Bulbs

Bloomeria crocea var montana started opening flowers today. Curiously CalFlora has sunk the three varieties under the main species name, however the other more encompassing authorities maintain the varietal status, so based on Flora Of North America and ITIS, the variety stands.

As a testiment to this late spring I still have tulips open in summer (June 21)...this is a T. sprengeri hybrid known as Little Princess, know for its late blooms. There are still some single late tulip hybrids blooming in the garden as well.

More bulbs for experimentation: Leucocoryne 'Andes'. Should I plant these in baskets in order to pull them in the fall?

Thanks!

I just bought a couple bulbs of Chlidanthus fragrans, and will plant them today in baskets. Supposedly, they are not winter hardy. Any experience with them?

Thanks!

Now I have acquired Rhodohypoxis 'Hebron' and two other cultivars and I am going to try them outside. 'Hebron' at least should be hardy here.

There are quite a few iris I would place near the top of my list, but whenever Iris cycloglossa blooms for me, I am struck by the elegance of its colors, form and its heavenly fragrance. It is so distinctive it's hard to accept that it's a juno. Seems to me to be in a category of its own. I have always had the best success with it tucked by a stone or a wall. I wish you could sniff it!

I purchased this as Iris hoogiana 'Alba'. Well....it ain't! It looks a bit like one I used to grow as Iris 'Dushanbe' and have tragically lost. Any ideas what it might be? I just love it....(I know it is probably a hybrid of Iris stolonifera an perhaps I. hoogiana.

In recent years a tremendous number of amazing civic gardens have sprung up around the West, mostly funded by municipalities or water providers to show people how to garden with less irrigation. You can read more about these at this URL: http://www.plantselect.org/map.php. Many of these gardens have turned out very well, and one in particular is stunning most any time of the year.

Our one warm day was enough for the first flush of tulip species. Tulipa turkestanica, T. kaufmanniana 'Waterlily' (I think...I've had this one for years), T. pulchella 'Persian Pearl', T. pulchella 'Eastern Star', T. humilis and T. polychroma

This has been the year of the Frit for me: I've been planting them for years and getting them from here and there, and finally most of them are blooming and I'm pleased as punch: here are three to kick things off: I got the pinardii and sibthorpiana from Jane McGary and the Fritillaria sewerzowii from Ellen Hornig: all are charming...

Trying to get some decent pix of the numerous chequered, dark gloomy ones. Hard!