GB Foliage Follow Up for April

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is a Gunnera manicata pushing its way up through its winter protection. It’s planted at the edge of one of the ponds at the botanical garden of the University of Hohenheim, not far from our neighborhood. (Unfortunately, its plant tag is also somewhere under all those old branches.)

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Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Follow Up the 16th of every month.

GB Bloom Day for April

A bit late, I’m afraid. . .

The tulips are T. Clusiania 'Tubergen's Gem. The purple ground cover is Aubrita-Hybride ‘Lavander’.
The tulips are T. Clusiania ‘Tubergen’s Gem’. The purple ground cover is Aubrita-Hybride ‘Lavander’.

This month, I’m again stalking the pretty display garden of the Spielhaus* at the University of Hohenheim, which is close to our neighborhood.

What’s blooming? Low groundcover plants, tulips, and magnolias.

view of Spielhaus, enclos*ure
The purple groundcover is Aubrieta-Hybride ‘Tauricola’ and ‘Lavander’.
view2 of Spielhaus, enclos*ure
The pale yellow-blooming shrub is Corylopsis pauciflora. I believe the low white flowers in the foreground are Arabis caucasia ‘Schneehaube’.

There were several kinds of Tulipa clusiana or Lady Tulips.Tulipa clusiana 4, enclos*ure

Tulipa clusiana 2, enclos*ure
I believe these are Tulipa clusiana var. clusiana, although there were also var. chrysantha in the same area (as well as ‘Tubergen’s Gem’), and I realized after I got home that I hadn’t been careful enough keeping the flowers with the labels.

Tulipa clusiana 1, enclos*ure

Tulipa clusiana 3, enclos*ure

Tulipa Clusiana 20, enclos*ure

Tulipa Silvestris 3, enclos*ure

Above and below are Tulipa sylvestris subsp. sylvestris.Tulipa Silvestris 4, enclos*ure

Tulipa Silvestris view12, enclos*ure
En masse.

Aubrieta 1, enclos*ure

Phlox 1, enclos*ure
I could not find a label for these smallish pink tulips.
Euphorbia, enclos*ure
Euphorbia epithymoides growing among Scilla.
Pumonaria, enclos*ure
Blaues meer means blue sea.

P. angustifolia ‘Blaues Meers’ are also called blue cowslips.Pumonaria 1, enclos*ure

Fritillaria 1, enclos*ure

The fritillary were still blooming.  They have also been called snake’s head fritillary, chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, guinea flower, leper lily (from the bell once carried by lepers), Lazarus bell, chequered lily, chequered daffodil, and drooping tulip.Fritillaria 8, enclos*ure

There’s a good article about them here, from the online garden magazine Dig Delve.P. Spinosa1, enclos*ure

Just behind the Spielhaus were a collection of magnolia, cherry, and plum trees.

P. Spinosa2, enclos*ure

P. Spinosa3, enclos*ure

Magnolias, enclos*ure

Heaven Scent1, enclos*ure

Heaven Scent3, enclos*ur

M. soulangiana3, enclos*ure

M. soulangiana1, enclos*ure

M. soulangiana5, enclos*ure

M. Susan5g, enclos*ure

This cultivar had long flower petals that were all leaning in the same direction.M. Susan3, enclos*ure

M. Susan2, enclos*ure

M. Elizabeth43, enclos*ure

Not far away was this creamy yellow M. Cultivar ‘Elizabeth’.

To see what’s blooming today for other garden bloggers, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.


*Part of the University’s botanical garden.

GB Foliage Follow Up: tree peonies

Peony's leaf buds in snow, March 2016, Stuttgart, enclos*ure

The garden beside the 18th century Spielhaus of Hohenheim University’s Exotic Garden has a number of mature tree peonies. Like red corals, their new leaves are emerging now.

I took these pictures yesterday while it was snowing.

Peony leaf buds in snow, March 2016, Stuttgart, enclos*ure

Peony label in snow, March 2016, Stuttgart, enclos*ure

Because I really haven’t been gardening here in Stuttgart, for this year’s Bloom Days and Foliage Follow Ups I will record the flowers and leaves of this nearby, very pretty perennials and woody plants garden.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Follow Up the 16th of every month.

If you were with me
We should need no light
But peonies.

— Grace Hazard Conkling, from “Diary Written on Peony Petals

GB Bloom Day: snow day

26 March 2016 Bloom Day, Stuttgart, enclos*ure

Because I haven’t really been gardening here in Stuttgart, I decided that for this year’s Bloom Days, I would make a record of the flowers of the display garden of the 18th century Spielhaus at the Exotic Garden of the University of Hohenheim, which is close to our neighborhood. 

Unfortunately, when I visited this afternoon it was snowing hard, and I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked. I may have to try again later this week.

Please click on any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through larger images. And to see what’s blooming today for other garden bloggers, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

You must stand still; and then. . . you will hear the infinite march of buds faintly roaring.

Karel Capek [on the coming of spring], from The Gardener’s Year