Lost one of my Christmas cactuses during the winter and decided to replace it with an Easter cactus (Hatiora gaertneri).
Actually I bought two of them in different color but planted them in the same pot. It will be interesting to see how my trial turns out.
Easter cactus is such a carefree flower to have. You just don’t over water it and all will be fine. The long and dark winters up here in the north are a bit challenging though since the cacti love sunshine.
Found one daffodil variety I do not yet have in the garden. Ice Wings (Narcissus ‘Ice Wings’) is a beautiful white variety.
As a triandrus narcissus, it usually carries multiple flowers on every flowering stem.
I am going to continue my hunt for more varieties but decided that three new ones is enough for this year. Otherwise I end up having the car full when I move them to the summer cottage.
It has been beautiful spring day up here in the north. Have spend it walking in the city center and enjoying a restaurant lunch now that the corona restrictions have been removed.
We still have plenty of snow left and need to wait more than a month before being able to do anything in the garden. This winter was white and cannot remember when we have had this much snow.
Noticed Tete-a-Tete Daffodils (Narcissus‘Tete-a-Tete’) in the nearby grocery store and bought the first daffodils of the year.
I will try to find some new varieties this year and do the same thing I do every year. Once the daffodils have bloomed I will take them to the summer cottage and plant them for the forthcoming springs.
Only few flowers left in the garden after we went below the freezing point few days ago. Luckily the nearby lake helps and since most of the flowers are close enough to it some of them were able to escape the nearly certain sudden death.
Stonecrops (Sedum) are still doing well and blooming beautifully. Unfortunately cannot anymore remember the exact variety of the one in the picture. It is the oldest one I have and the one that made me buy more.
Nearly lost the plant last year but changing it to a dryer place helped. Too many nutrients and too much water were the reasons why it did not do well.
It has been two years since I have been able to travel to the Mediterranean Sea but finally here after a long break.
It is always nice to see completely different flora that you have at home. Something new and something that you unfortunately cannot grow at home.
The Sea Daffodil (Pancratium maritimum) is a flower I have never seen before. After a rainy day they started to bloom on the beach in front of the hotel.
The last of the lilies are now blooming and it will be nearly a year before they start the circle again.
Mount Cook (Lilium‘Mount Cook’) is blooming and I have planted it to a place where fertilizer cannot be used because of the closeness of the lake.
It still seems to be doing well. Natural it will have less blooms and be a bit shorter but the strong smell of this lily is still there.
Yet another good year for the Monkshood (Aconitum × stoerkianum) which is blooming beautifully.
It has grown here as long as I remember and seems to have adapted to the environment.
You just need to remember that all parts of the plant are very poisonous. In other words you can not plant it close to edibles.
Phloxes are blooming beautifully at the moment. The Windsor (Phlox paniculata ‘Windsor’) finally started its show and is the last one of the phloxes to open the blooms.
The summer has been a good one for the phloxes even though they have required a lot of watering.
Planning to have more colors and varieties next year.
The nights are getting longer and colder up here in the north. Days are still nice and warm but you can feel the autumn coming.
Few years ago I had some extra yarrow seeds and just threw them around. The end result is that I now have Cerise Queens (Achillea millefolium ‘Cerise Queen’) growing here and there.
We have the white form of yarrow as a native plant but no other colors. Cerise Queens are easy to spot since they just stand out.
Navona (Lilium ‘Navona’) was a buyer gift when I made an order years ago. I was not considering white lilies to the garden at that point of time.
But I must admit that it has been a gift that I have liked a lot.
The Navona blooms are big and pure white. It has grown well in a challenging location where the birch trees take the nutrients and consume the water.
Gardening in the North 