June 2016 in the Northern Hemisphere

[johnw]

Last night at a friend's we saw this which we presume is a Meconopsis "Lingholm' seedling, a good deep colour.  The Meconopsis are loving this cool damp weather and are lasting ages.  In the same garden the relatively new & highly desirable Enkianthus campanulatus 'Showy Lanterns' as well as a pink Paeonia suffruticoa v. spontanea. Would someone kindly remind me of the new name for that one?

john

[johnw]

Boring to most but to have a Paulownia tomentosa that flowers in the interior of Nova Scotia is quite a coup.   Here is one in Kentville showing the progress made to date.  Maddeningly difficult to photopragh against a blue or grey sky.

john

[Tristan_He]

Love the Enkianthus John, I'll look out for that one. E. campanulatus does well here but mine are a kind of muddy brown. The bees still love them though.

Beautiful Meconopsis. The flower is a very deep blue, but then this is quite variable in Mecs according to conditions. I wonder if it is 'Lingholm' - if it is you should get some seed.

[Carolyn]

The plant was only found in 1993 and described in 1998 in the AGS Bulletin 66  no. 3  page 378 -388
- I have a copy of the article but it is too large to post here - I will email it to anyone interested.

This link to an AGS Ireland  newsletter has a brief mention from Margaret and Henry Taylor.

Thank you, Maggi, most interesting articles.

[Gabriela]

Boring to most but to have a Paulownia tomentosa that flowers in the interior of Nova Scotia is quite a coup.   Here is one in Kentville showing the progress made to date.  Maddeningly difficult to photopragh against a blue or grey sky.
john

This is a VICTORY! 
I also like the Enkianthus.

[Lesley Cox]

It sometimes happens that I accidentally tap the wrong key (more likely the edge of the next key) while writing a reply and the whole lot vanishes altogether and I can't find it, either by the back button at the top left of the screen or the minimize button at the top right. It has happened yet again and I'm trying to remember what I had typed into the Reply box.

Firstly, Tom, your yellow iris is pseudacorus, not forrestii. You'll find it enjoys a very damp or even boggy place but is just as good in a border-type position and not so vigorous.

Secondly, Maggi, thank you for the link to the Ulster Group's Newsletter, a wonderful publication for a local group. I enjoyed it all but especially the article by Kay McDowell about the Czech Conference. It took me right back there. I don't remember Kay though I do remember two Irish women arriving towards the end of the Conference. What a lot has slipped my memory. Someone from the Czech Republic this morning reminded me that I'd met her at the Conference but I couldn't remember that either. But her Facebook photo was very small. Maybe if it had been a little larger.....

[TC]

Yes, I thought it looked like a "Flag Iris" which grow profusely in our boggy coastal areas BUT I hoped I was wrong.

[Roma]

Some general pictures of part of the front garden.
Mainly blue Aquilegias with a few Allium 'Purple Sensation' or seedlings and Verbascum phoeniceum.  The pink one is a hybrid of phoeniceum and a yellow one.

[karel_t]

The best time for Physoplexis 
K.

[astragalus]

Stunning! You seem to have improved on Mother Nature. I've never seen it this good in the wild.

[Regelian]

A seedling finally blooming, Arisaema consanguineum.  Distinguished by the very long spath attenuation, typical of the species, along with the leaf attenuations.  As a comparison a shot of Arisaema ciliatum var. liubaense, which may deserve species status.

[karel_t]

Stunning! You seem to have improved on Mother Nature. I've never seen it this good in the wild.

Anne, the lower plant is 23 years old  and every year it has about 50 clumps of flowers.
K.

[astragalus]

Anne, the lower plant is 23 years old  and every year it has about 50 clumps of flowers.
K.

Amazing to have such a difficult plant (at least for me) that long.  That seems to be tufa in your picture.  Is it planted in the tufa itself? Is it ever fertlized in any way that it keeps flowering so magnificently?

[admin]

I can't  find a section named "Seed Heads Now" but thus will do. A  Clematis seed head with a few leaves.

[admin]

Rodgersia, Olearia (macrodonta?), two Aquilgeia and Azara serrata. All at Pitmuies Garden. A lovely place and a mere £5 to get in.