Tuesday 25 December 2012

Christmas flowers

Galanthus plicatus 'Three Ships', taken on the iPad during a half-decent monent yesterday

I am visiting my parents for Christmas: the Thames Valley is as soggy as North Yorkshire, and the rain keeps pouring down, but there are quite a few flowers in the garden. I had a quick run-round this morning when it wasn't raining too hard and made this list:

Galanthus plicatus 'Three Ships', G. 'Castlegar', G. 'Faringdon Double'; Crocus laevigatus, C. caspius; Narcissus 'Cedric Morris', N. cantabricus (in alpine house); Cyclamen coum, C. hederifolium subsp. crassifolium (alpine house); Iris unguicularis 'Walter Butt'; Sternbergia lutea; Arabis ferdinandi-coburgii; Helleborus foetidus; Primula vulgaris; Clematis cirrhosa wild from Israel (lovely greenish-cream, no spots), 'Freckles'; Lonicera x purpusii 'Winter Beauty'; Viburnum farreri 'Candidissimum', V. x bodnantense 'Dawn'; Chimonanthus praecox.

These are the flowers, but the garden is better furnished by the evergreen shrubs and perennials, especially the masses of Polypodium, which look great in the wet.

Merry Christmas!

5 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas John and thanks so much for sharing all this beauty with us on your blog. May 2013 be a brilliant year for you.
    Marijke

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for posting this as this has settled an argument about the possibility of a snowdrop flowering this early

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear John.
    Merry Christmas to you, and thanks for sharing your many lovely posts. I´ve followed for almost two years, and the variety in your stories and photos is brilliant. Thanks.
    Have a lovely Christmas season. Best regards, Iris.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's not fair! We have about 30-50 centimeters of snow in the garden. Snowdrops ... in april maybe.
    Well, well. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's an impressive collection of winter flowering plants your parents have. I always admire gardens that achieve winter interest in this way.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.