genius at work, again

I’ve been planning to take a bunch of pictures of the garden, showing long views, like in the gardening magazines, but the sun has been so bright that all attempts so far have resulted in utter failure. In fact, the thing most first-time visitors to Denver notice, aside from the lack of oxygen and that the air isn’t clinging to them like a wet towel, is the blindingly bright sun. I still notice it after living here for fifty years.

So, genius that I obviously am, it occurred to me that I might get better shots of the garden when the sun isn’t shining.

Now, before I lose all of my readers, I should point out the very real possibility that no one has ever before attempted such a thing as such.

Looking southwest,

Looking northwest.

The back garden, with only one solar lamp working. I especially like the way the lawn looks at this time of day.

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the first cyclamen

Wandering around the garden aimlessly, as usual, I noticed the first flowers on Cyclamen purpurascens, a form described as “extra fancy” (for the leaves, not in evidence right now), which I got from the now-defunct Seneca Hill Nursery (sigh).

And a tattered flower on Cyclamen fatrense, which opened a couple of days ago. I grew this from Czech seed ages ago (growing cyclamen from seed is pretty easy). Most botanists consider this to be regular C. purpurascens, though the leaves, which are said to be always plain in fatrense, emerge much earlier than those of the “extra fancy” shown above. The leaves are visible in the lower right corner and on the left; the leaves in the center are those of the gesneriad, Haberlea fernandi-coburgii.

The cyclamen leaf in the upper left is from a separate plant, sown by ants.

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