HI Folks, up here in Snow Mexico (Canada), we used to while the time away over winter by posting images of garden plants or landscapes according to their first letter and then work through the alphabet until the snow was gone and the gardens were opening up. We used to do this on the old Canadian Gardening magazine forum, now defunct, unfortunately, but it was a lot of fun. Starting with A's for a week or so we would post our favourite pix of Asters, Aquilegia, Arnica, etc, then go on to B's: Begonia, etc, and it could get quite challenging and interesting to see what people had grown. It would be FABULOUS to have new plants (to us). So I ran this idea past someone in Administration of this site, and they gave me the go ahead to start, so I would like to provide only a few guidelines, Latin AND common names are fine, but maybe dont post the same photograph twice in the alphabetical sequence. Post as many As as you like in the As and as many Bs in the Bs but try not to mix it up too much. Landscapes are fine, e.g. ponds in P, rock gardens in R, and so on. I will start a new thread for Bs in about a Weeks time, here is my kick off for the Floral Alphabet Soup for the letter A's, Achlys triphylla, Acer no identification, Anenome americana. It IS very tasty soup, I hope you enjoy it.

This sounds like a fun game! I'll play, starting with Aquilegia (columbine).







One of my favorite winter pastimes is browsing the seed catalogs that are beginning to arrive. Most of the offerings won't grow in this area, but it sure is fun to dream.....

Those are very pretty! I like the middle one especially, thanks for posting!

Nice idea, Kat.
Here are my As:

Alstroemeria




hello up there in snowmexico!
nice to meet you

What a fun idea

Dang I have a lot of A's
find some more tomorrow...

thanks Kat, for this great thread, a Wonderful idea. I will try to add mainly NZ natives.

Acaena microphylla

Aciphylla aurea

Aciphylla aurea

Astelia solandri


Sorry just read they are to be from my garden i had better try again

Love your idea, Kat. Here is some Gold Alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis).

And the white Alyssum (Lobularia maritima).

And the Sweet Alyssum - Lobularia 'Lavender Stream'

And the Sweet Alyssum - Lobularia 'Clear Crystal Mix'

Hi Kat, I'm so glad you decided to post your Alphabet Soup idea, what fun! I must clarify though ... I'm not affiliated with administration ... I'm only a member here like you and those who've just posted on this thread but I don't believe admin. will have any adverse response to such a fun game on the Garden Photos Forum.

All these photos so far are certainly showing the beauty of nature and what great photographers you all are! I like how some of you have linked your photos to the database and do hope everyone will consider doing so. Seeing so many lovely plants that I'm not familiar with because they don't grow in my area sure makes me wish I could take an extended vacation to spend a bit of time in other areas of the world!

A lot of my gardening is container gardening but here are a few of my pictures for the Alphabet Soup mix!

Abutilon

Valarie, please tell us what they are anyway!

Okay, dumb question...it says don't post the same photo twice--not sure why anyone would do that?
Does it mean don't post the same plant twice? So, like Char already got the Aquilegia in there so I shouldn't post another one of mine?


here's a double A

Dirt, I think Kat means don't post the photo in letter "A" as Aquilegia and then post the same photo again as Columbine when we get to the letter "C".

oh, so then I could post more Aquilega and allysum and allium here then even though they've already been posted (because they'd be different photos)
and then when we got to 'C' I could still put in another columbine as long as it was a different photo?

Thomas Edison said, "Hell, there are no rules here, we are trying to accomplish something".

Sure, there should be guidelines, but games are meant to be fun. And if this game is one we're supposed to play all winter long to dispel dreary weather days, then I say the more the merrier! Dirt, I would love to see your aquilegas! Nothing gives me more pleasure than looking at beautiful images of flowers when "all the leaves are brown and the sky is gray".

That's my two cents worth; opposing viewpoints are welcome.

Kat, thank you for starting this thread. I believe it will be wildly popular.

Well, what a pleasant surprise! I woke up and here they all were like Christmas, or the shoemakers bench or something!! Thanks so much and please yes, keep going with the As. First letter, lots of A ingredients for the soup. To answer some of you directly, yes Plantladylin is quite right, we just tried to get people to not post the same photo of an Aquilegia later on as a Columbine, (as an example) but some folks were desperate to hit all the letters, lol. So I may or may not comment on individual photos, do not take that that I dont LOVE THEM ALL. I do. Csandt, that Arisaema is so lovely and big, I can never get mine to do much, and I think I can see why in your photo... lots of org matter and room! Dirtdorphins (love your name), Asperula suberosa looks very nice, and I dont have one, so that is what this Soup is really about for me. Ha ha. Bootandall, it doesnt have to be totally from your garden, esp if its a native. Hemnorth, ha HA! What happened to genus Alyssum when I wasnt looking? Lol, that is a nice collection, very pretty. Plantladylin, THANK YOU, and I just assumed you were admin, I have not been frogmarched off the site yet! lol. Very nice Asclepias, so pretty, and I have never seen an Aloe in flower. GrammaChar, is that Abutilon a native where you are? I have to figure out how to link mine to the database, if the names are actually correct, advice on that? Thanks so much, everyone keep goin! Here is Azalea "mandarin lights"

Well said, GrammaChar! I've already found that this is addicting. Last night it took an hour or two just to assemble the Alyssum photos, save them, enter them, tag them with a star, and write the reason they have been starred in the captions under my photos. If there is a star already on them, it means they are already in the Database, and I can pull that photo out.

I'd like to work through the 1938 Catalogue from the old Riverview Nursery that we had purchased in 1983, and had till 20013. Varieties I have at my new place are also newer varieties of old favourites.

Alrighty then




here's a cute little dwarfy one A. japonica


and regular old caerula in keeping with the blue thing of these As

Here is one of my Adeniums, Adenium obesa.

Yes, @HemNorth , addicting but in a good way!
I love seeing photos from other parts of the country - or from other countries! And, while some of these plants are already in the database, I seemed to have missed a few of them the first time around. So it's nice to get a second chance.
So... math is not my strong suit (if I need to double a recipe, I just make it twice). But I was trying to figure out the lifespan of this thread. If @KatEnns allows one letter per week, that's 26 weeks which (I may have to get a calculator here) works out to roughly six months. However, that number will probably be reduced due to the lack of Q's, X's, Y's, and Z's. Still, that provides plenty of time to indulge in this pleasant pastime until it's spring planting season.

Aster praealtus:

Continuing with the A's ...

Some great photos are lining up. And so many more 'A's to explore. Aconitum comes next.

And Aconitum lamarckii.

And Aconitum carmichaeli 'Arendsii'