May in the Northern Hemisphere

[Maggi Young]

Sweet Leontopdium Gran Sasso - the Giro d'Italia went up that mountain today!

Phacelia campanularia and Mohavea confertiflora  are both annual plants.

[Leucogenes]

Sweet Leontopdium Gran Sasso - the Giro d'Italia went up that mountain today!

Phacelia campanularia and Mohavea confertiflora  are both annual plants.

Wow... a woman who knows sports. Fantastic. By the way... I've always been Scottish at snooker. Even if it was only second this year. John Higgins is the greatest. 😊

Thanks also for the information regarding the annual plants.

Thomas

[Hoy]

Trond,

The photographs look like the vole damage we would get at the farm. It is hard to earn a living farming with armies of voles running around.

How often is there vole damage as you pictured? Do you think that the winter snowfall, cold temperatures, or the length of time with snow on the ground were contributing factors?

Robert,

Fortunately I do not have gardening  as a living neither at home nor at the cabin!

Vole damage vary with a top about every 4th year. It has little to do with temperature as long as it is a thick blanket of snow. The snow protect them from both predators and freezing temperatures. (Also lemmings and other small rodents have a similar cycle.)

Hi Trond,

Nice photographs! 

Now that the snow has, more or less, melted the landscaping will be greening-up?

Thanks Robert.

The meadow close to the cabin transformed from bleak and grey to alive and green in the 4 days we stayed there. In another week it will be a lot of flowers in the meadows and the trees will have leafed out. The bogs and wet areas take several weeks to get some colour.

[Hoy]

Thanks for sharing Trond, I love this type of habitat and flora - it was these plants that started me on my horticultural and gardening journey.

Ian,

You are welcome! My pleasure.

[Robert]

Hi Robert

I believe it is Eriogonum kennedyi var. alpigenum.

Today I started to prick different seedlings from North America.
Astragalus coccineus, Cryptantha abata, some different small penstemons and different townsendia ...and some others. Some got a place in particularly high pots.

Another question...are Phacelia campanularia and Mohavea confertiflora annual plants? Because they already bloom in pots.

Thomas

Thomas,

Phacelia campanularia is annual. It is a desert species native to the southeastern portion of California (a very long distance from our home in Northern California). The same is true for both species of Mohavea, M. breviflora and M. confertiflora.

Phacelia purpusii from seed gathered on Peavine Ridge is blooming in our garden at this time. At low elevation, most of the plants bloom with washed out colors, in this case very pale lavender. This is an interesting project: breeding and selecting forms that have deeper colored flowers even here in the Sacramento Valley. This may be genetically infeasible, but I will not know unless I try.   

I am very glad to hear that you have many fine species coming along. My experience has been that I have much more success with Astragalus sowing them directly where they are to grow. For me, at least, 99.99999% die when transplanted. I guess there is room for my gardening skills to improve. 

[hamparstum]

Thomas
   Phacelia campanularia just finished blooming for me a couple of weeks ago. Once in bloom it provided the beautiful purplish blue flowers since midsummer onwards. Mine were spring sown inside. Yours are already in bloom. Did you sow them in winter inside? or even in fall?. I've kept seeds and was wondering if they should be sown now ( fall in the southern hemisphere). Although it is a desert species, at least here, it loved to get regular bottom watering.I found it a very interesting addition to the summer rock garden colour specially for its ease in cultivation.

Robert I'll have to try Phacelia purpusii. There are quite a few native Phacelia here as well. They seem to like highly altered landscapes. Here they grow right next to road ditches and bloom profusely until early frost. I've yet to do the proper ID, but I did collect some seeds this past April.

Arturo

[Robert]

Arturo.

We have a fair number of Phacelia species that are native to our part of California. Some are perennial, others annual. Phacelia purpusii can be found in disturbed areas. I gathered seed of Phacelia purpusii in an andesite boulder field that burned over about 30 years ago. Many Arctostaphylos have recolonized the area, but much of it remains open.

[Yann]

Did you wear a wetsuit to traverse  le marais?
(Attachment Link)

No but i should invest for next season, it was my last spring bogs walk, i'm now travelling to dry landscapes.

[Lampwick]

Vacinium nummularia. The new leaves arrive bright red (that’s not a good colour description, is it? But that’s the best I got from Google). Myself, I would say the colour and sheen of raw liver, or am I being silly? They have tiny whiskers around the edge of each leaf.

And then a close up. 

[Maggi Young]

Vacinium nummularia. The new leaves arrive bright red (that’s not a good colour description, is it? But that’s the best I got from Google). Myself, I would say the colour and sheen of raw liver, or am I being silly? They have tiny whiskers around the edge of each leaf.

And then a close up. 

  Hmmm.... raw liver?  Well, maybe!  It's better than "bright red", anyway!

[Robert]

More photographs from our garden.

There was a major north wind event the other day. This was not so good for the garden. The stately stems of Penstemon palmeri var. palmeri were looking great, however the strong winds knocked them all over. The flowers still look nice. At least they were not broken off by the strong winds.



Nigella damascena is a weedy annual in our garden. Despite this I always keep some as I am weeding. Now that they are blooming the remaining plants look great growing up through things, such as this dwarf form of Rhododendron racemosum.



I am extremely pleased that our annual native Gilia capitata is starting to reseed and establish itself in our garden. In sunny areas I am allowing it the replace the Nigella. Someday, I hope to have an number of part shade loving California native annuals that replace the Nigella.



Digitalis dubia with Aquilegia seedlings. This combination looks good too. I planted the Digitalis, but the Aquilegia are mostly random seedlings that I allow to grow. I never know for sure what I might get, and sometimes things work out great. I like this sort of gardening. 

[hamparstum]

Robert, I wouldn't mind having Nigella sativa instead.! Its seeds are delicious in so many different cuisines! I wouldn't mind having Gilia capitata growing randomly either....

[Robert]

Arturo,

There are a number of California native Gilia species that I would like to get established in our Sacramento garden. All in time. 

Sometime in the distant past, I think that I enjoyed food prepared with Nigella sativa seed. A very foggy memory. We have many ethnic food stores in Sacramento. It would be interesting to find Nigella sativa and give it a try (refresh the memory    ).

A few more plants from our Sacramento garden.



Salvia spathacea, California Hummingbird Sage. This is one of a number of California native Salvias that we have blooming in our garden right now. The Hummingbirds like all of them.



Penstemon roezlii looking great. It looks even better in our garden than in the wild! I'll keep working on this one and see if I can come up with something even better for our garden. 



Geranium dalmaticum - very common, but I would not be without it! I will be propagating more to spread around the garden.

A large Alligator Lizard, Elgaria sp., showed up in our garden yesterday! We have not seen one here in decades. We are putting in much effort to create habitat in our garden. Many friends, such as the Alligator Lizard, are starting to show up. Very 

[hamparstum]

Robert
"Penstemon roezlii looking great. It looks even better in our garden than in the wild! I'll keep working on this one and see if I can come up with something even better for our garden.  "
Please do!. I'm partial to your penstemons. Unfortunately my first trial failed, but I'm willing to persevere. My Pent. palmerii are healthy looking first year seedlings! I know that when in bloom they'll be gorgeous. Your comment about flopping over with wind, restricts my planting scheme; still I wouldn't want to do without them...like your Digitalis dubia or your Geranium dalmaticum.

[Lampwick]

Todays pictures. . .

Aethionema armenum ‘Warley Rubra'
Asperula suberosa
Azalea japonica 'Geisha Pink'
Halimiocistus libanotis
Veronica prostrata 'Little Nell'