The TG gets some visitors (or so I hear)

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.

Green-up!

We had a lot of snow this past winter, and it has taken forever to melt.  The drifting over the TG was different than usual, with a storm that cut a tunnel near the windows, so this year the main part of the garden is melting out before the pond.

The TundraGarden makes its appearance.

The dried grass & willow branches have been showing for a week or so, but now they are out and signs of green are starting to show up.  The Artemisia arctica is just starting to send up shoots.

Artemisia arctica shoots.

Giant-flowered willows!

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.