Blue and White and May

At a local garden center last weekend, I drove Joe crazy, when I saw the most perfect Pansy, deep in the center of a greenhouse bench, full of thousands. We bought about 24 of each shade of purple, blue and violet, but this single white with blue edge, reminded me of feather-edged pottery, so it earned a temporary home in a special hand-made pot in the greenhouse, and not banashed to the ephemeral garden with the rest of it’s friends.

Tulipa violacea var. pallida,
OK, OK…. taxonomists, or Tulipaphiles, …sure, this may also be known as Tulipa humilis ‘Albo Coerulea Oculata’ or Tulipa coerulea, by what ever name, this rock-garden tulip is available from from many spring bulb houses that carry the species forms of tulips, meaning, tulips, as they appear in the wild. A little pricy, thee species or wild forms are more gentle, well, come on, they are wild flowers now, after all, and not those floppy tall, over-fed giants one sees at the florist. This beauty is worth the investment, and once you discover dwarf, species tulips, others will seem merely ordinary, and who wants ordinary. Leave teh white bread tulips for the Home Depot crowd.

This alpine house Veronica, bombycina
A hard-to-grow silvery white hairy foliaged relative of the typical garden Veronica, that needs to be grown under cold glass in an alpine house. Not sure if it is worth the trouble, but for something that has a reputation for fussyness, I must say that it has thrived for me, by spending the summers out of doors, and the fall and winter in the Alpine house where rain and moist air can stay off of the foliage.

Tritonia pallida
I question if this Tritonia is in fact, pallida, but then, it could only be one other species, that being Tritonia flabellifolia, but niether seems to fit it. T. palida has three green groms on the bottom tepals, and perhaps, since this pot is grown under glass in New England, the sun is not bright enought to bring this out. I will need to look again under stronger light. These too we’re grown from seed from South Africa, since where else does one find this plant, another of the highly addictice South African bulbs which are slowly becoming a major addiction here! Although the foliage is less than desireable when these cormels bloom, the flowers are incredible long lasting, so this is one which I will keep. It’s been fun to see these pots of seeds, which I sowed 5 years ago, all start blooming now.

This Pulsatilla seeded itself in the rock wall of the alpine bed along the greenhouse, I could not have sfound a better spot for it. Since all of my other plants died, this self seeded plant has lived three years now. Nature knows best!