Image of the day - 2012

Nice Alstro :) Was the birding successful?

Todd wrote:

Cohan, I saw 243 species of birds in 7 days...121 were ones I had never seen before so a successful trip!

I'd say!

That's a beauty, Todd! How warm is the greenhouse kept in winter?

I can't believe you still have plants blooming outside, Todd!  There's been snow on the ground since late October here.... it's going to be a long winter.  :P

Anyway, a photo from warmer times... Epilobium latifolium:

Todd - curiously Crocus laevigatus 'Fontaneyi' is about the only species I grow that was not munched by rabbits! It's a lovely thing - with us it flowers in late December and is especially welcome, but we are lucky that we rarely get snow until the New Year and then usually intermittant. (We are hoping now we are rabbit free that some of the other species might start to do their thing).

Lori wrote:

I can't believe you still have plants blooming outside, Todd!  There's been snow on the ground since late October here.... it's going to be a long winter.   :P

It already has been!  ;D Usually we'd just be getting started on snow cover by now, but we have from a few inches to a foot or so already established and piles of a couple feet around the driveway...

Well, Calgary was +7 today! We didn't get nearly that high- somewhere around 0 or just below..

I've had some plants here still with flowers after as low as -20C- garden Violas and native Asters come to mind...

Yes, I have lots of freeze-dried flowers too.  ;D

Townsendia parryi and Androsace chamaejasme:

Lori wrote:

Yes, I have lots of freeze-dried flowers too.   ;D

Townsendia parryi and Androsace chamaejasme:

Here is my Townsendia parryii, during  a brief melt on Nov 04- it was soon after covered again, and will likely be so now till spring..

Having said we don't normally get snow until the New Year, of course now we get snow! (Only a few centimetres but it really does brighten the garden up and cover up all those parts which need a good tidying).

Amazing to hear about the performance of Phlox kelseyi down there, Anne.  One bloom is all I expect in this short season.

While out in the garden this morning i inadvertently managed to alter my SLR camera 's settings for the following pic ,(i was playing around using full manual ).

Obviously i've been a few steps high on the resolution side however an edit of contrast and colour has resulted in hopefully an acceptable image. :-\

Arisaema sps.

Sunglasses required  ;D

Cheers Dave.

Todd, I had a few little bits of Arum- I think it was italicum, though maybe not- from a friend to try, but to no great surprise, there was no sign of them in spring.... We had a few days up to those sorts of temps after our snow, but not sufficient duration to cause overall melting, especially in shade, though many places were bare.. that's a few snows back, though...

Dave- nice image! Sometimes a less technically accurate or complete photograph tells us something interesting about a plant..

Arum italicum is beautiful.  I've tried to grow it here with no luck at overwintering.  Funny sort of behavior for a plant to generate new leaves just before going into winter!

A short-lived beauty, Braya linearis:

Lori wrote:

A short-lived beauty, Braya linearis:

The efloras of NA distribution map was amusing-one dot in the middle of Greenland!

I think the dot is only meant to indicate that  it occurs within the political boundaries of the state, but it does look funny in this instance..

Tim wrote:

(We are hoping now we are rabbit free that some of the other species might start to do their thing).

Tim, how did you achieve rabbit-free status?  My rabbits are much too clever for the Havahart trap, and I don't have a rifle or shotgun.  They also appear to have a peace treaty with the many predators in my neighborhood.  A few days ago, I stepped out onto the porch, and one cat took off east, another took off west, and a rabbit headed north.  When did cats start schmoozing with wild rabbits?  

Gene - our garden is on the edge of town with fields on several sides and we made the effort 30 years ago to put a rabbit fence all around it because we have a big collection of fruit trees. This lasted OK for 20 years or so and then we had the opposite problem that rabbits got in to the garden and started to breed, and then couldn't get out! The next step was to get a Jack Russell, who certainly kept the rabbits out but kept escaping over the old fence. So now we have a five foot fence to keep the dog in and the rabbits out and it works well! If you do grow a wide range of especially choice plants this does become a good option, even if expensive, just for peace of mind. We used to catch them with a trap but once they take up residence it's a losing battle.

Gene-putting up a rabbit fence was the best thing we ever did . Like Tim , we are surrounded by fields and many of our plants are in raised beds with sand or compost mulch . During the winter and early spring when the plants are dormant these beds became rabbit magnets . Lots of digging and browsing on new spring growth and lots of frustration and hair loss on my part . The fence fixed all that ( once I got rid of the pesky wabbit that I built the fence around ) and brought great peace of mind .

The slugs went crazy this summer with our cool wet weather, so I bought some iron based slug bait and sprinkled it around a few affected plantings- it worked very well! I think if you put it out at the right time, you can put it in a ring around beds to keep out the slugs... They still have most of the acreage to do their thing naturally :)

The next day there were lots of little dessicated slugs ( I felt a little guilty!) and then the plants were able to recover :) next year I will spread it sooner!

Yesterday in the woods here..

That was during a wet summer period- that's why the slugs were doing so well! I can't say whether it was as wet as your weather, but we did have nearly daily rain at some points, and I didn't even have to water 3 inch seed pots outdoors more than a couple of times in as many months...
I don't think those pellets broke down that fast, maybe yours are different? Anyway most of the effect was in the first night!
Most evenings I was indoors as soon as it was dusk since the mosquitoes were unbearable as soon as the sun began to set, but I happened to be out a bit later one evening, and after an afternoon rain, the slugs were out before dark crawling over everythingand on plants several feet off the ground- I bought the bait the next day  ;D

The bird(s) is a black capped chickadee- the spirit of the boreal forest here, and common around the yard year round, along with their less abuncant cousins, the boreal (brown headed) chickadee.. They rarely sit still for even a few seconds, as they constantly flit about to comb every inch of the forest for insects summer and winter! They also love the sunflower seeds I give them at the feeders and nyjer seed when I have it...
When I go out to fill the feeder in the morning, they start flying around the yard and making noise in anticipation, and fly from bush to bush with me as I approach...

I think Lori got to -5 or better for a day or two, but we haven't seen that for a while.. The rest of this week is forecast to be -12 to -21 daytime..

Nice capture of the chickadee, Cohan, and beautiful frosty vignettes, Trond.  :)

Kelseya uniflora cushion in south central Montana.  

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w362/townsendia/Kelseyapryor3-1_zpsa...

What a plant Brian! I found an old article by Dwight Ripley in the AGS Bulletin where he describes this plant beautifully and ends by saying 'I won't call it a bun because no patisserie known to man could ever produce such a titanic cookie as this'. I wonder how old that plant must be?

Pulsatilla patens being pollinated by what us Montanans call a Bulldog fly:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w362/townsendia/pasqueandmags-1_zps0...