What do you see on your garden walks? 2013

Trond- nice crocus patches! Love the pink Hepatica too :)
Lori- I have often thought the mess under a bird feeder- esp but not only sunflower seeds- would be a pain on a city lot, so over the composter is a great idea. I didn't know there were grey squirrels in Calgary- there were lots of them in downtown Toronto, and they could be troublesome there, far more than the native squirrels here, but then they didn't have the semi/wild areas to feed in there, had to eke out a living from the postage stamp yards and street trees, apart from parks of course.

A cold April so far, with snow continuing every weekend.  Why does it have to be on the weekends?  :rolleyes: Enough already!! 
But, despite that...
Buds and flowers on Arabis androsacea; Primula vulgaris; Tulipa tarda foliage; first Chionodoxa, with  Puschkinia:
     

First visible bud on Hepatica transylvanica; Primula algida in bud; crocus x2; Pulsatilla grandis 'Best Blue' (assuming that really is a cultivar name?); Primula scotica in bud with yesterday's lingering snow:
       

Cancrinia tianshanica; one of last year's Pulsatilla patens in bud; buds on Androsace lactea and on a small Saxifraga oppositifolia:
     

More crocus:
   

And in Stuart's greenhouse, Nymphaea 'Helvola':

Looking great, Lori! I have signs of growth on a few things, and crocus noses, but that's it so far..
Snow only on weekends? It's been more like every day here! Still tons of it unmelted too, in  many places.. We are a couple days past 6 months of uninterrupted snowcover, now, with some time to go yet- many bare spots, but  a foot to several in others..

Daphne cneorum 'Lila Haines' :

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Tulipa hageri 'Little Beauty' :

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Tulipa saxatilis:

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Haberlea rhodopensis, started from seed in 2008:

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Lewisia leana, in the greenhouse:

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Wow, things are looking great all over!
Gene, you certainly have some beautiful plantings - love the species tulips.  The only ones that have naturalized well here are Tulipa tarda and T. urumiensis.  It's interesting to see that your wonderful Lewisia leana have the same old basal growth as I see on the one out in my tufa garden; I was wondering if it was something to do with the conditions but as it seems to be the same even in ideal (greenhouse) conditions, I guess it's a characteristic of the plant.

Buds on Synthyris platycarpa; Saxifraga oppositifolia - not a very nice form, though; Puschkinia; Corydalis solida; Scilla mischtschenkoana:
         

Galanthus; Phacelia sericea; Pulsatilla patens bud; Smelowskia calycina; crocus:
       

And more...
The seedlings of Lupinus lepidus var. utahensis that I moved around last year are looking good;
 

The crocuses and other small bulbs (Puschkinia, Chionodoxa, Scilla siberica)are putting on a show:
             

And yet more...
 

There are flowers on a couple of teensy, self-seeded Androsace carnea:

And in hopes of flowers to come, here's Paraquilegia grandiflora emerging:

RickR wrote:

What is this one
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1239.0;attach=43336...
and what is that lavender "ball" behind the blue bud?

White chionodoxa and a bud of Scilla siberica - sorry, I was lazy, I should have labelled it!

Looks like most everyone's garden are starting to pop. It has been a cool spring here in Idaho so things are a bit behind this year. here are a few photos i took yesterday afternoon.
Hogepog of various stuff, castilleja scabrida showing it's incredible red

Second generation Penstemon acaule

Astragalus coccineus

Colomia debilis from Wyoming

Trifolium Owyheense

High altitude form of Clematis columbiana, non vining

Sandbed in NE Massachusetts USA
Charles S  Z6A  sunny and breezy -- sort of "normal" unsettled spring for a change, early winter more of a new normal, warm early, then cold. Lost the more hardy of 2 Delospermas in this bed; but John Proffitt still covers a too large swath.

Corydalis nobilis:

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Podophyllum pleianthum:

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Trillium ovatum:  the flowers change color as they age:

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Wow- miss a couple days and almost too many photos for my internet connection to load!
Lots of beauties everyone!
Anne, great to see the Oxytropis and others;
Jim- great stuff, the A coccineus is always stunning;
Lori- your bulbs are spreading nicely :)
Gene- love the tulips!
Took so long to load the pic I forgot to add-- Trond- love the Cardamine :)

Here a total of 4 Crocus flowers yesterday (today back to snow!) but I'm pleased to see the increase in the plants in only their second spring-just cheap garden centre stuff;
Some C solida shouldn't be too long, though that bed is much later to come out of the snow than the Crocus in front of the house. I was amazed when I pulled back the mulch to see shoots a couple of inches tall, in frozen soil!

After snow on the weekend and two nights of -7 deg C, these flowers are unfazed... Iris danfordiae and Muscari azureum:
 

... however a potted skunk-cabbage is lying in a heap - darn thing didn't even bloom.

Dodecatheon pulchellum:

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Camassia quamash ssp azurea, with Dracunculus vulgaris in back:

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Trillium cernuum:

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Cypripedium ? :

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Corydalis scouleri:

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Some from the 'more formal'  :rolleyes: part of our garden today. If anyone can add names it would be appreciated.

The tulips appear to be Tulipa hageri 'Little Beauty' or similar.

Thank you, Rick, Trond and Lori, for putting me straight on those species.  8)

I noticed this one today in an area that needs a good weeding,  :-[ . It is I think Anemone nemorosa, although we don't remember planting it (but of course we must have done), and it is usually an early species.  :-\

Thanks Trond, I'm sure you've called that one correctly  ;D . Much appreciated.  8)

Calochortus tolmiei, perfectly hardy in NW Oregon and Washington, if given sandy soil that dries in summer:

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Arenaria montana, one of my favorites, even though it's not very exotic or difficult:

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More beauties- Gene- some great clumps you have, including the Dodecatheon!
Longma- Ron? - love the Irises with Salix! Still no really dwarf Salix here, but high on my list- haven't had a chance to buy plants and never see seeds available or in the wild, but still watching :)
Anne- bet the garden visitors really enjoyed your property :)
Trond- that little  Crocus patch has really been performing- especially some of the flavus with five or six flowers on one little plant. First flowers are done, but still new ones coming. A few things in other spots now too- Townsendia, Pulsatilla etc. Last couple of days were summer- mid 20's to almost 30C yesterday, back to spring today with 15C, rest of week from 13 to 27C, and nights from 0- +9, some of my many pots of seed outdoors should start sprouting, was only Draba up to now..

Rick, compare the color of tolmiei to the ones in that SRGC post.  It's a nice collector's plant, but let's face it, it's pretty homely compared to the California species.  It's like wearing a burlap sack to the Emmy awards.  But you'll notice that I still grow it.  That's because it has the usual qualities that tempt me:  it's very difficult and slow; almost nobody can grow it; and it has at least nominally interesting flowers.  Sure, a plant like that may be impressive to us, but we make up about 0.001% of the gardening marketplace in the USA.

Now here are some plants that are very difficult and slow, and which almost nobody can grow, but which are VERY impressive:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=1090.0 . 

Nomocharis in Minnesota, eh?  You make me look like a slacker.  Let's see, what does Minnesota's climate have in common with a Himalayan meadow?  Um...um...hmmm...

If I were growing Nomocharis or Lilium mackliniae in Minnesota, I would probably try the following:
1.  Heavy mulch in winter to slow the rate of freezing and thawing.  
2.  Shade cloth in summer, and/or grow them where they get morning sun and afternoon shade.  
3.  Mulch in summer to keep the soil cool.
4.  Herbaceous companion plants to shade the soil and control soil moisture.  No shrubs or trees; they are too competitive.
5.  Try to adjust soil pH to around 6 - 6.5.

This assumes that you've got some decent sandy loam soil, and you've got your animal and insect pests under control.

I've found that the conditions for keeping these plants alive (cool, shady, soil not too wet or rich) will also slow them down a little.  So patience is required.  The dryland lilies of the western US are an extreme example of this.  Push them too much with water and fertilizer, and they are gone.

There are some good lily growers in the midwest.  Have any of them tried Nomocharis?

By the way, there is something funny going on with germination of Nomocharis and Lilium mackliniae from the seed exchanges.  Germination in the first season is consistently terrible, maybe one or two seeds out of ten.  But another one or two will come up over the next two years.  So keep your seed flats.  Don't let the seed flats get below 25F or above 80F, keep them out of the sun, and don't let them get too dry.  The only way to build a population of these plants is one or two at a time, over a period of years.  Or you could buy bulbs.

"My experiences with seed ex seed is the same, or worse."

Either people are sending in old seed, or the stocks of these rare plants is badly inbred.  I think they are inbred, and Judith Freeman of lily hybridizing fame agrees.  Someone really needs to get serious about controlled propagation of rare plants, and restoring some genetic diversity.  Why can't the plant societies do this?