April 2016 in the Northern Hemisphere

[meanie]

Meanie, what a pity!  And slugs I know firsthand. One nice Trillium and several other plants ready to flower have been destroyed the last days

The Hippaestrum was my own stupid fault really.
But the slugs are a different matter. They are going to be a plague this year. Even the bearded Iris are looking tatty thanks to the slugs.

[Tristan_He]

Lathraea clandestina. This interesting parasitic plant grows on the roots of willows and produces masses of scented purple flowers in spring. It never appears in exactly the same place twice.

[Gabriela]

Lathraea clandestina. This interesting parasitic plant grows on the roots of willows and produces masses of scented purple flowers in spring. It never appears in exactly the same place twice.

Wow - such a beauty! Did you spread seeds around or just appeared by itself?
Too bad these Orobanchaceae are hard to cultivate.

[Robert]

A few photographs of the California native annual Collinsia heterophylla in our Sacramento garden. They will continue blooming for many weeks now.







Below a very attractive form of Eriogonum ursinum. Most of the time the flowers are a pale yellow. This plant has been blooming for about a month now! 

[Tristan_He]

Wow - such a beauty! Did you spread seeds around or just appeared by itself?
Too bad these Orobanchaceae are hard to cultivate.

Actually Gabriela I've not found it at all difficult. It needs established Salix spp. to grow on - in the wild it seems to prefer wet conditions on clay but here it seems to tolerate our rather thin loamy stuff well. The roots grow an inch or two below soil level and are whitish, rather like the rhizomes of Dentaria bulbifera or Dicentra formosa. It seems to take quite a lot of water from the willows if it isn't wet enough as the soil around the plant can be physically wet when all around is dry. I established mine by planting pieces of root next to willow roots in the garden. I've not seen the seed but I'm sure it is around I'll take a look at the right time.

[Hoy]

Actually Gabriela I've not found it at all difficult. It needs established Salix spp. to grow on - in the wild it seems to prefer wet conditions on clay but here it seems to tolerate our rather thin loamy stuff well. The roots grow an inch or two below soil level and are whitish, rather like the rhizomes of Dentaria bulbifera or Dicentra formosa. It seems to take quite a lot of water from the willows if it isn't wet enough as the soil around the plant can be physically wet when all around is dry. I established mine by planting pieces of root next to willow roots in the garden. I've not seen the seed but I'm sure it is around I'll take a look at the right time.

Should anyone come across seeds I am very interested! I try to establish hemiparasitic and holoparasitic plants in my garden. So far I have only successed with some Castilleja and Pedicularis species.

[Hoy]

A few photographs of the California native annual Collinsia heterophylla in our Sacramento garden. They will continue blooming for many weeks now.

Below a very attractive form of Eriogonum ursinum. Most of the time the flowers are a pale yellow. This plant has been blooming for about a month now! 

Robert,

Lovely!

[astragalus]

Robert, the collinsia is lovely.  Do you grow any of the other collinsias?

[shelagh]

Brian mentioned this plant in the article "A Little Late Colour" in January's edition of The Rock Garden, well it has come through the winter extremely well and is providing some early colour in the rock garden as well.

Rhodanthemum 'Casablanca'

[Robert]

Robert, the collinsia is lovely.  Do you grow any of the other collinsias?

Anne,

Yes!    Right now next to the Collinisia heterophylla I have a nice patch of C. tinctoria. The molted leaves are quite beautiful. They start blooming a few weeks later, however the plants are heavily budded right now. Maybe I should get out and photograph the foliage. I have tried to establish some of our other California native species with no success yet. I do not think that it is difficult, I have had other issues distracting me for the past few years. Oh well, I will try again next season. Some of the tiny species I find quite lovely too.

[Cfred72]

Right now, the garden is my Isopyrum nipponicum that bloomed.

Robert, I love Collinsia heterophylla. I never saw. The structure floors flowers reminds me of Phlomis.

[astragalus]

Anne,

Yes!    Right now next to the Collinisia heterophylla I have a nice patch of C. tinctoria. The molted leaves are quite beautiful. They start blooming a few weeks later, however the plants are heavily budded right now. Maybe I should get out and photograph the foliage. I have tried to establish some of our other California native species with no success yet. I do not think that it is difficult, I have had other issues distracting me for the past few years. Oh well, I will try again next season. Some of the tiny species I find quite lovely too.

Robert, my understanding of collinsias is that they like a wet spring followed by dry.  Is that correct?

[astragalus]

A couple more things in the garden.  The garden is so ahead of itself in bloom(3 to 4 weeks) that this seems more like May.
The Sax. virginiensis was native to the garden but when we bought the house there was only one tiny patch on a rock ledge.  As we've cleared out brush and poison ivy it has seeded itself around more.  Not a dramatic plant by any means but quite charming.

[Brian Ellis]

A very nice afternoon at a friends where a large box of 'swag' found it's way to our car, mainly narcissus, but other things collected by Richard Nutt, Cedric Morris etc one of the most impressive displays in the garden was the anemone.

[Maggi Young]

Oh my word, that is so pretty. Just about every colour one can think of - I love it.