Late winter blooms

I've had two unexpected blooming events in the last week or so, one indoors, and one outdoors. Well, pretty much outdoors.

This Petasites japonica has been living in a pot outdoors, but I did bring it into the garage during the coldest days this past winter -- so mainly outdoors. It's cold-hardy enough to survive our winters (especially this mild one) but I wasn't going to take any chances with it, and it was simple enough to slide into the garage when needed.

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I've not seen its flower before, so I was excited to see the bud developing over the past few weeks. I can't say it's the showiest bloom I've ever seen though:

It is always fun to see what plants you haven't grown before will do: when they bloom, how early in spring they wake up, what the tender new growth looks like. It's exciting!

No scent coming from these as far as I can tell, but when it blooms in winter does it really expect to attract pollinators? I have seen a fair amount of flying insects recently though, including a bee while I was spreading mulch this past weekend. So maybe it does expect to attract pollinators.


I mentioned that there were two plants flowering: the second set of blooms is far from scentless:

I noticed the flowers had opened not by sight, but by the wall of fragrance that hit me when I walked into the room the other night.

I love the way the petals curl back when the bloom opens:

This smallish Sansevieria had sent up the flower stalk probably two months ago, and I was doubting that the blooms would ever open.

Anybody know what species of Sansevieria this is?

They open up in the evening, producing the strongest scent -- believe me, it's strong!

I'm glad it does this in the evening, because my desk is nearby and I wouldn't be able to work in the same room -- it's a pleasant scent but just too strong. By morning the fragrance has diminished quite a bit.

So I've got a couple of nice blooming plants at a time when the first crocus are just starting to push themselves onto the scene. A nice surprise!

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