August 2014 in the Northern Hemisphere

[meanie]

Gentiana veitchiorum
Blue always does it for me!

That is a fantastic capture!!!

The latest Tricyrtis to show its face is Taiwan Adbane....................


The only good thing about the recent cold weather (I have the fire going in August for Petes sake!) is that my Brugmansia sanguinea is growing again and producing lots of flower buds, and also the Datura wrightii blooms are lasting up to two days now...................

[astragalus]

The Gentiana veitchiorum is beautiful and so is the picture.
Blooming now in the 'Last Outcrop' is an unknown gentian.  Grown from a pack of seed labeled Gentiana paradoxa.  Will post a close-up for an i.d. from someone, hopefully.

[astragalus]

Close-up of my gentian.  Anyone know what it is?  Gentiana paradoxa grown elsewhere in the garden has already finished.
Also in the garden Zauschneria garettii 'orange carpet' hanging over a wall.
Lastly, from a pack of seed labeled Ononis rotundifolia.  What is this??  Note the wicked thorns and clearly not round leaves.  Hope someone can i.d. this from a not great picture.

[John85]

Looks like ononis spinosa

[astragalus]

Thank you.  I'll keep trying for the O. rotundifolia.

[Steve Garvie]

I got this as Caltha sinogracilis forma rubriflora though the images of this plant on the internet show a darker flower colour with dark rather than yellow stamen.
It took a while to settle in and initially I thought I was going to lose it so I re-potted into a pumice-perlite-composted bark-sphagnum peat mix (1:1:1:1) and it rewarded me with new growth and some late flowers.
It sits with its feet in a saucer of rainwater as in the wild it seems to grow in permanently wet peaty turf.
It's a bonny thing and the hoverflies like it!

[krisderaeymaeker]

I got this as Caltha sinogracilis forma rubriflora though the images of this plant on the internet show a darker flower colour with dark rather than yellow stamen.
It took a while to settle in and initially I thought I was going to lose it so I re-potted into a pumice-perlite-composted bark-sphagnum peat mix (1:1:1:1) and it rewarded me with new growth and some late flowers.
It sits with its feet in a saucer of rainwater as in the wild it seems to grow in permanently wet peaty turf.
It's a bonny thing and the hoverflies like it!

 
 

Harry Jans showed my some pictures from the wild  of this beauty but I never tought that it was in culture. Well done Steve , great plant ! 

[Steve Garvie]

Thanks Kris!
Sadly the plant I have is not as compact or attractive as the plants that Harry Jans photographed. I think my plant is a lower altitude collection.

Bjørnar Olsen offered seed last year -though it quickly sold out. My plant came from Yijia Wang's nursery.

[johnstephen29]

Ricinus Communis Castor Oil Plant just starting to flower, loverly red flowers to go with the dark foliage. Try this one David.

image by johnstephen29, on Flickr

[Maggi Young]

That photo is opening as a nice size in Flickr.  Not sure how you get it to open direct here though . ....  you'll need help from Flickr or another flicker user to sort that, I'm afraid.

[meanie]

Just an experiment.....................

[meanie]

Just an experiment.....................

All I did was cursor over photo, right click and hit the "copy image URL" tab, then add to the post using the image tab and ctrl/v.

[Maggi Young]

And it worked just fine! 

[johnstephen29]

I don't think the castor oil plant will look as good as that now, it's been hammered by rain most of the day. Typical British bank holiday

[Robert]

Salvia chiapensis - finally recovered from the sudden freeze last December. Generally they try to bloom all year, but not this season.







I've spent most of the summer moving the ornamental garden in and around the "vegetable garden" and orchard - where I work. This hopefully will be better than the old scheme. Lots of annuals being used as fillers right now, however I always leave room from annuals. In California there are so many native annuals to grow in the garden, I would never be without them.