Here is another harbinger of spring. The Phactors have many dozens of bulbs in our gardens, many of them varieties of Narcissus, and most of these are fairly good at needing fairly little attention. Some have the yellow perianth and corona that we would call "daffodils", but others are more exotic with orange colored flower parts that are not necessarily in evenly spaced whorls.
Nothing quite says spring more than crocus. They just barely peak above ground and up shoots a flower. For whatever reason the earliest crocus are always gold colored. This makes them extra showy, except bees can't see this color like they can the white, striped, or lavender colored flowers. This clump of volunteers decided to grow under European beech tree. It's a nice contrast the splash of color among the leaves and against the bark. It flowered earlier than the FFF snow trillium but it isn't a native wild flower.
Spring has sprung but winter isn't over yet. Signs of spring: earliet bulbs in flower like snow drops and winter aconite open in sunny places, mallard ducks return to lily pond like clock work (Mar 1st), and of course the FFF in flower, two varieties of witch hazel, Arnold's promise and DIane (orange-reddish frs). Very, very cheerful.
Yep! It was Charles' birthday. And Abe Lincoln's and my kid sister too. So pretty easy to remember. In times past we've had cake in the Herbarium but cake and a viral pandemic don't mix well. And TPP gets out all the Darwin books he owns just so students can see them. Heck, it's getting so faculty don't own such things as books either. Sadly books and journals used to be a measure of how good you were as a scholar. Once a month a visit to a big library would help keep in touch with the literature and you would solicit reprint copies of really good papers by sending a postcard. You would buy reprint copies to give away, now you just download a pdf copy. As a graduate student at least you got mail with reprints. Of course Charles wrote books, not a 8-10 page journal research article. Well Happy Birthday anyways, Chalres, you would not like how some things have changed.
One of TPP's indoor plants has a tendency to be overlooked when it flowers. In general, it is raised for foliage, and in warmer climates it is often used as a foundation planting particularly the variety with variegated leaves. This is probably Pittosporum tobira, a common variety. This tree is about 16" tall and has a trunk about 2" in diameter. It has been trained as a bonsai tree for about 30 years.
Dear Readers, In the waning days of 2021 TPP "enjoyed" the hospitality of our neighboring hospital where it was determined that was not a complete picture of health. Now getting used to this idea may take a bit of time. So your indulgence for my infrequent blogging is requested.
That said, some house plants are tremendously cheerful in those dark and rather gloomy post-holiday, not so cheerful days of January. Today's cheer is actually a quite easy plant to grow in your house, and believe it or not it is a non-hardy azalea. These are commonly sold during the holiday season and they can stay in flower for weeks. Actually this azalea was purchased 3 or so years ago, and grows outside in hanging basket on a garden hook for 6 months and brought inside this year well into October. It started flowering about a month ago and has been in full bloom for 2 weeks. Last spring it was pruned back and given acidic fertilizer (Heath family). The double flowers are not totally to my liking, but it is a huge long-lasting flower display. Very cheerful. It likes to be kept evenly moist so it needs careful watering both inside and out. Not sure what species if used, but it is not hardy. The flowers are quite large on this rather small plant. The short days and cooler temps certainly promote flowering in this plant.
