First flowers of the New Year
Mary Sue Ittner (Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:42:15 PST)

Hi,

I did a survey of my garden on this gorgeous day in Northern California and
except for some Cyclamen coum blooming in the ground, most of the other
blooming things are in pots on benches, under shelter, or in pots in raised
beds. Still I counted 56 pots with flowers in bloom. So what's blooming
here? I won't list all 56, but there was one Crocus, quite a few Ipheions,
many pots of Narcissus romieux and one of 'Smarple, lots of Cyclamen coum
in various colors, one C. pseudibericum, and still some blooming pots of C.
purpurescens and some C. cilicum blooming. I am happy to say that I have
revived the Nothoscordum descendants I got from Bill Dijk a number of
years ago. Last year they didn't appear, but I tried to keep them warmer
and occasionally watered during dormancy so they came up this fall and are
blooming now with their nice bright yellow flowers. I have a number of
different Lachenalia species in bloom, a Hesperantha latifolia pot that
started blooming in December and a couple of Massonias still blooming too.
Oxalis luteola and O. versicolor are blooming and today the first O.
obtusa. There are a couple of Muscari pots with flowers. In the greenhouse
Haemanthus deformis continues to bloom as does Cyrtanthus mackenii.
Spiloxene serrata which is one of the longer blooming South African bulbs I
grow and very charming too opened today in our milder than recent
temperatures and I even have some Delphiniums in bloom. One Scadoxus
puniceus is sprouting and that is worth flowers any day as the sprout is so
wonderful. I was thrilled today to have a lot of Romuleas in bloom, R.
bulbocodium, R. tetragona, R. monticola, R. tortuosa, R. flava, and R.
kombergensis.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers