Flowers and foliage June 2008

[art600]

I inherited this clematis and wondered if anyone could identify it.

[olegKon]

Can it be Vill de Lion?

[Paddy Tobin]

Oleg,

I am amazed to see plants in flower with you which have not yet flowered here with me in the mild climate of the south of Ireland. I would have presumed your climate would be much more harsh than ours and it is cerainly is startling to see clamatis integrifolia and veratrum album, among the others, so much more advanced than here.

Lovely selection of photographs,

Paddy

[Michael J Campbell]

Paddy, I have been watching the pictures from Hans in Germany all spring, and they are about three weeks ahead of us, strange as I thought we had a very  mild climate.

[Maggi Young]

Don't you think that where the climate is milder, there is no hurry for the plants to rush into growth, so they come along at a steady pace, whereas where the winters are colder the plants are very grateful to see theend of winter and rush into growth and flower to make the most of their season?

[Lvandelft]

Can anybody identify these please.  The foxglove seeds around (fortunately), it is approx 75cm tall.

Arthur, the first one might possibly be Salvia sclarea.

[art600]

Can it be Vill de Lion?

Having googled Ville de Lyon, it does look like my clematis.  However, Ville de Lyon appears lighter in colour - maybe poor photos

[arisaema]

Isn't it just a heat issue? Cold winters/hot summers (continental) vs. mild winters/cool summers (maritime)?

[Kristl Walek]

Art,
Luit beat me to it---I am fairly certain it is Salvia sclarea---could be the straight species or var. turkestanica.

I feel so certain because I love the plant at this preliminary emergence stage---and have in the past often photographed it to death at this point...interestingly, it is exactly at the same point here right now in Canada.

Kristl

[Maggi Young]

Arthur, the foxglove is a Digitalis lutea ...I reckon. Pretty variable in the amount of colour, always pretty and seeding about gently.

[Kristl Walek]

May I have some help identifying the Alyssum, please. I tentatively think it is A. caespitosum....?
Unique in that it begins bloom much later than most of the spring species (as in just recently) and has an *extremely* long bloom period (almost all summer?). Tiny, grey foliage, as shown.

The only Centaurea relative I grow--Aethiopappus pulcherrimum --a beautiful, too well-behaved plant; no good seed ever, has not spread, and I cross my fingers each year that it will be back. I grow it in the sand bed.

My native Lonicera hirsuta I posted on the "My Bit Of Heaven" thread a while ago, when it first opened--for those of you not reading that thread, I thought to post it here, as it is having a superb year and just keeps blooming and blooming and....

Yes, there are some great Tradescantia (more to come later). This North American native species - T. ohioensis---is a fantastic plant--foliage is actually very grey- doesn't show in the picture---intense blooms where one can see them. It likes it hot and dry.

[olegKon]

Paddy, it certainly must be a result of the continental climate. We always lag behind in spring and then try to catch up with the rest of Europe having everything together with the last frit near a flowering Veratrum.
Cannot agree more with Maggi: Arthur's foxglove is D. lutea.
Sorry for misspelling the name of the clematis, Arthur. Still can't think of anything else similar to yours. Does the growth begin both from the ground and high on last year shoots? It's always the way with Ville de Lyon.
And this is what I bought as Allium darwasicum last year. A. karataviense, isn't it?

[art600]

Oleg
Yes it does grow as you described.  Last year it was smothered with flowers - many hundreds.

[Blue-bellied Frog]

Foliage in the rain.
Never place Sanguisorba canadensis in a flower bed.
It is very very invasive


Alchemilla mollis
 Osmonda claytonia
 Osmonda regalis
 Sanguisorba canadensis

[Blue-bellied Frog]

Today's flowers. (I have more but...)
I didn't cut this Aster! (An artiste ?)


Aster alpinus Dark Beauty
 Aster alpinus Dark Beauty
 Haberlea rhodopensis
 Veronica fruticans