I find it hard to ignore the word “prim” in primrose and primula, a detail that can account for at least some of my longstanding aversion to the plant. I’m coming around to it though and recently acquired one with deep reddish/purple blooms (a photo soon) that I’m pretty excited about.
After-all, anything that blooms in early spring and doesn’t cost a gazillion dollars (I’m looking at you, Hellebore) is fine by me.
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Early season blooms have started to appear this week in tandem with some other solid signs that we’ve turned a corner away from winter and closer to the start of spring here in my neck of the woods. While most gardeners are raving about the snowdrops — and they are beautiful, no doubt — I was most delighted to see another, though less popular harbinger of the season, Eranthis hyemalis unfurling in the sun for the first time.
Gardeners often complain about the difficulty in establishing eranthis, but most of my experiences with this early bloom have been with plants that appeared mysteriously from nowhere and established themselves with no work at all.
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Yesterday afternoon I was treated to an impromptu flower garden tour in the mountain village of Giraudel, Dominica. This region is known for it’s particularly rich soil and has, as a result, become a hub of flower growers and gardeners. I learned a few interesting tidbits that I hope to share here on a later date.
I regret not photographing a really pretty local orchid with green flowers, but the highlight was this nipple fruit plant, also known as titty fruit or cow’s udders.
While it may look like eggplant, the fruit is inedible and really only worth growing for it’s crazy appearance and so you can have a serious conversation with seemingly proper British flower gardeners that includes the words “titties” and “nipples.”
Guess what’s going to be on my seed list for 2010.
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I made this batch into a plain salsa and canned it for use later this winter.
See also: Tomatillo Husks
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I recently wrote about my new oxalis obsession elsewhere on the site, including a wide view of this particular plant, ‘Burgundy Bliss,’ in its pot. Then a friend sent me a link to this blog featuring a collection of phenomenal oxalis plants.
Look at Oxalis obtusa ‘Coral’, and the thin lines of colour through the petals. Or the way that Oxalis versicolor’s petals unfurl in a spiral to reveal a strip of colour along the edges.
I am done for.
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