Notes from Norway

[Lori S.]

I am a pleasantly surprised by the Castilleja. It takes both cold and warm weather and doesn't seem to be slowed by frosty nights either.

It comes from a pretty extreme climate, so no surprise there!  ;-)

Your plants are looking great, Trond.

[Gabriel B]

Trond, I love seeing your pictures. I have wanted to grow Anemone narcissiflora for a while, but there has always been a crop failure at the local spring plant sale where they sell it. Perhaps I will look for seeds. The large flower clusters are lovely, and they do look like a cluster of white small-cupped daffodils (which must give them their name).

I also have hop-clover as a weed, and peach-leaved bellflower in the garden (though it is getting swamped by other taller plants; I should move it).

Ivy-leaved toadflax grows in a morning-sun area; it's pretty, but the seed pods tend to creep into the crowns of my cyclamens and start new plants there, so I have to pull it out. The pods bend away from the light, and deposit themselves into dark places. Very interesting, the opposite way from how most plants grow.

[Robert]

Thanks again, Robert

I am a pleasantly surprised by the Castilleja. It takes both cold and warm weather and doesn't seem to be slowed by frosty nights either.

I would very much like to see a picture of your surroundings, Robert!

Trond,

Sunday I will be at the farmers' market. Monday or Tuesday I can take some photographs on the farm property that show the native vegetation. It is very dry now as you will see.

We have a number of Antennaria species that are native locally. Some are very difficult to identify. A. rosea is the easiest to identify. I suspect that some may be hybrids as the range of some of the species overlaps.

Gentiana nivalis is certainly a beauty. Is is a meadow plant? There are two Gentiana species native to the high country of the Sierra Nevada in our location. Both are fall blooming. I have success growing G. newberryi. I do not see G. calycosa very often and so far can never find the plants when I return to gather seed.    G. calycosa is very beautiful too and I would like to give it a try. Someday this will work out for me.

[Rick R.]

I'm very much enjoying this entire thread, Trond.  You sent me Veronica fruticans seed before, and it's good to know that they bloom just as dark blue in my warmer summers and neutral soils as they do for you.

[Hoy]

It comes from a pretty extreme climate, so no surprise there!  ;-)

Your plants are looking great, Trond.

Lori,

You'll know it, of course Thanks

[Hoy]

Trond, I love seeing your pictures. I have wanted to grow Anemone narcissiflora for a while, but there has always been a crop failure at the local spring plant sale where they sell it. Perhaps I will look for seeds. The large flower clusters are lovely, and they do look like a cluster of white small-cupped daffodils (which must give them their name).

I also have hop-clover as a weed, and peach-leaved bellflower in the garden (though it is getting swamped by other taller plants; I should move it).

Ivy-leaved toadflax grows in a morning-sun area; it's pretty, but the seed pods tend to creep into the crowns of my cyclamens and start new plants there, so I have to pull it out. The pods bend away from the light, and deposit themselves into dark places. Very interesting, the opposite way from how most plants grow.

Gabriel,

Thank you very much!
I can recommend growing Anemone narcissiflora from seed. My experience is that they germinate fairly easy. The down side is that you don't know the quality of the flowers before they flower which will take some time! Some plants are inferior.

The bellflower grows naturally in light woodland and glades or wood margins. It don't like too fertile soil as it easily get swamped by taller, more aggressive plants as you tell.

Interesting to hear about your garden, Gabriel!

[Hoy]

Trond,

Sunday I will be at the farmers' market. Monday or Tuesday I can take some photographs on the farm property that show the native vegetation. It is very dry now as you will see.

We have a number of Antennaria species that are native locally. Some are very difficult to identify. A. rosea is the easiest to identify. I suspect that some may be hybrids as the range of some of the species overlaps.

Gentiana nivalis is certainly a beauty. Is is a meadow plant? There are two Gentiana species native to the high country of the Sierra Nevada in our location. Both are fall blooming. I have success growing G. newberryi. I do not see G. calycosa very often and so far can never find the plants when I return to gather seed.    G. calycosa is very beautiful too and I would like to give it a try. Someday this will work out for me.

Robert,

Yes pleas, I would like very much to see the native vegetation around your farm! Yesterday we had about 20C up here and it is warm enough for me so I don't envy your heat (The all time high for Norway is about 35C from the valley just below us here. We usually get temps up to 30C here at 900 m almost every summer. This summer is cold so far.)

Gentiana nivalis is an annual. It don't like to compete very much with other plants but can grow rather "big" (15cm) or bloom with only one tiny flower when only 3cm tall depending on soil and humidity. It is often found in short grass. The flowers open only in sunshine. We have another gentian (Gentiana purpurea) which flower later. It is very easy from seed. We also have a Gentianella campestre which also is annual or biennial and flower in fall.


Gentiana nivalis barely opens in overcast weather. Mixed vegetation (Always calcareous soil).




Gentiana purpurea which will flower in a couple of weeks - this is from another year.




Gentianella campestre - a fall bloomer.

[Hoy]

I'm very much enjoying this entire thread, Trond.  You sent me Veronica fruticans seed before, and it's good to know that they bloom just as dark blue in my warmer summers and neutral soils as they do for you.

Thank you very much Rick!

Glad to hear that the Veronica flowers for you. Here at our cabin it is an early bloomer and each flower lasts only a few days so we rarely see it in full bloom.

[Hoy]

Speaking of lawns - what about an Antennaria lawn in dry areas? You never need to mow it




... or one with alpine lady's mantle (Alchemilla alpina). Also unnecessary to mow! Both examples are from our "lawn" up here.




If your place is shady why not grow oak fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris). It is very common in the birch and spruce woods up here.




I spotted one plant of Potentilla erecta with 5 petals to the flowers. Half of the flowers were normal with 4 the others had 5 petals. Not a big issue though




In another thread people used the name dandelion for almost every yellow composite. For me, dandelions are only Taraxacums. We have several 100 species here if you count the way some botanists do. All of them are apomicts so they make clones which some call species. But certainly there are good species also. The tiny ones you find in the mountains are different to the big one in the garden! Here is but one example . The whole plant is less than 10cm wide.

[Hoy]

Yesterday we went for a walk in the nice weather. Temperature 16-20C, little wind, and sunny. Altitude 1000-1100m. It is just at the tree line.

Salix species make up much of the shrubbery. Some are showy but it is heavy stuff to walk in as they often grow on wet, swampy ground!

Three are silvery, S. glauca, lanatum and lapponum. They are easily confused, especially at a distance.



The narrow leaves and short stalks on the catkins make this one Salix lapponum.




Another very common shrub is juniper (Juniperis communis). It is found from sea level and as high up as woody plants grow. The ones in the mountains usually have much shorter needles.




Common inhabitants: red wood ants (Formica rufa) which can male very big hills. The biggest I've seen up here is 1.5 m tall and 2-3m in diameter.




Another not uncommon inhabitant. Last year was a lemming-year, although not of the greatest.

[Hoy]

It is not very steep here, only gentle hills but we are surrounded by more montane landscape in all directions.




Cloudberries are common here. (Any germination, Robert?) They usually ripen in August.






Patches of snow still linger. This is unusually late.




One benefit is that where the snow just has disappeared you can see the early flowers of for instance dwarf birch (Betula nana). Here are both male and female catkins.

[Hoy]

Bartsia alpina common in wetter sites but also in drier situations.




A tattered blue heath (Phyllodoce caerulea). Not uncommon here. This is an inferior specimen!




Common cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense) is everywhere here.




The flowers of bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) can be showy. And it is a lie it is a bog plant. It has a very wide ecological amplitude and grows in all habitats from bogs to very dry ridges.

In bogs it becomes rather tall.



And on ridges it becomes short and dense.

[Hoy]

Seasonal ponds are everywhere here. Some are small and some are larger. They are filled with meltwater and most of them dry out during summer. They are refilled in fall rain.




When I come to think of it many of the more showy species here are hemiparasitic like this Lapland lousewort (Pedicularis lapponica).






Several species of violets occur here, among them marsh violet is the commoner.




Another hemiparasite, marsh lousewort (Pedicularis palustris).

[David Nicholson]

Very enjoyable Trond, many thanks.

[Robert]

Trond,

I certainly enjoyed the information and photographs of your native Gentiana species. Other than the two Gentiana species I mentioned earlier we also have Gentianella amarella, Gentianopsis holopetala, and Gentianopisi simplex in our area. I will post photographs if I do come across them this summer - fall.

As of today there has been no germination with the Cloudberries. I hope that they get enough winter chill this winter as I am certain that they will germinate sooner or later.

Your gray leaved Salix species are fantastic! I would love to grow them however I know that Salix seed generally does not stay viable very long, often only for hours before they need to find moisture. Recently I found some Salix petrophila, formerly S. arctica, with ripe seed near Red Lake Peak. I planted it immediately upon returning to the farm. I could have easily taken cuttings however I wanted to see if I could get the seed to germinate. This is one of those small creeping species from the high elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

Salix orestera is another local Willow species with great wooly, gray foliage. I will certainly photograph it when I see more.

One question, does Phyllodoce caerulea grow in areas where there is Norwegian type summer heat? I have success growing our local Phyllodoce breweri here at the farm. Cassiope mertensiana from local seed also grows well.

Thank you for all the effort putting together the photographs, making comments and answering questions. It is greatly appreciated!