…or the US, for that matter. Forget-me-nots are the Alaska state flower, and this is, without a doubt, the farthest north plant. I transplanted it from Point Hope years ago, and it is doing very well this year, with flowers a good 5 inches taller than ever before in Barrow (although still about 6 inches shorter than they were in Point Hope).
The farthest north forget-me-nots in Alaska
The TundraGarden has really greened-up in the past couple of weeks. It went from this:
Snow in the TG on June 15.
to this:
June 20
in the space of five days, while I was on a quick trip to upstate New York taking my daughter to spend part of the summer with her grandmother! The willows are green and the dwarf and Arctic buttercups are in full bloom.
Iridescent buttercups
And a good thing, too. There were a number of people who had been attending the Arctic Imperatives conference and were now touring the Arctic. They flew into Barrow and were given a bus tour. My husband was acting as tour guide, and must have mentioned the TG, since the participants demanded that the bus be detoured so they could see it. Apparently people were enthusiastic and many pictures were taken.
The garden is less than pretty at the moment, since it’s rather grey and snowing right now. So I though I’d put up a picture of one of the blossoms on the Christmas cactus that is blooming at the moment, taken the other night, backlit by midnight sun.
Cactus flower
The willows are in full flower. Since willows here are pretty tiny, growing horizontally rather than vertically for the most part (although they seem to be trying to grow up a bit as the climate warms), the flowers really stand out, since they are about twice as high as the plants themselves. I’m not sure they are really any bigger than flowers on willows elsewhere, but they are definitely more noticeable.
Once you notice them, it turns out they are really quite beautiful in their own quiet way. The light was great this afternoon, a high bright fog, so I took a few pictures.
A veritable forest of willow flowers.
Willow flowers from ground level (with a couple saxifrages in bud for variety)
Bug's-eye view of willow flowers.
Another type of willow in close-up.
Close-up of willow flowers.
It was a nice sunny day, and the buttercups were really spectacular. So here are a few more pictures for the buttercup fans out there.
Pigmy or dwarf buttercups.
Buttercups in the sunshine
Buttercups!
On the Solstice, the snow buttercups (Ranunculus nivalis) were just opening. They are always the first flowers to bloom in the TundraGarden. Usually they are bit earlier, but it is a late melt. Not really Solstice material.
Snow buttercups on Solstice
It was cloudy for several days in a row, so they opened slowly, but by yesterday they were open, although it was still pretty cloudy, so they aren’t as spectacular looking as they can be.
Same snow buttercups on July 25
Next up are the pygmy buttercups (Ranunculus pygmaeus), which are really tiny little things.
Pygmy buttercups
