July 2013 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Brian Ellis]

Dubonnet and lemonade  gin is definitely pink 

[Philippe]

Just beginning to flower on last thursday, a spontaneous garden-cross, with a gorgeous orange-red coloured tall gentian!
The plant originates from seed collected 5/6 years ago on a garden cross, probably between Gentiana lutea and G.purpurea. But the mother plant didn't have this incredible colour!

[Maggi Young]

Phillippe it is only because the date is July that I did not believe this to a poisson d'avril !

Who would have expected such a colour on a gentian? Very surprising indeed. 

[Philippe]

Lol, do you know that, "poisson d'avril" in the UK?
Some of the andean little gentiana/gentianella have this colour, but there is none of them here, and anyway, an inter-section cross is impossible I think.
Hm... I am already thinking of this gentian planted en masse somewhere in the garden...

[Maggi Young]

Yes, I am reminded of the red/orange/yellow gentians  from South America  that I have seen - they were mostly grown   by Margaret and Henry Taylor and our late friend near Aberdeen, Ian Brooker. Lovely little things but nothing so orange or statuesque as this one you have grown.

 I wonder if it will be fertile? I can see that a mass planting would be a real surprise to anyone seeing it! 

[Brian Ellis]

What a great cross Philippe, a whole drift of them would look fabulous.

[Gene Mirro]

That's a good one.  Lots of collectors may want that.  It might be worth doing tissue culture.  I doubt that it will be uniform from seed.

[Hoy]

Just beginning to flower on last thursday, a spontaneous garden-cross, with a gorgeous orange-red coloured tall gentian!
The plant originates from seed collected 5/6 years ago on a garden cross, probably between Gentiana lutea and G.purpurea. But the mother plant didn't have this incredible colour!

Very nice! The red colour could be from G purpurea but in a lesser dose!
The shape of the flower is more like lutea.

Here is one of my G purpurea. They are all in flower now but this picture is from last year.

[shelagh]

I'm sorry I can't match Philippe's Gentian but these are in flower in Bury right now.
Campanula fragilis looking beautiful but no show to take it to.
Clematis viticella
Crepis incana
Gaultheria repens looking good with flowers and fruit.
Inula ensifolia not looking as good as usual probably needs dividing.

[shelagh]

A new Clematis put in this year called Arabella
Sedum spurium Fulda Glut
Sedum urvilliae
Teucrium ackermannii
and finally Ursinia this took years to get established and now it's making a bid to take over.  I fear it will have to be hacked back.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Crinim moorei f. album.

....is putting on a very good show.

[Knud]

One of a few Androsaces which thrive in our climate is A. mathildae. It normally flowers twice in a season.  The second, somewhat sporadic flowering is just starting now. The first round is always fuller, and this year it was quite good. The pictures I have included are from May this year.

It seeds quite freely, and particularly so in cracks in a crumbly rock in one of the troughs.

Knud

[Maggi Young]

A "perfect" round plant in a show pot may be attractive  but for me to see plants seeding themselves so nicely outside to beautify a trough is the real perfection.

[Pete Clarke]

Gentiana cachemirica.
Gentiana paradoxa - a better flower and colour than cachemirica, but taller.
Roscoea, grown from a seed exchange, supposedly a white R. purpurea. Probably from Wisley Amethyst, but nice.

[Hkind]

Time for gentians.

    Gentiana atuntsiensis
    Gentiana gelida
    Gentiana septemfida Bicolor
    Gentiana species
    Gentiana straminea