August in the Northern Hemisphere

[Gerdk]

Here is a question -

What does this plant really want to say?

                                          a)  I need a stick to climb on

                                          b)  help me - I need some water

                                           

Gerd

[brianw]

My problem with them, annual or perennial, is how to avoid red spider. No decent insecticides now.

[brianw]

The house heating came on last night, the grass is too long and wet to cut, it is too cold and I picked these mushrooms from the garden 2 days ago. The largest is 5" across. They found their way through and around weed suppressing fabric that has been down ~3 year. Never seen these before here. Other fungi yes but not these.

This is summer??

[François Lambert]

After 5 months that have been extremely dry here (we received about 5 cm of rain in the period March - July here, I must live on one of the driest spots of the country and it's the second time in 5 years that we have such strong local drought), dayly watering (thanks god I have taken my precautions when renovating the house and placed rainwater tank with a capacity of 30.000 liter) I do have a few plants flowering, not an easy task because the wet environment of the pots also attracts slugs that feast on my delicate plants

but anyway ...



Begonia Cucullata is flowering.  I received this one as a 'weed' in the pot of another plant, and this begonia has gone weedy in my pots.  But a lovely plant that needs little care and is self sowing very strongly.


Very happy to have some summer flowers on my Cautleya Spicata, in spring they are grazed to the ground by the slugs


and my summer reliable bloomer Hedychium Coccineum

[Graham Catlow]

A couple of views from the garden.
The first is of a bed with Dierama 'Merlin' and various varieties of Agapanthus in flower. The Geranium x magnificum were in flower much earlier. I am dissapointed with the backdrop in the photo which I'm hoping will eventually be blanked out by a Ceanothus.

The second photo is of my apple box 'theatre'.
It contains various dwarf conifers a row of dwarf hostas mainly the 'mouse' varieties, three 'ground cover' roses and a couple of Lithodora. Either end has a young clematis ready to climb over the top of the boxes and on the right is a tree heather and on the left is an upright hosta. The colour is provided by petunias.

[Carolyn]

The apple box theatre is a super idea, Graham. Do you put different plants in at different times of year? I imagine it would look good with spring bulbs - especially ones which sometimes get battered by bad weather - retic irises, crocus, etc. The boxes offer some protection.
Where did you get your apple boxes?

[Graham Catlow]

Hi Carolyn,
I built this last year mainly for my Pleiones but it didn't work for them and I then tried crocus this Spring but it wasn't great for them either as they all grew forward towards the light and they didn't look good. The boxes face East and perhaps don't get the length of sunlight that they would if they faced South. They lose the sun just after mid day. I decided to use the dwarf conifers as they are all prostrate and I thought they would look ok growing forwards and downwards. The same with the roses and Lithodora. I think I will just accept that there will be no colour in the winter but still have the conifers. I was surprised from the start how little rain gets into the boxes so regular watering is necessary.
The boxes were purchased from e-bay (there are a number of suppliers). Mine were imported from Poland. Very cheap and really low cost transport.

[Carolyn]

Interesting. I wonder if cyclamen coum would do well for some winter colour?

[Steve Garvie]

An out of season flower on Pulsatilla bungeana.


Gloriosa superba


Petrocosmea coerulea

[Robert]

We are finally removing part of our house. Now we will have more garden space!     

For the time, the garden is in chaos. Everything (including many plants) had to be moved away from this part of the house so there would be no accidental damage. Pots of plants are scattered throughout the garden until the removal is complete. We will have room for a formal rock garden. And more sunny places to plant! (most of the garden is shady.)



Symphyotrichum spathulatum is in bloom throughout our garden. The flowers attract many beneficial insects, including butterflies and bees.



Penstemon rydbergii var. oreocharis. This Pesntemon species does quite nicely in our garden. This little clump will have many flowers next spring.



Eriogonum umbellatum var. smallianum. This variety is newly planted. It should form a nice low mat.



Eriogonum elatum. From the eastern Sierra Nevada. This one is in a tub and should bloom next spring.

[David King]

A Stapelia Hirsuta in flower at the moment.

[Gail]

Is that one of the aromatic ones David?

[Brian Ellis]

Not strongly scented but when you stick your nose in it you know it!

[Robert]

Some of my favorite gray foliage species.



Artemisia arbuscula ssp. arbuscula. It stays very low and compact. In the winter it looks dead, however I have to admit that I like the winter look. This is one of many native California Artemisia species we grow.



Eriogonum wrightii var. subscaposum. This form is very compact. Seed from the Carson Pass region of Alpine County, California. The flowering stems got twisted-up when we moved the tub recently.    We also grow other forms of Eriogonum wrightii. They have been very easy to please in our garden.

Behind it is a small seedling of Packera cana. I thought that it died this past winter, however it came back strongly. Packera cana is a high elevation species from the Sierra Nevada.

[GordonT]

A few shots from around the garden today. The big news is that my seedling Nelumbo nucifera var. komarovii has bloomed for the first time!

Last year, we planted a drift of Matteucia struthiopteris beside Cercis canadensis 'Ruby Falls' (it had lost its lead a few years earlier) and here is the result in morning light


In another area of the garden, Scutellaria baicalensis continues to crank out flowers. I now have a few seedlings from this one, wich will augment the clump

A final hit this season has been our small Peach tree. It has now been in the ground through three winters, planted in perhaps the worst soil on site. Last summer it produced three peaches which were halfway between a golf ball and tennis ball in size. This year there were almost 100 peaches... greedy me didn't thin them as much as I should have, (learned too late that peaches should be thinned to 6 inches apart on the branches - for best fruit size) but all are larger than tennis balls.