🌱🚀SURPRISING FIRST! Delphinium x belladonna 'Bellamosum' an atypical 1st out of the gate, but after dry freezing & bottom heat, germinated in 5 days - now day 10. This hexaploid nothospecies is a result of crosses between D. grandiflorum (pic 3) & D. elatum (pic 1). Ranunculaceae

🌱😃THERE'S Waldo! Or rather Hippeastrum 'Christmas Gift' (Kwekerij De Oudendam B.V., 1991; OR a different cv by same name, by Ludwig & Sons, 1959). True, though all 3 were labeled Christmas Gift, & got 2 NOID doubles, still not sure the single is named correctly. But will still enjoy their beauty!😎

Exactly! Wild groundhogs are still hibernating. "Greta" and two of her five babies peeking out from my storage building in May.

💕🌱ANNUAL PSA - LEAVE THEM T. F. ALONE!!! There should be no yanking little furry people out of holes today! Young Marmota monax (Groundhog, aka Woodchuck) just chillaxin' on my front stoop on a nice Summer day - AS IT SHOULD BE.😎 Sciuridae - Squirrel Family

🌱💛A touch of #SundayYellow from Streptocarpus (aka Saintpaulia, AfricanViolet) 'Golden Eye' (Sydney Sorano/Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses, 1992). Though not the yellowest & depth of color is variable, has remained a popular standout. Beautiful multicolored foliage.🥳😃 Gesneriaceae

🌱Bit of a #FlowersOnFriday rerun, let's see if I can come up with more.😅 17°F/-9°C outdoors so #FlowerHunting atm is indoors. Pereskia grandifolia (🌸Rose Cactus) continues to cycle intermittent bloom even in the house - continuous bloom once back outside. In pics 1 & 3 the next round.🥳 Cactaceae

Snowdrops 🌱 #FlowersOnFriday #FloralFriday #Bloomscrolling #ColorADay #EastCoastKin

Favorite hybridizers: Grace Sturtevant, America's First Lady of #Irises. 'Taj Mahal' from 1920 is one of the first tall whites to come along. It took hybridizers many years to develop height in white and yellow irises and this one debuted to rave reviews. 🌱

For #FlowersOnFriday some rather bedraggled indoor alstroemerias and mums...I'm ON STRIKE today, no online commerce at all still iced in and expecting winter storm Gianni to roar in with bitterly cold temperatures. My goal is to survive January without breaking any bones. Some WICKED ICE OUT THERE!

🌱 Fall sweet pea sowing failed due to germination and🐦 issues. Saw a flower farmer share she germinates her seeds in an old flannel cloth so that she only plants what germinates, so thought I'd give it a try. Nearly 100% germination. I'll plant these out under mesh and then 🤞🏼

Grass seed-heads in winter sunshine #FoliageFriday 🌱 #Gardening #UKGardening

Hello and welcome to #GardensHour! What have you been up to in the garden this week? Plus, we’ll take a look back at your highs, lows and in-betweens of your January in the garden…

☃️🌱Snow usually means a slight warm up - peaked at a balmy 😄 15°F/-9°C earlier though dropping now. 3" of fluffy snow here in Villa Park but points further S & E got much more. We may go above 32°F/0°C again in about 2 weeks.🌴😅 Please be safe whatever your weather!😎

🌱❤️🤍 Party Ready - Double Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) 'Doublet' (G. van Velden, 2018) shows H. cybister ancestry in narrow segments, & is also working some transposon (jumping pigment gene) 🥳 action, pic 2 - typical dark veins have morphed into deep red wedges.😃 Amaryllidaceae

🥶🌱Of course we had to 😂 - with video credit to good friend Chris Brown! -9°F/-23°C. Had posted with hot coffee years ago but the cloud was brown.☕️ Please pardon the moonscape driveway 😄 not gonna have it done until after they scoop up & replace our street & sewer later this year.

🌱🌹By Courtesy Only - a very LOOSE 😄 interpretation of #RoseWednesday with Pereskia grandifolia (Rose Cactus). This favorite species of a basal, leafy Cactaceae genus blooms on & off indoors through Winter, despite actual Roses being 🥶🥀 freeze dried outdoors. Despite lush foliage has sharp thorns.😱

Petticoat Narcissus dancing in the breeze before the rain arrived. The dining terrace borders on this Hertfordshire project are filled with early bulbs, you can just make out the Crocus starting to emerge too. #Garden #Gardening #Plants 🌱

Such a handsome shrub, absolutely covered in small pink flowers. Arctostaphylos 'Monica' 🌱

🌱🌞 Good morning💛🌸💚

Yo, birds! Luncheon is served at the durantas. 🌱📷

Nothing more satisfying than removing leaves from a Phormium 😂 🌱 #Gardening #UKGardening

Cosmic 🌱 #Bloomscrolling #RedWednesday #RedWed #ColorADay #EastCoastKin #Flowers

Warm wishes for a wonderful winter Wednesday, Friends 🌱

Blue winter - end of 2025 . . . . #GardensHour #BlueMonday

Happy #BlueMonday everyone! #GardensHour

Oooh, I have a similar one to that! I hadn’t posted yet but should have - so here it is #GardensHour the flowers on yours are so pretty!

Evening all. A shot of Prunus incisa 'Kojo-no-mai' blossoms against a blue sky - taken back in spring. Not much longer to wait until it flowers again! #GardensHour 🌱

Some of my favourite blues from my garden. Bizarrely one of my ceanothus has a few blooms at the moment! Not complaining! #GardensHour

Hello and warm welcome to this week’s #GardensHour! It’s #BlueMonday and as has become tradition, we fill the feed with gorgeous blue hues. Doesn’t have to be your garden. Or today. Or even recently Perhaps not even flowers! So go head and dig out those favourite blues 💙

🌱🌶 A smart habit I resurrected in 2025 was pickling homegrown Chiles - Capsicum annuum 'Trapio' F1 is an XL 'Serrano'. Delicious, but Scoville Heat Units (SHU) on low end of expected 10,000-15,000 range for Serranos, so will compare with OP 'Serrano' & another F1 this year. 😎

I can add a couple more wildflowers to the list this week, dog’s mercury and winter aconite! Here are my #TheWinter10: red dead-nettle, dog’s mercury, sweet violet, snowdrop, field speedwell, hazel catkins, primrose, winter aconite, white dead-nettle and cyclamen. #WildflowerHour

🌱Well the weather outside is frightful 🥶☃️ but this Streptocarpus (fka Saintpaulia - African Violet) NOID is definitely delightful! A semi-miniature & last remaining NOID in my collection, several named cultivars are also cycling fresh blooms.😎 Gesneriaceae

For #FlowersOnFriday 🌱 This wacky Amaryllis makes it feel like Spring inside...while it is 15 degrees F outside...

Check out this Anthurium vittarifolium flower, they are so weird! 🪴🌱

🌱 It's only January but major US Iris hybridists & growers have opened ordering for Summer & Fall shipment. My order from Sutton's Iris includes only those with proven cold climate rebloom. Sutton rebloomers already in my garden are 'Fiery Echo' (Mike Sutton, 2013) & 'Orange Juice' (2010).😎

My blue star fern, phlebodium aureum 🌱🪴 #Houseplants #Ferns #PlantSky #TuesdayBlue #BlueTue #ColorADay #EastCoastKin

🍅🌱KEEPS ON GIVING! Solanum lycopersicum (Tomato) 'Lizzano' F1 (Pro-Veg Seeds Ltd., 2011; 🏅AAS - All-America Selections, 2011) is an indeterminate yet compact cherry Tomato with outstanding flavor.😋 2 plants wintering in the cold 3-Season Room keep the Tomato supply chain open and moving! Solanaceae

🌱💘 TOO SOON? 😄 Anthurium andraeanum over the weekend at a local garden center. In case you're not exhausted enough from recent holidays, more to come - a cherub that shoots love arrows, the rabbit that lays colorful eggs, & a Saint that conquered nonexistent 🐍. Araceae

🌱My running joke with this RARE mirror selfie (pretty sure I've only posted one other since the last time pigs flew 🐽😄) is I should stand under the glare of an overhead light more often - makes the crinkles disappear better than any filter!😅

🌱Potted up lightly rooted cuttings of Paliavana prasinata, a Sinningia relative. Surprised sections without foliage rooted, too, unheated & in Winter light. This large (to 7+ feet) shrubby 🦇Bat pollinated Gesneriad from Brazil blooms late Autumn here in Chicagoland, as days shorten. Gesneriaceae

🌱❤️ AND we have an ID! Had been thinking this mislabeled Hippeastrum was 'Blossom Peacock' (L.G. Vreugdenhil & Zon, 1999) - another Home Depot with a different assortment confirms. Does that excuse the mistagging? No, a rampant problem. Yet she is beautiful - here continuing her Holiday show!😎

🌱May be cold outside but definitely some 🔥 indoors! Aphelandra tetragona has suddenly burst into bloom - after a dozen years of my apparently not handling it correctly!😄 Sold variously as Spring/Summer flowering, but kicking blooms now after a hard Summer pruning outdoors. Acanthaceae

Happy solstice everyone, turn to catch the light 🌱🪴🌵 #SucculentSunday #PlantSky #Bloomscrolling #GardensHour #GardenersWorld #EastCoastKin

🌱❤️Please pardon the rerun - this double Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) NOID asked for another chance - she felt I'd not painted her in the best possible light on the first go-round. So here she is in all her Holiday busyness! Amaryllidaceae

I’ve never really studied the fruit of an Elaeagnus before, but it’s quite fascinating. #FruityFriday 🌱 #Gardening #UKGardening

Hoverfly on fennel flowers 🌱 #FlyDay #FlowersOnFriday #Bloomscrolling #FloralFriday #EastCoastKin #MacroPhotography

🌱🎄'TIS THE SEASON - for butchering holiday fruits!🎅 Just happened to have Abutilon 'Voodoo' (Malvaceae) handy to conceal where I twisted the calyx from the Persimmon. Yes, these are sugar bombs too - but hopefully healthier than all the candy, cookies, and pastries!😋

🌱❤️ Feeling a bit QUADRAMEROUS? Yup, so does this double flowered Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) NOID. May even be sneaking transposon (jumping pigment gene) action on that lower central tepal, AND was purchased as 'Red Peacock'. And you thought YOU were having a day!😅 Normally trimerous - multiples of 3.

🌱🔥❤️ New favorite Tagetes patula (Spreading Marigold, Cempaxúchitl) 'Fireball' (PanAmerican Seed, 2017; 🏅RHS AGM, 2017) still bringing joy despite ☃️ snow & cold outside. Saturated with color, now revealing underlying yellow pigments on mature flowerheads. 3 Season Room ~ 50°F/10°C by day. Asteraceae

I know I said that the Echinops were getting a little out of hand through seeding. However, this is Echinops ritro ssp ruthenicus. I only have the one and the leaves are so spiny. 🌱