Welcome to this week’s Six on Saturday, hosted, as ever, by the indomitable Propagator. It would be impossible for me not to mention the glorious weather we’ve been enjoying over this past week. The previous week had hinted at warmth and teased us honest mortals with occasional sunshine. Over last weekend, these insinuations developed into a full blown, dawn-til-dusk riot of heat and light. Lovely stuff. I even caught the sun a bit on the back of my ears.
1. Corydalis solida ‘Turaco’
I usually leave the Corydalis ’til the end of the post, but I felt ‘Turaco’ deserved pride of place. It’s a really lovely cultivar, with it’s delicately edged petals and abundance of flowers.
2. Symphytum grandiflorum
This made an appearance at this time last year too, but the spirals of unfurling flower heads and the peculiar red-blue combination are too irresistible not to photograph again. This year I used the macro lens, which captured more detail, and the flower head itself is at a later stage of development than the one I showed last year.
3. Cyclamen repandum
Here’s some late afternoon sunshine shining through the petals of Cyclamen repandum. This is one of the latest flowering species and one of the less fussy ones to boot.
4. Aristolochia californica
Some of you may remember me documenting the fortunes of this interesting climber last year. Well I needn’t have worried: it’s coming along a treat and is putting out loads of these curious little flowers. Knowing so little about it and how it grows makes everything it does seem that little bit more exciting.
5. Ribes sanguineum ‘King Edward VII’
Old King Eddy is a reliable chap; no trouble at all. The flowers are a deeper pinky red than the species and all the more appealing for it!
6. Corydalis kuznetsovii
I couldn’t quite capture the full charm of this little beauty; it’s flowers are white with a sort of pink smudginess around the mouth of the flower. I believe it’s quite closely related to Corydalis vittae, which flowers much later here in Brum. Anyway, it’s a new one for me and I’m very pleased with how it’s turned out.
That’s all folks, have a super weekend!
I’m looking forward to seeing the open flower of this aristolochia !!
Very pretty corydalis as always. Have a good week end Andrew
Me too! They look pretty unusual.
Stunning photos, both the corydalis are beautiful. Just like Fred (I always copy Fred) I am looking forward to seeing the aristolochia, I even copied the spelling from his comment. 😀
I’ll be honest, I have to look up the spelling for that one too!
A beautiful selection.
Cheers Paddy!
Beautiful photographs. I, too, am growing the California Dutchman’s Pipe vine. I acquired mine last year at a native plant sale and was worried that it wouldn’t come back this spring, but it is putting out leaves, to my relief. No sign of flowers yet, though. I look forward to comparing notes.
Ooh, that’ll be interesting. Obviously Birmingham, UK is a little outside of it’s native habitat so it’ll be nice to see the difference between the two!
Love these corydalis, such a short window of beauty, but well worth it.
Yes, there are some real beauties. The good thing is that I’ve spied a few Dicentra flowers on the way, which should keep me occupied once the tuberous Corydalis finish!
Great photos the Corydalis really is stunning.
Cheers – I agree 🙂
I’m very slowly getting cyclamen repandum established in the garden, I’m getting more flower each year and a few seedlings have appeared. A big plus is that it can be planted deep where it is relatively safe from dormant season disturbance. I think you said you’d grown the Aristolochia from seed and I was intending looking out for some but forgot.
I think, particularly for bulbs, growing from seed is best. With Cyclamen coum, whenever it gets put in as a plant it seems to disappear, but if it produces seeds before it dies the seedlings seem to settle in nicely!
Turaco is very deserving of its number one spot.
I agree!
The cyclamen repandum is a beauty as is ‘Turaco.’ I think I may have caught the sun this afternoon whilst tackling the front garden. I’ll find out later I guess.
Fortunately, both of them are proving to be very reliable too. It’s nice when it happens that way!
As others have mentioned, beautiful photos. A macro lens is very useful at capturing the beauty of a flower but so often it is too windy to use outdoors! The first corydalis is a beauty. Well deserving pride of place.