Flowers and Foliage July 2008

[Anthony Darby]

Couldn't have been so bad if you can still eat grapes Cliff!

LOVE that word 'injudicious', Maggi ... it has really cheered me up in this hospital bed.  All cards, grapes, flowers, best wishes and rare seeds to Ward 43 (mixed) via Mrs. Ranunculus at our usual solicitors please.

[Rafa]

More videos,this is Spain!
http://waste.ideal.es/videoswaste.htm#

Nice videos - I think I should leave my island from time to time...

I think Mallorca would be amazing place as well, but too little

[David Pilling]

...Lilium formosanum var. pricei seedlings. I sowed a batch of ten on 12 June 2007, from seed Lesley sent me, and think I potted them when they were too small and lost four of them.

I got some seed from Lesley too, sowed on the 30th. May 2007. One of them is about to flower...

Having killed a few L. formosanum from seed getting to these dizzy heights, I incline to the idea that not disturbing the roots (pot on the entire pot of seedlings) and good drainage are needed. My three bulbs have spent their entire lives in the (unheated) greenhouse. In Winter they kept their foliage - temperatures didn't go much below zero for long this year.

Only four of the seeds I got germinated in June 2007, the rest took until November 2007 - obviously Spring time in NZ.

[Lesley Cox]

Only four of the seeds I got germinated in June 2007, the rest took until November 2007 - obviously Sring time in NZ.

I wonder why this is? Frequently when I sow seed from the northern hemisphere 1 or 2 will germinate quickly while the rest will germinate 6 months or a year or 18 months later. When seeds are often from a single pod, what makes 1 come quickly while the others wait - and wait?

[Anthony Darby]

Maturity of the seed perhaps? I know that immature orchid seed germinate fast but mature seed often needs chilled for a few months after sowing.

[David Pilling]

I wonder why this is? Frequently when I sow seed from the northern hemisphere 1 or 2 will germinate quickly while the rest will germinate 6 months or a year or 18 months later.

Variations between seeds in whatever inhibits germination... with your L. Formosanum I tried some in the fridge, some I soaked, some I put outside where it is cool. They all germinated indoors in Winter.

L. Formosanum seed from Northern hemisphere sources germinates at once, but I've only tried them indoors in Winter, maybe it depends on day length, airfreight, or was an oddity of the seeds I had and how I grew them.

[Lvandelft]

During some dry spells this week I could make some pictures.
This are plants which not really like our "summer" weather.

Dierama dracomontanum                   
Dierama pulcherrimum 1               
Dierama pulcherrimum 2

[Kristl Walek]

Campanula alliarifolia and the very closely related C. makaschvilii.

Digitalis laevigata.

And the last flower stalk of Thermopsis villosa (caroliniana).

[Lvandelft]

A good plant on my raised bed is this Saponaria, though it is an easy summer
flowering plant for all sunny welldrained places in the garden.
And I show an long known Veronicastrum and an improved one
by selection.

Saponaria x lempergii Max Frei     
Veronicastrum virginicum           
Veronicastrum virginicum Fascination

[johanneshoeller]

Some Bletillas

[Lesley Cox]

I don't know that Saponaria Luit, a hybrid presumably from S. ocymoides? I have always thought Saponaria is one of the most under-rated genera and I can't understand why, when it contains some outstanding plants like SS. pumilio, caespitosa, 'Olivana', 'Bressingham Hybrid' and others. I get spontaneous hybrids here as well, in my troughs and raised beds. A new one which I'll show in the spring, is a seedling from S. pumilio but obviously pollinated by the nearby S. lutea, with soft orangey-pink flowers in short-stemmed clusters on a neat little pad. A honey of a plant which I think I shall name and propagate.

[Paul T]

Hans,

I love seeing those different Bletilla.  so unusual. 

[Lvandelft]

I don't know that Saponaria Luit, a hybrid presumably from S. ocymoides?

Lesley, this is a cross of S. cypria x S. haussknechtii, (in the garden of Dr. Fritz Lemperg in SE. Austria) which is long flowering, from June to September.
The Cultivar ‘Max Frei’ originated in Switzerland and starts flowering earlier.

Dr. Fritz Lemperg  was an Austrian botanist who explored in the Balcan Area, before 1940..

[Paul T]

Luit,

Sorry, I'd missed your pics.  Love that last Veronicastrum.  Rather elegant looking.  I don't know Saponaria.

[Kristl Walek]

For every invasive there is a vase....