the image in the wiki and I guess I'll add this one for Bongardia chrysogonum

. They may be not spectacular, but they are much nicer hen shown there. Staying in the color scheme, there's Moraea marlothii

- nice closeup plant, in he total you'd see a 1 m long stick with a single and comparably tiny yellow flower on top. For a total, take tree peony Shima Daijin (not a Geophyte, but a wiki-plant) - happy it's not as hot as it has been in May in the last years, so it (yes, single plant) will look nice for more than 3 days - i hope.

Orchids seem to have entered the pink phase: there's my native Orchis mascula

Height:	45-60 cm (1.5-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Life form:	tuber

and, from the other side of the world (ancestor wise) Thelymitra 'Ron Heberle', which is a German hybrid of T. nuda and T. variegata by Beyrle. OK, Pink-blue-spottet-goldrimmed phase in that case. The fact that it's open should tell you that it was warm and sunny today - still nothing compared to earlier years, where we scraped 30°C  in the beginning of May.

[David Pilling]

Blagbirds who found out how nice my sphagnum is in their nests.

blag in British English
(blæɡ ) slang. noun. 1. a robbery, esp with violence.

[Arnold]

Ledebouria sp. Huntsdrift

[Carlos]

Eucrosia bicolor



Allium cyrilli



'Southern Allium ampeloprasum', which is a tetraploid, smaller that was typified as Allium ampeloprasum L., a hexaploid up to 1,8p m tall, and sterile





Allium commutatum, a coastal species which lacks a 'ball-like' developing inflorescence.





What I finally identified as Allium polyanthum, possibly a diploid, also from near the sea, with ball-like young inflorescences but only the size of s finger tip.




Aglione di Valdichiana, an heirloom cultivar from Tuscany which is a leek, but forms big cloves like garlic, and that's the part used. First year to bloom, but it seems a bit intermediate between commutatum and 'southern ampeloprasum'. 



Carlos

[Carlos]

Allium melananthum, Cartagena, Spain




Allium acutiflorum, Monaco

[MarkMazer]

NoMowMay... Naturalized Nymph in lawn.... [color=rgb(var(--color-foreground))]Herbertia lahue ssp. lahue?[/color]

[Arnold]

Paeonia emodi

[Uli]

Cypella aquatilis took several years to settle and grow from an offset and is flowering abundantly for the first time. Thank you, @Martin Bohnet for this beautiful plant!

Uli 

[Carlos]

I was puzzled to find many small Alliums growing on loose calcareous pebbles on the highest peak of Mallorca island. I also ran out of water, lost my cap, ruined my shoes, nearly had a 20 kg loose stone to crush my leg,  got entangled in the local subspecies of Smilax aspera, got mauled by another friendly bush, Calicotome spinosa, and got several blisters and a black toenail for six months. But it was great.

Back to the Allium, they were developing their first leaf after the first rains of September and I took five just to see what they were.

One is in bloom now and though it should be roseum, those unequal, pointed teoals and wide leaves are odd. 

[Arnold]

Paeonia Bertzella

An Itoh intersectional hybrid.

[Uli]

This unusual flower came as a surprise. I had already stopped watering the pots with winter flowering bulbs but suddenly three brown spikes popped up in one of the pots. They soon opened. With late abundant rain the pots got watered again and I observed flies being attracted to the flowers. There is a smell reminding of cow manure but not overwhelmingly bad. I will observe for seed, the flowers are short lived. The two pictures were taken 4 days apart.
Uli 

[Robert_Parks]

This unusual flower came as a surprise. I had already stopped watering the pots with winter flowering bulbs but suddenly three brown spikes popped up in one of the pots. They soon opened. With late abundant rain the pots got watered again and I observed flies being attracted to the flowers. There is a smell reminding of cow manure but not overwhelmingly bad. I will observe for seed, the flowers are short lived. The two pictures were taken 4 days apart.
Uli

I really enjoy the Arums that do that!

[Carlos]

Hi, very nice! I have one arundanum about to flower, and fruits in another one I was sent from near Seville.

I begin to think that those who claim that arundanum is a subspecirs of tenuifolium are right.

Carlos

[Steve Willson]

Two pretty lilies flowering for me in the PNW: [i]Lilium apertum[/i] and [i]Lilium mackliniae[/i].  Both are quite hardy and persistent here provided they get good drainage.
 

[Steve Willson]

Lilium dauricum

 and Itoh hybrid peony 'Cora Louise'