showoff! On 3/15/2015 5:01 PM, Jane McGary wrote: > After a remarkably dry, warm winter (the jet stream stole our weather > and took it to the other side of the Rocky Mountains), this weekend we > in western Oregon have seen heavy rain and high wind. (It's still > warm.) I went out to see how the front garden is doing just now, > before hastening indoors for fear a large Douglas fir would fall over > on me, and noticed how well the flowering bulbs are standing up to it. > > The first that caught my eye was Iris bucharica, bright yellow flowers > cheerfully upright and open atop a gravelly berm. In the same area I > noticed Narcissus rupicola, Narcissus alpestris (I think; it came as > N. moschatus), and a couple of taller Narcissus species. Erythronium > grandiflorum and a neighboring geophyte, Dodecatheon clevelandii, > stood up too. Muscari species are completely stormproof with their > stout stems and little nodding florets, and not all of them are > aggressive. In the flat part of the garden Erythronium hendersonii > looks good, as do the delicate-appearing flowers of Corydalis 'Beth > Evans'. Early Ranunculus and Anemone species close up a little in the > dim light but seem undamaged, including Anemone blanda, Anemone > nemorosa, Anemone palmata, Anemone appenina, and a couple of the > mild-mannered Ranunculus ficaria double forms. Still in bud but well > supported by their tall stems are Notholirion thomsonianum, > Fritillaria amana, and Fritillaria acmopetala. Over in the bulb lawn > the grass is helping support its later bloomers, such as Narcissus > calcicola (don't be shocked; it got there as random seedlings) and > low-growing Ornithogalum species that flower close to the ground. A > little berm above that feature is displaying several Dodecatheon > species from the Pacific Northwest. In the border many Fritillaria > meleagris are up far enough to be raising their opening flowers; you > will see that many Fritillaria species keep their stems bent over near > ground level until on the point of opening, which may be a way of > avoiding grazing animals. And across the road frontage, a lot of > cheap daffodils are still standing, except for 'Cheerfulness', a > double that I had to cut for the house. > > It's nice to know that however refined our plants may look, they have > evolved resistance to the storms of spring. > > Jane McGary > Portland, Oregon, USA > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/