July 2013 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Roma]

It's many years since I planted it and get a few seedlings every year.  The other one flowering this year is right underneath an oversized Juniperus communis compressa.  It always amazes me that a few seedlings survive every year.

[Knud]

Very nice C. sartorii Roma. In our garden it behaves as described by Maggi. I have tried to sow it in other places, transplant seedling, and even transplant plants in flower, in hope they would self-sow, but no, it keeps to its spot. It seems to thrive there in fact, in spite of it being somewhat shady. This year it blooms like never before. Interestingly it just appeared there, I suspect it followed as seed in a pot from our previous garden, but I never knew what it was. Lesley helped id it on the forum a couple of years ago.

A nice and long lived campanula is blooming in the garden now, C. sarmatica. This plant was sown mid-late 90's, seeds from Gardens North, and has been transplanted at least five times - very accommodating. In the first picture the entire plants is shown (with Centaurea nervosa), and in bud in the second picture.

Knud

[Knud]

Oooops, I see I included a picture from last year in my previous post, picture from this year included, now with the C. nervosa. Well, it illustrates how well the Campanula sarmatica has taken to its new spot. Transplanted 2011, two flower stalks in 2012, and four in 2013. In my experience this is a 'well behaved' Campanula, so I'm pretty certain it will not don eight stalk next year. We shall see.

Knud

[johnralphcarpenter]

Here are some wild water lilies growing in the Reading Sewer, Rother Levels, Kent, near the Sussex border. Yes, I know, but drainage ditches hereabouts are called sewers!

[gerrit]

1. Oxalis laciniata ex Finn Haugli
2. Campanula choruhensis
3. Campanula myrtifolia

[ranunculus]

Super images, Gerrit.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Not rock garden plants:

Buddleja nivea and Verbascum olympicum (the latter a favourite of Christopher Lloyd)

[Maggi Young]

Buddleja nivea

Ooh, nice - though for a moment I thought your washing machine had overdone the bubbles and exploded

[Knud]

Wonderful pictures, Trond, thank you for sharing. Reassuring to hear that you have lookouts, I can imagine it is very easy to loose track of ones surroundings when the ground is full of exciting and beautiful plants like those you have posted pictures of.

John, I like your Verbascum. We are lucky and have it self-sow in the garden, and it is one of few plants which will make passersby stop and point.

Parochetus communis is blooming here now, small but beautiful. Our plant is from SRGC seed 2011.

The last picture is of another self-sower that is out now. It is probably also a 'communis'; Gladiolus.

Knud

[PaulM]

Here are two umbellifers which are flowering for me now. One is giant and the other one more suited for the rockery with its 20 or so cm. It has taken me a long time to get the Angelica in flower. It reigns from Kamchatka peninsula where bears eat the roots. It has taken a good five or six years to reach flowering size, and then it will die, but I will collect seeds for the seed exchange.

Seseli petraeum is from Turkey, and is a nice plant which didn't take quite so long to flower.

[PaulM]

Campanula rotundifolia looked really good growing upon a dry stone wall.

 

Desert bluebell also prefers dry environments, but comes from the American west, and is not even related to the true bluebells. It has seeded itself in a large pot and looks charming ( and very blue )

Campanula versicolor from the SRGC seed exchange has grown bigger and bigger for each year, and this year it really outshines itself with multiple flowering stems.
 

[PaulM]

A few other bits and odds:

A question: Can the root tubers of Cosmos atrosanguineus be stored dry during the winter months ? I am pretty sure it won't survive our winters here. I can't say that I smell very much chocolate when sticking my nose in it, but perhaps it's only a very faint scent.

[PaulM]

Delphinium speciosum is really a stalwart perennial, which looks great with the black bees.

Maurandya barclaiana 'Exotic Pride' is an annual which sets loads of flowers if grown against a sunny wall.

[Brian Ellis]

A question: Can the root tubers of Cosmos atrosanguineus be stored dry during the winter months ? I am pretty sure it won't survive our winters here. I can't say that I smell very much chocolate when sticking my nose in it, but perhaps it's only a very faint scent.

Paul we keep ours in a cold greenhouse over the winter with no watering until the spring and it does very well.

[PaulM]

Thank you Brian ! I will have to try that. Hopefully it will get an earlier start next year if they are stored over the winter.