June 2014 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Tim Ingram]

Yes, you're quite right Maggi - C. omeiana. From this species it gets its later flowering and more robust habit, and stays in growth very much longer than flexuosa.

[meanie]

That looks a lot like my Rosa sinowilsonii which I have growing on the back wall of the garage.

It produces thorns on all young growth - does that sound right for Rosa sinowilsonii?

Albuca nelsonii.......................


It's not as good as last year, but then it is dividing...........................




Salvia stolonifera...................


Salvia patens (always reliable)....................


Salvia discolor (which wins my prize for Longest Blooming Plant)...................

[johnralphcarpenter]

It produces thorns on all young growth - does that sound right for Rosa sinowilsonii?

You mean like this?

[johnralphcarpenter]

Watsonia angusta.

[meanie]

You mean like this?

They're more like this really.......................


Like that Watsonia by the way!

[Steve Garvie]

Nomocharis aperta

Flowering in a fairly densely shaded bed. A plant in the open garden frazzled here today as temperatures peaked at 28C.

[meanie]

Albuca humilis grown from seed sent to me by Palustris....................


Thanks! I love it!

[Diane Whitehead]

Campanula sarmatica. Not at all exotic, but sweetly-scented, which is not mentioned
in any description of it that I have found.  I have a mixed bouquet on the kitchen table,
and couldn't figure out which flowers were providing the scent throughout the room,
so I isolated the contenders separately in a small space, and it was this one.

Another bonus:  deer object to either the hairs or the scent, so haven't been eating
it.

[meanie]

Campanula sarmatica. Not at all exotic....................................

Do all our plants need to be exotic or rare though? Some plants are just plain good, simple as that!

[Maggi Young]

Do all our plants need to be exotic or rare though? Some plants are just plain good, simple as that!

That's so true - and it is something that Dr John Good has written about recently in his North Wales Garden Diary on the AGS Site when introducing a few of his favourites that bloom in May:
"There is a tendency when writing a garden diary to mention only the rarer or more unusual plants, but many of those that give the greatest pleasure, like the common birds that regularly visit our bird tables, tend not to be mentioned. These are the plants that anyone can grow with a modicum of skill and that are available from most alpine plant nurseries, and sometimes from garden centres."

In the next issue of the International Rock Gardener ( online on Friday 26th June ) John will be sharing some  favourite plants from his crevice garden in North Wales.

[meanie]

That's so true - and it is something that Dr John Good has written about recently in his North Wales Garden Diary on the AGS Site when introducing a few of his favourites that bloom in May:
"There is a tendency when writing a garden diary to mention only the rarer or more unusual plants, but many of those that give the greatest pleasure, like the common birds that regularly visit our bird tables, tend not to be mentioned. These are the plants that anyone can grow with a modicum of skill and that are available from most alpine plant nurseries, and sometimes from garden centres."

In the next issue of the International Rock Gardener ( online on Friday 26th June ) John will be sharing some  favourite plants from his crevice garden in North Wales.

A trap that I have certainly fallen into at times! The thing is that flowering something tricky can be addictive. I like to think that I have a reasonable balance now - a handful of things that are probably unique even to a site like this, plenty of more unusual forms of common species that for some reason just get overlooked, and then some just plain common (but choice) plants such as Lobelia "Queen Victoria" or L.tupa.
It's nice to have a challenge though. My aim this year is to keep my Brugmansia sanguinea in bloom all summer - as a cool bloomer probably unrealistic, but so far it's looking good.

[Maggi Young]

Yes, I think all of us here do enjoy a challenge - it spices up life well - but isn't it great to have staple plants in the garden that do well  and even seed themselves around voluntarily to fill empty spaces ?  We keep telling ourselves here that those plants mean that we'll be able to enjoy a lovely display even when we are too decrepit to tend and referee the place properly!   

[meanie]

...........................staple plants in the garden that do well  and even seed themselves around voluntarily to fill empty spaces .....................

And equally frustrating when the ones that you really want to seed around stubbornly refuse to

[Maggi Young]

It's not quite so bad when that happens- so long as you best friend hasn't got them coming out of his ears!  Sometimes it is tough to be calm and philosophical about these things!

[johnstephen29]

Here are a three of plants in flower in my garden at the moment, the first is a clematis growing over a pheasant pen, it is in a exposed sunny spot and is doing really well, too well to be honest. The second is a hydrangea, I bought this as a small plant from a guy selling plants from a layby near hull about five years ago for a couple of pounds. This year for some reason it has two flower colours pink and blue, I wonder if it has picked something up from the soil? I've heard it said the soil can affect they colour of hydrangeas. Lastly is a globe artichoke, this is the first time I am growing them, I noticed yesterday a flower head on one of them, I also noticed a lot of blackfly so I had to get my sprayer out. I useally leave it to natural predetors like ladybirds but I haven't seen any this year yet.