Flowers and Foliage July 2008

[Lvandelft]

About three weeks ago I showed plants in our garden, of which I cannot resist
showing them again and still in full flower, though the Erigeron will be over in two weeks.


Erigeron Sommerneuschnee (Snowwhite)             
Geranium Jolly Bee   

[Maggi Young]

Luit, I believe it is interesting for people to see that someof these plants will flower for a good length of time, providing weeks of pleasure for us. Too often the fact that some blooms are very fleeting causes people to believe that all flowers will pass in a short time..... you are proving otherwise!

[Paul T]

Maggi,

I won't post a pic here in th northern thread, but that Beaugainvillea that I posted pics of in flower before Christmas is still in flower now..... normally has been hit back by the frosts by now, but not this year.  We should get 10 months of continuous flower out of it this season, although obviously there are times of year where there were more flowers than others.  THAT is pretty impressive in a frosty climate! 

That mass of Geranium looks fantastic Luit.  Wish I had the space to plant big masses like that here, or else let plants expand to that size if they want to. 

[Anthony Darby]

Hi Paul

Bougainvillea struggles in an unheated greenhouse here and would perish in said GH in the winter (I don't bother as it is more trouble than it is worth). Likewise Citrus. I have a miniature orange tree which has yet to be put on the patio this year. I was waiting for it to flower. Fat chance! It will be out next week, as will the Protea cynaroides and Cycas revoluta. We head off to Croatia in two weeks time, so needs must. The latter produces new leaves every other year, if I'm lucky; the former has yet to flower, even though it is a mature plant. I need something small and hardy [to 5^oC] that will flower in an 8" pot. A dwarf Banksia perhaps? Tried seed but the seedlings always damp off, even with copper fungicide, so rooted cuttings or small plants?

[Paul T]

Anthony,

Probably our summer heat maturing things again..... the Beaug grows against an eastern wall, so it gets a bit or warmth overnight that way in winter, but not much.  I have it attached to the wall and once it has been hit by frost I leave it that way until it starts reshooting (about early October or so) underneath as we get to spring.  Usually then I trim it back to about 6 inches thick on the wall and it bursts straight into flower, then continues on flowering until we get heavy frosts, usually in June.  Against tthe wall it survives the -8'c or so, but the base is well protected, so even if the top got burnt compeltely off it would reshoot from ground level.  The main thing with them is to keep them on the dry side, as they grow and flower much better.  Mine pretty much never gets any deliberate watering, just a bit of runoff from the shadehouse next to it (the shadehouse is only there the last couple of years, it grew without it for about 7 years before that).  Anyway, I'm not meaning to sidetrack this topic.

[Kristl Walek]

I've been too busy to post much these days, although there is more than plenty happening in the garden.

This dwarf form of Allium paniculatum (barely 3-4" tall) is utterly charming.

The North American heat-loving Callirhoe involucrata needs plenty of space (4-5' spread in every direction from a single prostrate plant)---the magenta cups started a while ago, and will bloom right into autumn.

The Northern Catalpa, C. speciosa is in full swing.

And Seseli gummiferum loves it in the scree garden.

[Kristl Walek]

Many of the hardy succulents are of course blooming at this time--

Here are just a few of the small Sedums that I like.

I really love Sedum lydium--beautiful red foliage in cold weather, but I struggle to keep it in the garden.

S. amplexicaule is an interesting species--just finishing it's bloom now---it then goes summer dormant,  leaving naked stems with small propagules at the ends, which fall off and will begin to grow in the fall. The plant then springs back to life and the foliage remains evergreen until bloom time the following summer.

The tiny S. dasyphyllum.

What I know as S. album micranthum chloroticum has bead-like strings of foliage and white flowers.

And two North American natives for shade:

S. nevii, grows on wet, mossy cliffs in the Appalachians, and S. ternatum is found in shady woods in the eastern USA.

[Katherine J]

Luit,
you have a nice Geranium collection!

[mark smyth]

Jolly Bee = Rozanne

[Lvandelft]

Jolly Bee = Rozanne

Sorry Mark, but Jolly Bee originated in Holland, about 8 Km. from here, at the
nursery of Marco van Noort, who is a perennial cultivator and innovator of new
plants. He is a beekeeper and let the bees do the pollination.
Another Geranium of him is Sweet Heidy.
In my opinion is Jolly Bee the better plant because it flowers here much better as
Rozanne, which I have too.
There is about no difference in both plants.

[johanneshoeller]

Campanula waldsteiniana

[Maggi Young]

A note about main website update to "the Rock Garden" Index......


Very remiss of me, I forgot to mention that there is an updated index to "The Rock Garden" online in the main site, also: this courtesy of Glassford Sprunt, hero of the parish of Bridge of Allan! 

See the Index here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/index/SRGC%20Introduction%20&%20Index.pdf
It is complete up to issue No.  121 

[Kristl Walek]

A few weeks ago I posted pictures of the newest addition to the rock garden...and was told that he was getting ready to change skins...one could see it in his glazed blue eyes.

And then he disappeared, and I have watched for him ever since.

Today my blue-eyed friend came back as a brown-eyed boy...and with pretty new clothes.

He lives in a cool, dark hole underneath the Antennaria alpina.

[Viola]

Pics from yesterday-Austrian Mt.

Karl
Geum montanum
 Draba tomentosa
 Androsace hausmannii
 Hochmölbing, 02.07.08 054
 Minuartia verna
 Papaver alpina
 Traunsteinera globosa ?

[Viola]

More pics.

Karl

Campanula alpina
 Androsace hausmannii
 Gentiana clusii
 Helianthemum oelandicum ssp.alpestre
 Schrocken 2.289m