June 2016 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

I had half a dozen seedling coprosmas in small pots up to last spring then lost the lot and I don't know why except perhaps crowded out by moss. However, I had planted out a single small plant in a raised bed and so far that is doing well and spreading. It had 5 fruit in the early autumn (they were violet instead of blue! Why?) but barely had I noticed them and was waiting for them to mature before collecting the seeds, than a bird took the lot one night or early morning. Not bunnies this time as I had wire netting over the place and it was undisturbed so it had to be a bird. I'll have electric lights, razor wire and armed guards round it from the spring then maybe some seed to send.

One very happy thing though. I had lost altogether (about 3 years ago) my much loved Anagallis tenella 'Studland' which I imported in 1993 just before the clamp-down, bringing it home with me from the UK. I sold a few plants over time and when I contacted those people found they had lost it too. I had previously replaced mine from a friend, and she had subsequently replaced hers from me but the second time she'd lost hers as well - if you follow me. Totally gone, I thought, and not able to be replaced. (It is very sensitive to dry conditions and hot winds. So that was that. I still have the photos though.

Then a month ago I went to the Dunedin Bot. Garden annual plant sale. It is usually rhodos, native trees and shrubs and a selection of run-of-the-mill perennials and bedding plants. I bought a viola I had lost, an 'Ardross Gem' lookalike, then was leaving and saw quite a large pot among the shrubs. I knew instantly what it was, my precious Anagallis. I approached it carefully so no-one would realize that I had seen a real treasure and maybe grab first, then with it safely tucked under my arm, went to the pay bench. It was only $4 but I was so happy and excited I gave them my $10 note and told them to keep the change.

It has some young plants of that filthy little native cress in it, the one with the tap roots so will need repotting but I'll leave that until the frosts stop and in the meantime I can gloat happily.  Perhaps I'll sometime find again Viola 'Jackanapes,' another lost treasure from the same trip abroad.

[Lesley Cox]

I like your 'Curly Fries' John. Very few really dwarf hostas here. 'Kabitan' and 'Blue Mouse Ears' and 'Dewdrop(s)' are about it. They're great little plants for round very small pools.

[Leena]

Ranunculus acris 'Citrinus', and a bigger flowering plant, Iris 'Sibtosa Queen'

[Tristan_He]

Anagallis tenella is a lovely little thing isn't it Lesley? Funnily enough I came across some yesterday in flower on fieldwork - don't see it very often.

It's not an easy plant to grow in the garden as it needs wet low-nutrient conditions. I grow mine in a pan with Sarracenias where it does well and gives additional interest.

[meanie]

I bought Salvia "Love and Wishes" a few weeks ago and it is now in bloom. Well worth breaking the seed only "rule" for.................


Bulbine frutescens..............


The Dracunculus vulgaris that I planted as a surprise when I did my parents garden for them. Typically it bloomed whilst they were away for a couple of weeks!

[johnw]

I like your 'Curly Fries' John. Very few really dwarf hostas here. 'Kabitan' and 'Blue Mouse Ears' and 'Dewdrop(s)' are about it. They're great little plants for round very small pools.

Lesley  - I don't think this hosta will be terribly dwarf, medium I'd guess.  Perhaps someone on the forum with a good collection of very dwarf hostas might cross a few of the best and send you seed; not sure how dominant the dwarfism is or how rare variegation is in the progeny.  There are certainly some very fine ones out there.

john

[Tristan_He]

Silene nutans in sunshine during the day...



...and the same clump in the morning before the sun gets to it. This one is moth pollinated and the flowers curl up during the day.

[Tristan_He]

In the conservatory, the pitcher plants are really getting going.



Sarracenia leucophylla, pink lip.



S. flava var. ornata.



A hybrid involving S. flava var. cuprea and S. alata.



S. 'Lynda Butt'



Not the best photo, but Anagallis tenella likes the same conditions so I grow it in pots with the Sarracenias.

[Tristan_He]

I acquired this one only recently. It is Sarracenia x moorei 'Leah Wilkerson' and is absolutely colossal, as you can see! Looking forward to when it clumps up.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks John, re the hostas. Mark S sent me some dwarf seed a few years ago, (quite a few) from variegated forms and though the seedlings were reasonably small, all except one were plain green. That didn't surprise me as I've grown seed from other variegated forms and had only plain plants. The one exception had a nice green edge to an otherwise white blade but over 2 or 3 years even that aged out and is quite green all over now. A few hostas are coming into the country by tissue culture so I'll enquire around.

[Lesley Cox]

Tristan your Anagallis photo may be a little blurry but does show how well it can flower when happy. A north of Auckland friend had it at one stage, in a peat bog on his property and it was truly a sheet of clean pink, when it flowered. Mine was perhaps not quite as generous but always good, all the same. I'm thinking yours is the 'Studland' form too? In 1993 when I was last in England, I remember seeing it in turf on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne when Roger and I stayed there for a few days and walked over every inch of the island, I think. The flowers there though, were a pale shade that could be called "flesh" pink, almost into buff. A great thrill to see it all the same, in the wild. We went to Lindisfarne largely out of curiosity as our own property in NZ was (still is but not ours any more) called Lindisfarne. I think it was the part of England that I loved most of all, do different and quiet and free of tourists once the tide had come up and stopped them from crossing over. Most seemed to come over for just the few hours between tides.

[Lesley Cox]

Leena, your Iris 'Sibtosa Queen' is a lovely plant. Do you know anything about it? The name suggests a hybrid between the setosa and sibirica series and there are many of those, usually listed as x Sibtosa. But it is unusual I think to see the cross with such large standards since I. setosa has virtually no standards at all. The red staining on the buds is very attractive and the plant has a really nice "stately" quality.

[Gabriela]

Lovely Sarracenias Tristan - wouldn't you be able to grow them outside?

A couple of images in matching colours - Polygala paucifolia, from the woods; Allium oreophilum, from the garden.

[Leena]

Leena, your Iris 'Sibtosa Queen' is a lovely plant. Do you know anything about it?

Lesley, it is a hybrid from Tamberg, Germany,  https://tamberg.homepage.t-online.de/iris_offer.htm
Iris Sibtosa hybrid SIBTOSA QUEEN (Tamberg 2001)
On tall stems with two side branches this 3/4-1/4-Sibtosa-hybrid develops up to six flowers, showing initially a strong lavender-pink  that later pales to a lavender hue. In contrast standards and  styles are near white. The intensity and the contrast of colours are unusual for a Siberian hybrid. SIBTOSA QUEEN flowers during the first part of the main flowering period. The variety is vigorous and floriferous. In 2001 it won the trophy for the best spike of a beardless iris at the German iris show in Erfurt.

It is a very good iris at least in my garden, and flowers for quite a long time because of the sidebuds. I have also some other irises from Tamberg and most are very good and thrive here.

[Tristan_He]

Tristan your Anagallis photo may be a little blurry but does show how well it can flower when happy. A north of Auckland friend had it at one stage, in a peat bog on his property and it was truly a sheet of clean pink, when it flowered. Mine was perhaps not quite as generous but always good, all the same. I'm thinking yours is the 'Studland' form too?

It probably is Lesley. The wild forms tend to be a bit paler. I'll try any post a better photo when the flowers are opened.