Bear Spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides)?
Well, my friend William Whitson in Washington State recently reported “I finally had a couple of plants withstand our typical 2.5m of rain winters. They started sprouting again in January. Then a bear dug them up and ate them. No kidding.” ;)
Hence, I’ve renamed it Bear Spinach….Bears in its homeland in the Caucasus surely feast on it too in the spring. Ramsons or Allium ursinum is known as Bärlauch or bear onion in German as bears are known to eat it in spring and if you eat ramsons you’ll become as strong as a bear. I’m sure Hablitzia has the same effect!
Anyway, my plant reappeared from under deep snow this week and the roots are probably fully frozen as a result of the previous very cold, dry and snowless period. It clearly doesn’t mind this treatment :)
In the latest edition of Danish magazine Praktisk Økologi, there’s an article “En fantastisk februarsalat” (“a fantastic february salad”) written by Naturplanteskolen’s Aiah Noack after a visit to my place in February 2015 :)
This treecreeper has been hanging about the bird feeder…I suspect it’s spending the night in with the food :-)
Quite tame allowing me to get quite close…
In mild but cool weather during early winter the last couple of years, Hablitzia has germinated en masse around my mother plant next to my house. These all died in later cold weather last winter. When mass germination happened around Xmas 2015, I therefore decided to rescue them by potting up and bringing them in to a cool room. It was just in time as it froze solid just after with very low temperatures since and now deep snow…here they are today (it’s been between 0 and 8C where they are growing).
Yes, perfect timing for the weekend and Margaret Young was in the letter box when I got home…well, Margaret is synonymous with the Scottish Rock Garden Club for many of us….. ;-)
What I’m trying to say is that my seeds from the Scottish Rock Garden Club Seed Exchange have arrived and all were first choices I believe….
These are mostly destined to a period of stratification / cold treatment under the snow…
With an accumulated snow depth of some 30-40cm over the last 3-4 days, it was time to clear my driveway (the snow was over my highest boots). With 30m in to the house and another 20m to the wood pile and outside bioloo, I got some good healthy winter exercise :)
The pictures are long exposure shots in the dark with some light from the street lights and moon…
This winter is a hard one for perennials as the soil was probably frozen solid down to the bedrock before the snow arrived…
My Facebook feed and newspapers have been full of adverts to buy your snow-clearing machinery yesterday…no way in my garden!
The largest recorded Jackdaw flock this winter in my area, about 600 birds, circling over the house gaining height to quite a high elevation before flying off westwards…
The temperature hasn’t risen above zero C for two weeks here..
