September 2024 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Véronique Macrelle]

when my pots of Arisaema cilitatum var liubaense have lost their leaves, I find it amusing to turn my growing pot upside down to count the tubers.
 as after a year or two with less care and excess weather, my number of Arisaema plants had fallen back, i've been pampering them this year.

 I find that Arisaema ciliatum in pots produce many more bulbils than in the ground.
 in a 20 cm pot, with good, rich soil and watering with a light liquid fertiliser every 15 days: it's a big improvement!

at the start, I had about thirty leaves, many of them very small, and only 2 produced male flowers.
Now I have 8 tubers that are sure to flower next year (3 cm), or even more (maybe the 2 cm tubers will flower...). All in all, a harvest of 125 tubers .

[Véronique Macrelle]

one day i was given a small piece of Sedum rupestris which had become cristate in a friend's garden.

I wasn't necessarily attracted to this plant at first, but changed my mind after 2 years. It is very stable in its cristation, because even the stems that grow back normally end up becoming cristated again.
 When massed, this sturdy plant gives a very nice mossy impression.
It can also be used to make remarkable undulations (length of undulation 17 cm).
In fact, it fascinates everyone, and non-gardeners think it's moss

 Do you know if it is marketed under a cultivar name?

[Véronique Macrelle]

My Caiophora lateritia are still flowering and it's a really pretty flower: hanging, bright orange, 5 or 6 cm in diameter.
 The flowers are initially male. In fact, if you touch the stamens a little vigorously (like a bumblebee), the styles turn towards the centre. Then, after a week, as in the photo, the pistil finally elongates while the petals tighten around it.
It's quite cool here at the moment (overnight at 9°C) and I have the impression that these plants would like more warmth.
However, several plants are flowering in their large pots and I have at least 3 large twisted fruits developing.

[Robert]

Véronique,

The flower of Calophora lateritia appears beautiful. Jasmin and I enjoyed your observations of the flower’s behavior over time. Thank you so much for sharing!     

The weather here in our part of Northern California has turned cool with much below average temperatures and even a trace of precipitation – nothing measurable in our area, however the Sierra Nevada Mountains are getting rain and thunderstorms. It is our autumn harvest season. We are very busy harvesting, and planting winter crops. I do have a few things to post, but right now there is little time for anything but harvesting and planting. Hot weather is forecasted to arrive in a few days.

[Paul Cumbleton]

Véronique, in the U.K. your Sedum is marketed as Sedum rupestre 'Cristatum'. I agree it is an excellent plant, makes a good ground cover, propagates easily, and even flowers well which is a little unusual for cristate plants in general.
Paul

[Mariette]

Some plants the slugs left over...

Salvia confertiflora on the terrace, together with Hedychium gardnerianum. As the evenings are still quite warm, the latter wafts its fragrance through the open door. 



Most of my colchicums do not flower this year, yet the native ones appear somewhat more resistant to slugs.






A variegated seedling of Geranium pratense shows coloured leaves in autumn, as well.



A seedling of Arum italicum.

[Robert]

Hi Mariette,

20 years ago I grew Salvia confertiflora. It is such a lovely species. I enjoyed its fuzzy orange-red flowering spikes and bold appearance. This species is too large for our current garden configuration; however I have fond memories of this species. This is good for me.

Currently, we are experiencing another heat wave. The forecasted high temperature today (24 September) is near 100 F (37.78 C). This will set a new high temperature record for the date. Other high temperature records continue to fall. Currently this summer/autumn, we have experienced 44 days where high temperatures have reached or exceeded 100 F (37.78 C). If we reach 100 F today that will be 45 days. Ugh! And there are many other troubling climatic trends. For example, currently 58% of the durum and winter wheat crops in the U.S.A. are being affected by drought. Planting winter wheat in dry soil is not a good situation. Conditions in Kansas and Montana are poor, the two major wheat growing regions in the U.S.A. According to the global crop reports I read, there have been a number of major crop losses throughout the world this year. The heat wave that impacted the Indian wheat harvest is just one example. These very troubling and unfavorable weather/climatic conditions appear to be impacting those that enjoy growing ornamental plants too.



This Salvia coccinea seedling came up in one of our containers this summer. It has nice deep red flowers and will bloom all summer, a difficult time of year for many flowering plants in our garden these days (We want flowers during the summer). This species is very heat tolerant, perennial and grows well in our soil without any special soil needs. It works well in our new garden scheme, especially since our personal seed bank has a broad degree of genetic diversity of this species to draw on.



I planted our Salvia hispanica late this year. If considered for flowers only, this species grows too large for our garden. However, I use the seeds in a protein drink I make most days, so it is an important food source for us. The purple-blue flowers of this species are very attractive. The species is very heat tolerant. We will continue to grow this species.



This Aquilegia barnebyi hybrid, with many of its sister seedlings, survived being moved this summer. It is a very dwarf plant, blooms abundantly with small A. barnebyi-like flowers, and has blue-green foliage that I enjoy. It grows well in our garden soil without any special effort. This is a keeper. Now it is time to learn how to use it effectively in our garden. I wish I were an artist.
[Jasmin]:  Robert underestimates his abilities.  Maybe it serves our garden, since both of us contribute to its evolution.

[Vinny 123]

Véronique, in the U.K. your Sedum is marketed as Sedum rupestre 'Cristatum'. I agree it is an excellent plant, makes a good ground cover, propagates easily, and even flowers well which is a little unusual for cristate plants in general.
Paul

Is it really cristate, whatever it is named? Having previously grown very large numbers of cacti and succulents, with no interest at all in "oddities", cristate and monstrose always left me trying to remember what each meant, but cristate is a mutation of the growing point, is it not? Usually from a point to a line.

I would hazard a guess that this rather attractive plant is "tortuose", if such a thing/word exists - as in contorted willow or hazel.
Agreed, flowering - very uncommon in such oddities.

[Véronique Macrelle]

Mariette: Salvia confertiflora is really beautiful, I love it! but how hardy is it? only for growing in pots?
 and Arum italicum is already showing its first leaves now? there's nothing here yet...

Robert: climate change is really worrying. Here we've had 2 years where it was too hot and dry, and then this year it was so much hotter that the garden was covered in water during the winter months, and we couldn't work the soil in the vegetable garden until May.

 And yet: in some places, the soil just can't get over it, it doesn't seem to know how to rehydrate again. There are still ‘pockets of baked earth’, even though they've been soaking in water for almost 6 months.
it has rained abundantly and almost every week, but 2 cm wide dry cracks have appeared. It's very strange...

Between too much water and too much drought, in 3 years a lot of plants have gone. I'm wondering how to adapt...
 

[Mariette]

Véronique, Salvia confertiflora is considered to be too tender to be grown outdoors all year round in our climate. If You do not wish to overwinter the plant  in frost-free condtions as I do, You may take cuttings, which are said to root easily. They may rest on Your windowsill during winter and later be planted out in the garden, where they may devlop into sizeable plants, as shown here:

https://forum.garten-pur.de/viewtopic.php?t=74417&start=75

As I grow quite a lot of Arum italicum and others, I have to say that only a very small percentage shows its leaves by now. The soil in my garden has been wet now for 14 months, and many plants sprouting in autumn may feel that they lack the dry rest during summer.

[Robert]

Hi Véronique,

The environmental effects of the rapid climatic changes taking place on the planet are certainly troubling and impacting gardeners everywhere. The good news is that we are not helpless to find workable solutions and create resiliency in our gardens. The Forum gives us the opportunity to discuss methodologies that can be used or modified to ameliorate the challenges we face that are unique to our gardening circumstances. Thank you for sharing your observations.

These are my experiences with Salvia confertiflora. I found Salvia confertiflora easy to root from cuttings. 25-30 years ago I rooted hundreds of them each year. The clones of Salvia confertiflora that I grew were very tender to frost. They could endure only short periods of time at 0 to -1 C before severe damage to the plant occurred. I never found any forms that possessed a greater degree of cold hardiness. Even if such forms exist, there are certainly limits to the degree of cold that this species can endure.