Tiny Jewels Part I

This is one of those spring weeks when it's great to be a trough gardener.  Above is a purple pasqueflower, pulsatilla vulgaris.

Red pasqueflower.  

Daphne 'Lawrence Crocker'

Anemonella thalictroides 'Cameo' on April 15

 Same plant on April 24th.  It's lost its red leaf color but is blooming like crazy.

Ipheion uniflorum growing in the garden

I can't resist adding a picture of houstonia (bluets) growing in the rocks at Leonard J. Buck Garden in  Far Hills, NJ.  Our NARGS chapter had its annual plant sale there this past Saturday and Sunday.

Leftover plants will be on sale this coming weekend!

Spring in the Troughs

Spring is starting with a bang in the group of troughs on the desk.  It's so nice to see some color after a long, mean March. (Yellow and purple = Minnesota Viking team colors, I know).

The purple is aubrieta x cultorum 'Joy'

What a sight for sore eyes.

The yellow in front of the pine is alyssum montanum 'Tekara'.

It hurts my retinas.

This shy little pasqueflower is pulsatilla pratenis 'Bohemia'.

Old reliable arabis alp. caucasica 'Snowball'.

And finally, though not in the troughs, is the annual blink-and-you-missed-it blooming of the bloodroot in the backyard.

First Draba of Spring

Forget forsythia. The yellows of spring that quicken my heart are the drabas.  Above is draba lasiocarpa growing in a trough.  It's almost enough to make me forget that there's still snow lingering in parking lots, and that the yard is mushy from all of the recent rain.  

We are getting there.