Late Winter on the ridge top.
Some our earliest plants are starting to show life. The Peonies are starting to push bright red buds through the earth and some of the early bloomers are putting up buds and flowers.
These pictures were all shot this morning in a drizzling rain.
This is a Water Hawthorne flower. It has the most wonderful vanilla scent. This is probably the earliest we’ve had blooms, but it’s a cold weather/cold water lover. The plant will go dormant in the hottest part of summer.
And another of the early bloomers is Japanese Butterbur (Petasites japonicus variegata). The leaves are months away, but the flower stalks are starting to rise and fill out. Each of the large ‘buds’ contain multiple flower buds, some of which can be seen in the partially open ‘bud’ on the right.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Patti wrote:
something ate all my peony buds last year. i hope they don’t this year, i’d like to see the flowers.
Posted on 29-Jan-05 at 7:11 pm | Permalink
Chery wrote:
I love the water hawthorne, wish I could smell the fragrance. A very artist shot, too.
Posted on 29-Jan-05 at 9:16 pm | Permalink
Jerry wrote:
One of the big diseases of Peonies is Botrytis blight, a fungus disease that turns the new growth into black slimy mush.
A through cleaning of old stems before new growth shows up and an occasional dose of Copper Sulfate or Mancozeb early in the season will *help*.
Posted on 29-Jan-05 at 9:25 pm | Permalink
Aven wrote:
It’s amazing to think that people on the same continent as me are starting to see flowers coming up… intellectually I know that it’s much warmer elsewhere, even in Canada (every year the Vancouverites have an early “flower count” just to piss off the rest of Canada) but it’s still hard to comprehend, when here in Toronto we’re celebrating the recent warming trend bringing our daily highs up to around -5C, and there’s two feet of snow on the ground. Keep posting the flower picutres, though, it gives me hope that spring really will come!
Posted on 30-Jan-05 at 8:08 am | Permalink