September 2015 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Robert]

Your wife is clearly a lady of taste, Robert! White C. hederifolium are always so pretty- we love them here, too - they are often the first of the hederifolium to flower.

Maggi,

My wife is also an angel.    Me, Bias.    This little Cyclamen always lifts our spirits. I am glad that she encouraged me to post them. We appreciate its simple beauty in our garden.

[Maggi Young]

"simple beauty"  - yes, that's the  secret isn't it?  This pure white flower, elegantly shaped and quite small, with pretty foliage- unassuming in stature but breath-taking in its loveliness  . magical, really.

[Hoy]

Very pretty Robert! Greetings to your wife
None of my cyclamens have showed so far but it is still mild.

[meanie]

Some Salvia.............
S.patens has had a good year..............


Black and Blue has been so so..............


S.atrocyanea is becoming something of a gem in my eyes.............


This S.urica has done well enough in some shade..........




S.miltiorrhiza has been a bit of a star this year.............




The first Tricyrtis of the year (so very late) is Taiwan Adbane..............


Tulbaghia violacea is still in flower - I'm usually harvesting the seeds now!


And finally, Impatiens kilimanjari...............

[Robert]

Meanie,

It is very nice to see all the Salvias on your postings this season. Here the drought has taken its toll on the water loving species. Species such as S. patens, S. gauranitica, etc. are surviving, barely, and that is about it.

[meanie]

Meanie,

It is very nice to see all the Salvias on your postings this season. Here the drought has taken its toll on the water loving species. Species such as S. patens, S. gauranitica, etc. are surviving, barely, and that is about it.

Rain is one thing I've had plenty of this year! Sunlight and warmth however have been totally absent 

[johnw]

Out today and a big advance for us as standard Nerine bowdenii will not be in flower till November at best. And this one's more winter hardy as well!

Nerine bowdenii ssp. wellsii ex AGS seed 1993 Harry Hay, cw Mont aux Sources, SA.  Thanks to GerdK for that seed in December 2008.

johnw - +20c @ 22:39

[Robert]

We are in our 4th year of drought. These are a few plants that I found interesting today.

>1 Salvia 'Bee's Bliss' - It has been in the ground about 20 years now. I have watered it about once a month this summer. It thrives on this watering schedule. It is said to be tender to frost below 20-25 F (-6.5 to -4 C). It has been completely hardy for us even at 18 F (-8 C). Salvia clevelandii shows sighs of frost stress below 20 F (-6.5 C), however it always recovers.

>2 Salvia sonomensis - I planted some seedlings out in the late spring, watered them a few times. After that they received no irrigation at all for the remainder of the summer. They are all doing fine. One even bloomed!

>3 Eschscholzia caespitosa - With this annual I leave a few as "tumble weeds" to spread their seeds around. There were also the annuals Leptosiphon (Linanathus) bicolor and Platystemon californicus, Cream Cups in this area. I am hoping that they will return next spring too.

>4 Wyethia reticulata - Two good looking plants ready to be planted out in the dry garden this fall. I feel sure that there will be flowers next spring/summer. Of coarse, I will not need to irrigate them.

[meanie]

We are in our 4th year of drought. These are a few plants that I found interesting today.

>1 Salvia 'Bee's Bliss' - It has been in the ground about 20 years now. I have watered it about once a month this summer. It thrives on this watering schedule. It is said to be tender to frost below 20-25 F (-6.5 to -4 C). It has been completely hardy for us even at 18 F (-8 C). Salvia clevelandii shows sighs of frost stress below 20 F (-6.5 C), however it always recovers.

>2 Salvia sonomensis - I planted some seedlings out in the late spring, watered them a few times. After that they received no irrigation at all for the remainder of the summer. They are all doing fine. One even bloomed!

>3 Eschscholzia caespitosa - With this annual I leave a few as "tumble weeds" to spread their seeds around.

Respect to your Salvias for hanging in there. What I love about growing them is that as you get "in the loop" with other growers the choice of seed really opens up. Growing from seed allows me to experiment - three S.urica have been disappointing this year compared to last year but the one that I tried in a different spot has really done well. SL411 has been a disappointment in terms of blooms but I reckon that in a good suller it'll make an outstanding plant.

The Eschscholzia caespitosa that you sent me have grown well but steadfastly refused to bloom 

The following was a bit of a surprise when I took the plants off of the top shelf of the greenhouse yesterday - Calydorea (Cypella) amabilis................


The reason that it caught me out is that the seed was only sown in January so the last thing that I was expecting were flowers.

[Pauli]

Androsace lanuginosa flowering quite well here after a hot and rather dry summer

[Steve Garvie]

Contrasting red & blue, Philesia magellanica and Gentiana sino-ornata.
Both in flower in the same raised "peatbed".

[David Nicholson]

Man Utd v Man City Lovely stuff Steve.

[Tristan_He]

It's a bit of an odd September here. A mixture of things that should be out in spring re-flowering, probably due to a mix of a wet summer and being transplanted (I had to move much of my rockery this spring to a new location due to terminal weed infestation). Here are a few of the things flowering at the 'wrong' time of year.





Scutellaria sevanensis, from Plant World seed. I really like this plant.



Primula auricula - I think this variety is called 'Old Mustard'.



Campanula x pulloides 'G.F. Wilson'. Personally I don't think this looks much like C. pulla. Nice plant though!



Erodium chrysanthum. I like this yellow form much more than the salmony pink variant. It needs regular division or it will fizzle out.

[Tristan_He]

Here are some of the usual September suspects. Not many of them have any business on a rock gardens forum, but I like them!



Agapanthus sp. from Silverhill seeds, label long since lost. Bone hardy on our North Wales hilside though, and a good flowerer even though it doesn't get much sun.



Rudbeckia fulgida - probably 'Goldsturm'. I love the vibrancy of these late autumn daisies, and they are great for insects too.



Japanese anemones. Really these are in far too good a spot in the garden, and I regularly threaten to dig them all up so I can put some choicer plants there. But how can you dig something up that produces this?



Peacock butterfly, feeding up on nectar so it can survive the winter.



Aster x herveyi 'Twilight', a great plant for dry shade. 

[Tristan_He]

Nepeta subsessilis, two forms from seed, again from Plant World. I prefer the blue form - the pink is a bit washed out for me.



Colchicum sp. again label lost but possibly pannonicum? I'm very fond of Colchicums but in our wet climate they do really need to be grown in grass so the flowers don't flop. And to be honest, I find many of the various forms a bit same-y. Still, with the dew on them like this on a beautiful autumn morning, they are very hard to beat.



Campanula pyramidalis 'Alba'. Unfortunately I have only two seedlings and only one is flowering this year - as they seem to be self-incompatible I'm going to have to sow some more. Beautiful thing though. We saw the wild blue form growing in Slovenia in very rocky limestone habitats.