Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Véronique Macrelle on July 05, 2024, 09:32:22 AM

Title: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 05, 2024, 09:32:22 AM
Bomerea edulis has been flowering since April.

 I've sown it 3 times. It germinates, then grows quite quickly. But I had to work out how to get it through the winter and and in the end I think it is important not to separate the seedlings or disturb the roots (I've also tried Lapageria 3 times, but it never germinated).
finally, the 3rd time for Bomarea  it succeeded (for the moment in pots, wintered out-of-freeze in the garage).

This plant is in its 3rd year. It started growing early in the season in February/March, when I installed it in front of a bay window in the living room. It started flowering in April!
 i know it can be hardy, so i'm waiting until i have enough to test it in the ground.
 by fertilising with a brush, i've managed to get 2 cm wide pods: they're already 2 months old and still green.


The flowers first produce anthers (blue-green stamens), then at the end of flowering when the stamens have dried out, finally a pistil. On each inflorescence, 2 or 3 flowers always seem to be delayed, but it's not easy to have the 2 stages synchronised and this almost never happens on the same inflorescence.


Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Maggi Young on July 05, 2024, 12:00:26 PM
I've not seen the fruits of Bomarea edulis - they are a super shape! Good luck with viable seed , Véronique .
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Leena on July 06, 2024, 10:02:26 AM
June was first hot and dry here, then at the end we got some rains, and weather is pleasant +18 - 20C.
Martagon lilies are flowering now, and some of the seedlings sown in 2017 are flowering for the first time.

[attach=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=4]

L.martagon var album

[attachimg=3]

'Early Bird'

[attachimg=5]
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Leena on July 06, 2024, 10:05:43 AM
Couple of dark ones.
'Congo Capers'

[attachimg=1]

'Russian Morning'

[attachimg=2]

A view from the garden, and dark lilies in the front are 'Congo Capers'.

[attachimg=3]

Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: ashley on July 06, 2024, 07:22:21 PM
Beautiful martagons Leena.
Your L. canadense recently flowered here for the first time.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Leena on July 06, 2024, 07:46:09 PM
Your L. canadense recently flowered here for the first time.

Ashley, how can it be yellow? I am sure I took it from the red one.
Let's try again. :)
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 06, 2024, 08:31:57 PM
your lilies are marvellous! ::)

I bought a few martagons this spring, but they didn't do much, so I'll have to wait for next year.
 how tall are they, martagon and canadense?
 Leena: your garden is very beautiful: very full, just the way I like it...
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: ashley on July 06, 2024, 08:57:48 PM
Well done on managing to set seed on your Bomarea Véronique 8)  What interesting fruits.
This L. canadense is only about 70cm but still immature.  I understand that established plants can reach 2m+, but Leena will know as she grows it beautifully.

Leena, you very kindly sent me scales of both yellow and red forms, as well as a yellow bulbil (the plant above). 
Unfortunately I didn't succeed with the red so would love to try again if possible.  Thank you.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Gabriela on July 07, 2024, 01:17:44 PM
The martagons are fantastic in all colors Leena!
I also had a young one flowering this year but don't dare to show it here, only had a few flowers.

Nice first L. canadense flowers Ashley. One that I still have at the foliage stage here; I've only been succesful with L. michiganense for now.

Out hiking recently, I noticed an excellent flowering season for Lilium philadelphicum, probably due to a more rainy spring and early summer. The deers will have a feast with the capsules later in the fall.
[attachimg=1]

Mimulus lewisii, easy, fast flowering from seeds  started very early.
[attachimg=2]

Delphinium fissum, now a regular garden show in July.
[attachimg=3]

And Clematis hexapetala, grown from wild seeds Primorye. I grew it before from seeds exchanges and always a hybrid.
[attachimg=4]
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Leena on July 08, 2024, 06:24:24 PM
I bought a few martagons this spring, but they didn't do much, so I'll have to wait for next year.
 how tall are they, martagon and canadense

Thank you Veronique. :)
I think martagon lilies are slow to establish, and are at their best after a few years.
The tallest of mine are about 1,6m, mostly they are 1m-1,5m.
L.canadense is usually as tall, more than 1,5m, but this year they are shorter. I think it is because of the drought and heat wave in May.
Red L.canadense is not flowering well this year, the biggest bulbs have suffered from something, maybe drought (they are alive), but a smaller one in a different bed is ok.

Ashley, I completely forgot about the yellow one I sent you. :)
One year I got some seeds from both yellow and red ones, but most years the seeds are empty. I don't know why they seem to be difficult to produce seeds. Martagon lilies have a lot of seeds every year.

Gabriela, your L.philadelphicum looks good! My seedlings from it are growing, so I'm very happy about it.
Before we had fence around the garden, deer liked to eat also martagon seed pods.
Delphinium fissum looks so nice.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 15, 2024, 01:12:16 PM
I also like Mimulus lewisii.

here is Verbascum atroviolaceum its colour is superior. it flowered the year of sowing, but is a little too nourished by too rich a compost. in poorer soil its rosette of leaves is less than 15 cm wide.
at the back Campanula rotundifolia



 and finally Petunia exserta, in a pot as it's my only surviving plant this year.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 16, 2024, 06:38:18 AM
a nice species of dahlia: Dahlia coccinea.

I wonder if this is really the pure species? if someone reassures me I'll give some seeds for the exchange...

do the flowers always face west (afternoon sun)?
 someone warned me that it can grow up to 2 m tall.


I post regularly to familiarise myself with my new programme and equipment (I can't see very well) but the photos (from my phone now) are going a bit in any direction in the thumbnail version: I don't know if there's a solution...
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: arisaema on July 16, 2024, 07:12:34 AM
a nice species of dahlia: Dahlia coccinea.

That's lovely! I sowed a species of my own from the SRGC seed list, it's become a bit larger than I expected, hope it'll be hardy enough. Dahlia merckii:

(https://i.imgur.com/P49tEDg.jpeg)
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: ashley on July 16, 2024, 10:09:21 AM
a nice species of dahlia: Dahlia coccinea.

Lovely plants Véronique, including your verbascum 8)

D. coccinea seed from a UK nursery some years ago gave me plants usually <1m with flower colour varying from deep red through scarlet to orange-red.  All were/are fully single, with petals regularly arranged.  I can't be certain that they are the pure species but like them very much.

That's lovely! I sowed a species of my own from the SRGC seed list, it's become a bit larger than I expected, hope it'll be hardy enough. Dahlia merckii:

Arisaema, here D. merckii is usually 1.5-2m but sometimes 3m+, and is wonderful where it has space to perform.  Here in SW Ireland it flowers well into autumn.

Both species survive our wet winters without protection, but temperatures very rarely go below -5°C.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 16, 2024, 01:41:26 PM
I successfully sowed Dahlia merckii 2 years ago, and even in large quantities, but be careful Arisema, because at the end of the summer, the field mice loved it so much that they ate all its tubers in a week! :o (at least 10 plants) and this spring-sown dahlia hadn't flowered early enough for the seeds to ripen.
 So the coccinea is staying in pots until I get some seeds! but it won't grow as much!
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: ruweiss on July 21, 2024, 09:18:58 PM
Since this year we had no problems with slug damage at Campanula latifolia in
our meadow garden. Our friends warned us, but there was nothing at all in the
past years. Today we were shocked to see this plant after such an attack.
The photos show the same plant in full flower last month and the sad rest today.
We cannot remember such a wet season until now and are glad, that trees, shrubs
and especially conifers could recover from the dryness of the past years. It seems,
that snails and slugs also have a nice time.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Jeffnz on July 21, 2024, 09:22:17 PM
If the environment is o thier liking they will proliferate. May be application oif a slug bait maybe required, although this will not reverse damage that has alerady occurred.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: MarcR on July 22, 2024, 03:13:35 AM
Since this year we had no problems with slug damage at Campanula latifolia in
our meadow garden. Our friends warned us, but there was nothing at all in the
past years. Today we were shocked to see this plant after such an attack.
The photos show the same plant in full flower last month and the sad rest today.
We cannot remember such a wet season until now and are glad, that trees, shrubs
and especially conifers could recover from the dryness of the past years. It seems,
that snails and slugs also have a nice time.

ruweiss,

Here, in Oregon, I am also experiencing a total absence of slugs and snails.
We had a very warm end of January [>80 F    >27 C] followed by snow in February and  a hard freeze in March  [<20 F   <-7  C]
Unfortunately the mollusks were not the only things killed.
 
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 23, 2024, 07:42:39 AM
the slugs have done a lot of damage here too, but they've left the Campanula trachelium, and attacked many other more delicate things like the leaves of my Arisaema for example, or all the flower stems of my iris formosana. i've never been able to see the flowers of this iris although it's well developed. it rains every 2 days on average, and slugs and snails have ideal weather!
 I've heard that when they sow rapeseed, they prefer to eat the seedlings... but I haven't tried that yet.
2 new plants for me:
Campanula pyramidalis, 170 cm
Strobilanthes atropurpurea or attenuata.
and the fascinating giant "leaves" (sorry, my translator couldn't find the precise English term for fern) of Woodwardia ungemmata.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Jeffnz on July 23, 2024, 09:21:45 PM
I have no choice but to use slug bait, there is a pet safe version not quite as effective as other baits.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Maggi Young on July 24, 2024, 11:10:18 AM

and the fascinating giant "leaves" (sorry, my translator couldn't find the precise English term for fern) of Woodwardia ungemmata.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)


Véronique, we call those fern fronds   :)
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 24, 2024, 11:53:42 AM
ah yes! :) in French we also say ‘frondes’, but I had written ‘crosse’ translated as something else.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: ruweiss on July 24, 2024, 09:22:55 PM
Marc, you are lucky to have no snail and slugs in your garden, but I think, that it is just a
matter of time until the populations recover again.
Mollusks simply belong to the nature and I normally don`t use plants in our meadow garden
which are their favourites. It is the first time, that Campanula latifolia was damaged in this way.
All the "better" plants are in our garden by the house, where we have a better control.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 26, 2024, 09:48:43 AM
Slugs are a big problem here too this year, for example Cardiocrinum (4 shoots after last year's floraiosn) has never been able to make a leaf, and neither have the Meconopsis :-\.
In other years too, but even more so this year. And I don't know why, the slugs like to eat the plants I like best... it's as if they do it on purpose.

 As a result, I've contracted a sort of psychological illness that I call ‘seedling retention’: in short, I don't dare plant any more of my seedlings and much-loved plants because the next day, there's nothing left of them!

How can I plant a young clematis in the ground when it needs it, with all those horned predators just waiting for it?
So, for my favourite plants, I've made mini-gardens in big pots, but I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks in August, so...
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 30, 2024, 04:35:09 PM
-Delphinium caucasicum: strange flowers. I sowed its seeds in February and it is already flowering.
-Gilia tricolor: a small annual that I like a lot; hardy, floriferous, I use it as a companion plant in my large pots, from semi to seed, 2 months are enough, and maybe less!
-Maurandya barclayana, very slow to grow at first after germination, but now it exceeds 2 m! very graceful.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: Véronique Macrelle on July 30, 2024, 04:39:30 PM
-Clematis viorna[/i]: 3 years maintaining the seed pot to finally get germination, then another 3 or 4 years to get a vigorous plant. Last year, its first 2 flowers weren't very pretty, small and not too well formed. If I hadn't had so much trouble seeing it germinate, I might have thrown it away!
Fortunately, I gave it another year.
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: ashley on July 30, 2024, 04:54:12 PM
That's lovely Véronique.  Worth the wait 😎
Title: Re: July 2024 in the northern hemisphere
Post by: MarcR on July 30, 2024, 10:57:04 PM
-Delphinium caucasicum: strange flowers. I sowed its seeds in February and it is already flowering.
-Gilia tricolor: a small annual that I like a lot; hardy, floriferous, I use it as a companion plant in my large pots, from semi to seed, 2 months are enough, and maybe less!
-Maurandya barclayana, very slow to grow at first after germination, but now it exceeds 2 m! very graceful.

Véronique,

The Delphinium caucasicum is indeed unusual; but, very attractive.  Your Gilla tricolor is very different from mine.  Mine has a blush pink flare and a centerr that is almost maroon.






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