Plants flowering in the open rock garden.April May '09

[maggiepie]

i'm surprised you have blackflies--i thought those were up north in the bush--i've never seen them in person..

the one thing i know i will have to use some strong language with is ants! they are absolutely everywhere here--our old house was made with local logs, and the ants ate it... there are a few spots i want to plant where i will have to insist they move out of...lol

Cohan, you are welcome to all of ours, they arrived in full force on Saturday, hate smothering myself in DEET.
They seem to find me extra tasty and where I get bitten I swell up and itch, takes days for the swelling and itching to go away.
I also have heaps of ants, the worst ones are huge ( I think ) carpenter ants, they get into pots and eat the roots, they almost killed my favourite clematis seedling last year and they are super smart, I kid you not, they see you and they veer off and hide, very fast too.
I don't think they have nests like most ants but seem to be solitary.
So if you come up with a way to get rid of them, please let me know.

[maggiepie]

Errr, don't count on it, Helen!    The fragrance is certainly sweet... perhaps jasmine-ish?  Since they are only a couple of inches tall, one has to hunker down to sniff them... a half-acre of them would smell great, though! 

Thanks Lori, maybe I will have to look out for some seed and try them myself, I can relate to getting on your belly trying to smell tiny flowers.

[Maggi Young]

Errr, don't count on it, Helen!    The fragrance is certainly sweet... perhaps jasmine-ish?  Since they are only a couple of inches tall, one has to hunker down to sniff them... a half-acre of them would smell great, though! 

Thanks Lori, maybe I will have to look out for some seed and try them myself, I can relate to getting on your belly trying to smell tiny flowers.

Here we see amply demonstrated the advantages of growing in a glass house!! Plants raised up to the nose and a dry belly      Now for MY take on the scent of this little charmer.... musky honey. 

[maggiepie]

Here we see amply demonstrated the advantages of growing in a glass house!! Plants raised up to the nose and a dry belly      Now for MY take on the scent of this little charmer.... musky honey. 

Maggi, by musky honey, would you say it is similar to honeysuckle?
Btw, my little viridiflora was fragrant last night just after the rain, it was wonderful, but the scent is too elusive for me to describe it.

[Maggi Young]

Maggi, by musky honey, would you say it is similar to honeysuckle?

No, not like honeysuckle at all.... I'll give it some thought!!

[derekb]

Maggi, by musky honey, would you say it is similar to honeysuckle?

No, not like honeysuckle at all.... I'll give it some thought!!

Maggi Deep fried Mars Bars
                      Derek

[Lori S.]

Cohan, I think it just comes down to that we have different frames of reference re. both bug and bird populations, LOL!  (My frame of reference is the northern boreal forest (I suspect only the Arctic may be worse!), and for birds, being on a migratory flyway, where we'd see hundreds or even thousands of individuals of a species in a day during migration, and then on breeding grounds (for many) - which kindled a childhood interest in birds into making us both pretty keen birders (daily lists, sighting reports and nesting records to American Birds, etc. - all that bordering-on-the-fanatical stuff  ).  Moving to Alberta was a huge difference for both.) 

Here we see amply demonstrated the advantages of growing in a glass house!! Plants raised up to the nose and a dry belly.

Well, if I took over the greenhouse to grow alpines, I'm afraid my husband would pitch a fit - that's where he grows his water lilies (above ground ponds), and summers his tropical fish.  I already get accused a couple of times a year of taking over too much space! 

[Maggi Young]

Here we see amply demonstrated the advantages of growing in a glass house!! Plants raised up to the nose and a dry belly.

Well, if I took over the greenhouse to grow alpines, I'm afraid my husband would pitch a fit - that's where he grows his water lilies (above ground ponds), and summers his tropical fish.  I already get accused a couple of times a year of taking over too much space! 

Wow, your husband's interests ARE different!! 

[Lesley Cox]

Yes Simon, you're right about the salix. I believe the single natural hybrid was found by William Brack Boyd, in the 1880s and is thought to be lanata x reticulata. My old one is about 50cms high or was, at its best but in the last few years odd branches have died off and have been trimmed in my hope that new growth will appear but it hasn't so gradually it's getting smaller. The girth at the base of the trunk is 20cms.

[Sinchets]

That sounds great Lesley, shame about the loss of vigour though 

[Lesley Cox]

Well probably fair enough at that age. Me too by then - or sooner!

[Lori S.]

After a little snow last night, and cold misty drizzle all day, there is nothing new on the flowering front! (What a climate!  )
But I'm pleased to see lots of buds on Silene acaulis... up significantly from a grand total of 3 last year.   
Aubrieta deltoidea 'Blue Indigo' starting to bloom.  Hmm, "Blue Indigo"... isn't that redundant?
Salix retusa, or so I am lead to believe... never a catkin on this one either in 10-11 years.
What I assume is Pulsatilla campanella (though it was labelled as P. campanulata, which doesn't seem to exist?) looking a little depressed in the rain... (No, wait, that's me who's depressed in the rain.)  Anyway, I will post it again later when it opens fully to confirm the ID.
Sedum roseum, or any of the multitude of names it goes by...

[cohan]

Cohan, we lived in a top-floor flat in Aberdeen for 3 years. By the time we left to move south we had to hire a self-drive lorry to move the plants- all in all over 1000 plant pots (mostly terracotta) - the furniture fit in the car.

when i moved back here from toronto ( a roughly 3 day drive) i brought a good bunch of cacti and succulents--i should have (and would in future)barerooted them and repotted here--mostly plastic pots, as i simply dont water enough for terracotta, but i use a native loam and grit/gravel based soil which is very heavy!.. we had to leave a lot of other things behind!

i can scarcely imagine a move like kristl's.. or the one you made to bulgaria, for that matter...

[cohan]

Cohan, I think it just comes down to that we have different frames of reference re. both bug and bird populations, LOL!  (My frame of reference is the northern boreal forest (I suspect only the Arctic may be worse!), and for birds, being on a migratory flyway, where we'd see hundreds or even thousands of individuals of a species in a day during migration, and then on breeding grounds (for many) - which kindled a childhood interest in birds into making us both pretty keen birders (daily lists, sighting reports and nesting records to American Birds, etc. - all that bordering-on-the-fanatical stuff  ).  Moving to Alberta was a huge difference for both.) 

frames of reference are certainly key, and subjective without actual numbers...lol
we do get migrating waterfowl in the spring especially--and we have a lot of water around which is usually temporary in the spring (not so last couple of years)--i have childhood memories of huge numbers of birds on a slough that would be a lake in spring, pasture with a damp middle in summer, even hayed in many years--the birds there and on other bodies of water are audible for a half mile or more..
i definitely see more water birds nesting now than there used to be--probably just taking advantage of wet years, and in dry they'd go further on again..
i like birding and used to do some moderately intensely...lol...just dont have enough time for that--very time consuming stuff!

happy not to have all the biting bugs of farther north but hard to think mosquitoes could be much more intense than here at times--i have photos of a calypso orchid last year, i was coated in repellent, which kept the mosquitoes mostly off me, but they hovered just beyond --in such numbers that as i knelt and put the camera up to the flower, mosquitoes lit on the plant--showing in the photos... a couple other times, if i thought i was just popping into the bush for a few pictures and would realise my mistake very quickly--ending up running between very brief stops..lol
again, they have really profited from these wet years...

[Sinchets]

We have had quite windy weather lately, fetching hot dry air up from the Med. Many of the plants have developed 1970's style centre-partings.
Flowering just now in the rock garden:
the children of my original Helianthemum hybrids
Arum apulum