Now we're getting somewhere! The
Cyperus alternifolius has started flowering, and there is plenty of greenery sprouting at the bottom of the pond; since I've been tossing in any intersting-looking aquatic plant I've found around here I'm not sure what everything is yet, but there is at least some
Ceratophyllum,
Lysimachia nummularia, and
Callitriche sp, plus an annoying amount of moss and algae floating around.
In the bog there's a nice surprise, a
Dactylorhiza maculata has turned up
. I get my
Sphagnum from an area that we had to clear-cut about 20 years ago due to spruce beetles, and this exposed a small wet patch with nice looking
Sphagnum. A few years later the first
D. maculata appeared so we decided to try and keep that spot open and sunny for them, fast forward a bit and now we find more of them every year (picture from last summer of a couple of plants). A piece of tuber must have hitched a ride when I gathered moss, and it looks healthy enough for now so hopefully I can keep it alive.
The
Sarracenias are also beginning to grow, the older 'Judith Hindle', a
S. leucophylla I got last autumn, and a few
S. purpurea started from seeds last spring. Pretty much the only one that hasn't woken up yet is the
Cyperus esculentus, but the tubers are looking good so I'm optimistic.
Lastly, at the other end of the greenhouse the
Paphiopedilum has finally opened it's flower bud (after growing it all through winter), so I'm going to count that as the official start of spring