Spring takes off...and what a Spring it is!

Pulsatilla vulgaris (pale pink form)

"Plain ol'" pasqueflower is pretty nifty, but I have a few variations I really like, such as this pale pink form that just glows in the backlight. I spend all year waiting for spring and now it shoots past "like an arrow" as they say in China!

Muscari azureum

This is ONE muscari one can't have enough of: pops up blooms and disappears...

Pediocactus knowltonii

Rare in nature (and in gardens) this tiniest member of its genus could be almost covered by a quarter...OK, maybe more like a 50 cent piece. Crushed by a silver dollar!

Fritillaria kurdica ssp. crassifolia

I've struggled to find a place where Fritillaria michaelovskyi persists (I love that thang) I've planted dozens over the decades and they gradually disappear. This species, however, I've planted in two very different spots, and it comes back stronger every year...the one above is blooming now (early April)...

  

Fritillaria kurdica ssp. crassifolia 

This one in my sunny crevice garden bloomed in March and finished before the one in the previous picture. I love a plant that loves me!

Fritillaria pyreneica

I've got two plants of this that come back every year...and are even beginning to clump up! It is ridiculously tall for a rock garden (two feet or so). Who cares? It likes me.

Fritillaria pyreneica

Pulsatilla patens ex Eurasia

Half, maybe even a third the height of your standard pasqueflower--this petite gem thrives in several spots on my rock garden and comes back stronger every year! Yay! And sets a lot of seed. My idea of a winner! This is the pasqueflower for the rock garden in my opinion! Needs a cultivar name...

Trillium ozarkianum 'Roadrunner'

By and large, trilliums don't love me. This one MAY be the exception. I certainly love it...
 

Colchicum szovitsii

I've seen pictures of this growing by the mile in Armenia. I aim to be there in a month--maybe I'll see that spectacle. Meanwhile I enjoy this in my garden where it comes back a little happier each year and blooms forever (all of March this year)..

Townsendia nuttallii

We collected this at the type location ("Limestone mountain" in the Absorokas) and misidentified it as Townsendia spathulata...causing no end of confusion. Our bad.

Iris reticulata (white cultivar whose name I don't have at hand)

I have grown a lot of reticulatas in my day...they do not persist as well as I'd like!

The white variation on Iris x histrioides--also with a cultivar name I don't have at hand: maybe I'll add it when I access my inventory.

Matthiola "montana"

Zdenek Zvolanek's collection from Ulu Dag. I looked for it there but didn't find it.

Narcissus asturiensis

Sandy Snyder had this self-sowing in her buffalograss lawn. These were rescued from there when she moved by Mike Kintgen. I wish he'd had time to get them all! A plant nonexistent in nurseries nowadays.

Iris x histrioides 'Katarine Hodgkin'

Now THIS one appears to be settling in...

Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Rubra'

MORE pasqueflowers. At one point they were self-sowing so wildly at Denver Botanic Gardens' rock garden I was ordered to remove them (which I did: one of the few orders I ever had at work). I have not had to do so at Quince thank Heavens!

Fritillaria pudica

We're moving back in time: this bloomed early March. Always a treat to have a yellowbells in the Garden!

Colchicum filifolium

I have two similar colchicums that seem to be spreading rhizomatously--this one I received decades ago from Lee Raden (past president of NARGS)--I always think of him when it blooms.

Colchicum filifolium

A closeup of the flowers: rather strappy I know...but I like them.

Colchicum soboliferum

Huskier than its cousin--although they do look alike!

Crocus chysanthus 'Advance'

A rather dramatic crocus for coloration...it's clumping up nicely--almost like it more in bud!

Crocus chrysanthus 'Advance'

I take it back: love those open flowers!

Physaria rollinsii

I got this under this name...I have me doots! But all Physaria (Lesquerella) are worth growing!

Erigeron pumilus

Tulipa polychroma

Ornithogalum sp.

I have the name buried in my inventory files--I'll add it when I have a chance to delve into them. Noteworthy not only because it's so showy, but also doesn't seem to be weedy like some of its cousins.

Fritillaria caucasica

Possibly my favorite--it gets bigger every year, duking it out with a half dozen rock garden plants. Now if it would only set seed! (Blooms for weeks and weeks and puts up with our worst weather--which says a LOT)

Crocus tomasinianus 'Whitewell Purple'

One can never have too many "Tommies"

Corydalis malkensis

One might be tempted to call this weedy--but it comes up, blooms and disappears cleanly so quickly, who cares! Bring it on!

Corydalis glaucescens

So hard to photograph this imp! Not as vigorous as the last one--but a keeper nonetheless. 

Tulipa praestans (yellow form)

Primula elatior

The oxlip: compare with the cowslip a fewl images below...both tough as nails!

Androsace villosa

Physaria bellii

One of our local specialties (and a rare one at that)

Pulsatilla patens (dwarf Asian form) Again!

Just saw an image of something very much like this taken in Mongolia....hmmm.

Cowslip (Primula veris)

Aquilegia flabellata very nana

Anemone ranunculoides

Couldn't end with that measley columbine!

Nuthin' measley about my yellow anemone this year. Woo hooo! What a year.