Winter slowly releases its grip...

[Sinchets]

Lori, I forgot to add that most of my Lamiaceae are not trully alpine, but i have a few smaller ones I grow on the alpine garden. The first new shoots are visible on a wide range of Nepeta and Salvia, but it'll be a while until  flowering. Quite a few flowered last year, but the one I am looking forward to most is Salvia pachyphylla from Alplains-  it seems to have come through the winter okay, though the leaves aren't quite so silvery just now.

[cohan]

Penstemon is a genus where hardiness seems to be generally underestimated... one of those where intolerance of wet has been mistaken for lack of hardiness.  This has however been generally corrected by the zone assessments of Alplains and Beaver Creek.  (My sense is that I don't generally agree with the statement that Beaver Creek's zone estimations are overestimations - I think it comes down to conditions - but I would like to do a larger accounting of that before I start proclaiming it loudly.)  Still, though, the large number of species that is hardy here suggest that even the more accurate estimations are still generally underestimations.

thats good to hear... of course a zone system that only accounts for minimum temperatures--not when they occur, for how long, moisture (also when, not only how much!) can only tell you so much....
i am looking forward to contributing my experience to the knowledge of hardiness, but it will be some time before i have anything to add...lol..
of coures i want to do everything at once, but neither time nor money allow that! i'm going to have to pick a couple of things to focus on, this year, and not totally decided exactly what they will be, but in terms of buying plants, what i am really hoping for this year is an order of semps (along with rosularia and orostachys) from cavendish, and pediocactus, escobaria and a few companions from beaver creek..
then i think i will work on some semi/shade plantings, mainly with natives--a lot of which are already in the yard, but i want more focussed plantings, without the grass, clover, dandelions etc (ok--with LESS  of them...lol)

[Lori S.]

i have no interest in  hybrids or cultivars -of semps or anything else

Don't forget that some cultivars are simply selections from the wild. 

Good heavens, another coincidence... I have seedlings of Salvia pachyphylla under lights right now... no blooms until next year, though, if the usual course of events for here holds true.   

[Lori S.]

Okay, I'm bored... there's no immediate end in sight for winter here, so I'm going to jump the gun on Lamiaceae... given that they won't be in bloom here for months.
Some I like:
Dracocephalum fragile
D. botryoides
Lallamantia canescens... I'm surprised to see what seems to be the straight species of this offered as a trough plant - these were 3' tall the first year, and since settled down a little (~2' tall).  Is anyone growing trough-sized forms of it?

[Sinchets]

Sorry Lori- but Dracocephalums are a mild obsession of mine   
I haven't seen the dwarf form of Lallamantia, I just have aflouncy big one which flowered forever in its first year, set loads of seed and i s probably hatching plans for world domination right now-  such a stunner though. Speaking of which has anyone any idea why Lallemantia stopped being Dracecephalum- given that some of the other Dracocephalums look less like a Dracocephalum than it does? Okay I should stop going by looks alone 

[cohan]

these are all nice, and i have a bit of soft spot for the family, mostly based on some natives--mentha, scutellaria, stachys and a couple of weedier introduced  species (that i still like)that all grow around here..

i do know some cultivars are 'natural' finds--i'd even actually be ok with garden selections from wild  or controlled pollination seed..but then, really, i'd like it to be named or described as such, eg (to make one up) Sempervivum arachnoideum Fluffy f Mont Blanc --or however it might be structured, i'm sure you get my thrust; but when i see some name such as Sempervivum Fluffy, i just lose interest...lol..even better would be S. arachnoideum f Mont Blanc extra hairy form... but i guess i am not a typical consumer, as thats not how these things are done, commercially....

[cohan]

i was a bit unsure where to post these--not quite 'flowering now', not quite alpines (though so diminutive they could certainly pass for it!), not shots taken on my alberta wanderings, rather in the garden, though both are native to alberta, so i decided to dig up this thread, since they are really just getting going, and esp since we just had snow again!!
these shots were taken before the snow
Erigeron compositus?
i think thats most likely, the other contender is more alpine, i believe, and this was collected from a moderate altitude in the mountains west of here; i've just been growing it since late summer 07, and this spring it was so compressed/withdrawn when the snow melted, i was worried for it-i needn't have--it is doing very nicely, though still prob less than an inch high; note 5 or 6 buds on it--only had one or two at a time last year..
Androsace septentrionalis
i realised by accident that i have an androsace in my rock garden when looking at species listings at a canadian nursery--looked at pictures, and thought--hmm, that looks familiar! i'm not sure how it came to be there: the species map shows that it could occur in my area, but sunny areas open enough for such a tiny plant (current rosette under 2 inches wide)are really unlikely in my area, and i dont recall seeing it in the wild here (trust me, i scour any bits of green in open areas..lol); it may have seeded in from some local plants i'm unaware of, or more likely came as a plant or seeds i something i brought from the mountains/foothills possibly at the time i got the erigeron etc, or several decades ago when i built the original rock garden, and either it has been reseeding itself there, or seeds survived in the soil, waiting for a redigging and some sun, as this one small corner has got...
i've now read it can become 'weedy if it gets into your garden'...lol--though really, its so tiny, how could it cause trouble? biennial here, i think.. i shall be encouraging it to make a nice little colony if possible..

[Sinchets]

Cohan- I always wondered how the Androsace could become a weed too- it is so flimsy- it comes up, does its thing then dies. Okay so it sets lots of seed but they wouldbe so easy to weed out if you ever had the heart to do that. I've had it and similar species/ forms from seed exchanges- wrongly labelled as 'posher' species and also one I bought as A.fedtschenkoana (not sure of the spelling on this one).

[cohan]

Cohan- I always wondered how the Androsace could become a weed too- it is so flimsy- it comes up, does its thing then dies. Okay so it sets lots of seed but they wouldbe so easy to weed out if you ever had the heart to do that. I've had it and similar species/ forms from seed exchanges- wrongly labelled as 'posher' species and also one I bought as A.fedtschenkoana (not sure of the spelling on this one).

that's what i think--easy enough to pull--but there would have to be a lot before i'd do that--that dont take up much space, so they could only crowd the most delicate things..
..i'd like to get the other species native to alberta--which lori showed before--much showier-A chamaejasme.....i have seen it in at least one catalogue..