Always something in Flower. Galanthus Trym.

Always something in flower

Could not resist one last Galanthus Trym, and isn't it interesting strong green markings on the out side of the petals.

I always get excited when one of Marcus Harvey's collected Crocus seed pots are going to flower Crocus olivieri ssp.  Balansae,  Marcus collected Crocus seed when he was travelling to Greece and this is from one of those trips.

Cyclamen coum one of my most treasured plants as it is from Barbara and Philip Gordon founding members of our group. The seed was from a Cyclamen Society expedition to Turkey March 1994 and I was given the plant in 2000 and every year since then it flowers like this. It is a beautiful form as the silver on the leaf is almost iridescent which does not show up on this photo.

Muscari cyaneum Violacea from Fermi its a good doer, pardon the expression but last year the white Cockatoo's came into my garden and absolutely decimated this little Mucari they pulled the bulbs out of the ground, chewed some off and left the rest on the top of the soil obviously they didn't like the taste so I pushed the remaining bulbs back into the ground and here they are up and flowering.

Crocus veluchensis this seed was collected by Tom in Croatia in 2012 and the Crocus veluchensis below, I have moved from my other garden. It is a strong grower and does beautifully in Australian conditions full sun. I also grow some C. veluchensis from Marcus's collection in Greece 2010 the colours vary a little bit on each collection. The book by Janis Ruksans on Crocus is an excellent reference.

This is a spring flowering Colchicum freynii which seems to be stoloniferous but I can't find anything on it in my books or on the web much as it is in another language. It came from Marcus Harvey, Hill View Rare Plants summer catalogue 07/08 and he writes "A small Caucasian species bearing white flowers, flushing to pink or rose-purple, in early spring. First time offer of this rarity $7.00" Mine comes out rose pink and stays that way fading off as it ages,  so reasonable priced for such a rare bulb. We are so lucky in Australia that we have such wonderful bulbous Nursery Men, who are prepared to fight AQIS to get bulbs and seed into this country, as I know Marcus has had to fight bio security to bring seed into Australia many times.

Last a lot of Rod's from Glenbrook Bulbs, Narcissus bulbacodiums are in flower, this one is Narcissus bulbacodium Spoirot just coming into flower.
 I mulch my rock garden with tree fern mulch from the large fronds that fall off my Dicksonia's and put them through the mulcher. We have two forms of Cyathea (Dicksonia) in this garden,  Cyathea antarctica and Cyathea cunninghamia endemic to this part of the Dandenong's, that drop a lot of fronds and the mulch is wonderful as it rots away.