Flowering Now - May 2009

[John Mitchell]

Hi Simon no regretably not that time but my father was joint leader probably were i get this addiction from!!!

[johnw]

My talented neighbor borrowed my Nikon Coolpix and took some shots around my garden last week. Obviously I am not getting the most from my camera, too complex for me perhaps.

Erythronium dens-canis (Japanese selection - name lost)
Shortia galacifolia
Hacquetia epipactis Thor
Shortia uniflora ex Danish seed
Podophyllum delavayi
Sarracenia hybrid
Shortia uniflora ex Danish seed
an easy puzzle

johnw

[Lori S.]

What incredibly beautiful gardens (and individual plants) you all have - just stunning!

i will  look for botanus, dont know it.... i actually want both things--the really exciting sort of species that i will probably buy in ones and threes (due to cost) and put in choice spots in the rock garden., and also look for in seed--i see those on beavercreek and similar fine lists;  BUT  i do also want some that i can buy in large numbers for more or less dedicated beds for some really satisfying spring display! i will even be willing to check places like walmart for the really cheap deals!
i guess maybe fraser's thimble farm is a middle ground? some hybrids, some species, and some good rates for multiples..

Cohan, Fraser's is not what I'd call a middle ground for anything... it's very expensive but is the only quick way to get some plants (short of international importation), though one often gets tiny, immature bulbs/corms/roots that still take a few years to bloom.  We've planted countless hundreds of small bulbs (literally - we only counted and mapped the big bulbs  ) and it still takes many, many years to get a "satisfying display" here (and sadly, I've never seen anything here like I see on these forums)... due to the climate and conditions, I suppose.  So, start soon! 

[johnw]

Leucojum longifolium AGCBC#95-1173 today.

johnw

[Lori S.]

Our first shrub to bloom!  Paxistima canbyi, on which the flowers are, however, stunningly insignificant, LOL!      It does make a nice low evergreen groundcover, in this dry area with unreliable snow cover.  (Paxistima myrsinites makes it into the extreme southern Rockies - I haven't seen it there but it looks like an interesting plant.)
Corydalis nobilis
The Primula marginata are just starting to bloom here... here's a little 'Sheila Denby'.
Draba ventosa 
Caltha leptosepala... a mere shadow of the wonderful drifts of these that we'll see later in the mountains!  (Why do I bother?!?  )
Chionodoxa, out in the dry clay of the front yard.
Draba aizoides (managing to bloom... the buds have suddenly become a favourite snack of the neighborhood jackrabbits in the last 2 years) and Saxifraga 'Riverslea'

[Hristo]

Viola, Johnw, Lori, some fab looking plants. ohnw, I love your small area views!
Flowering here today amongst other things;
Cypripedium fasciolatum - pouch is a little mal-formed, maybe it will fluff up!?
Oxalis brasiliensis
Podophyllum peltatum

[Sinchets]

Flowering today: One of the Geum I bought as seed in my search for Geum coccineum. I am not sure if this is a Geum coccineum hybrid. Also the second generation of Lupinus microcarpus (?) sowing itself into hard to plant spots.

[Ragged Robin]

My talented neighbor borrowed my Nikon Coolpix and took some shots around my garden last week. Obviously I am not getting the most from my camera, too complex for me perhaps.

Erythronium dens-canis (Japanese selection - name lost)
Shortia galacifolia
Hacquetia epipactis Thor
Shortia uniflora ex Danish seed
Podophyllum delavayi
Sarracenia hybrid
Shortia uniflora ex Danish seed
an easy puzzle

johnw

Really lovely shots I agree John, but a talented grower as well and some great looking plants...the Erythronium dens-canis  is glorious 

[cohan]

What incredibly beautiful gardens (and individual plants) you all have - just stunning!

Cohan, Fraser's is not what I'd call a middle ground for anything... it's very expensive but is the only quick way to get some plants (short of international importation), though one often gets tiny, immature bulbs/corms/roots that still take a few years to bloom.  We've planted countless hundreds of small bulbs (literally - we only counted and mapped the big bulbs  ) and it still takes many, many years to get a "satisfying display" here (and sadly, I've never seen anything here like I see on these forums)... due to the climate and conditions, I suppose.  So, start soon! 

i'll second lori's comment--great stuff--johnw--your friend took some lovely photos indeed of lovely plants! i've never heard of shortia...
lori--you are clearly ahead of us--not that there are any alpine gardens around here for me to compare to!

i know it will take some time to get any good displays of bulbs--thats why i will cheat with garden centre stuff--i could never afford it with things from alpine suppliers...lol... i still want those things, but as i say, i will be happy with tiny patches of them in the rock garden --at $5 for one tulip bulb etc...lol..
i might also do big pots that get overwintered in a shed or something to get some faster results...
this is also a reason why i will always garden indoors--our outdoor season is WAY too short to keep me happy all year! my one plus  (also my curse) is that there is no such thing as bare ground here--so i will not be looking at acres of bare soil while i wait for plants to grow, rather i have to fight for every inch of planting area...lol..
also, being used to the growth rates of cacti and succulents (varying, but nothing like big garden stuff!) i'm pretty patient, or maybe rather distracted--my approach is to have so many things going that you have no time to obsess over an individual plant or spot that is growing slowly

[johnw]

I just found the list of Erythroniums I purchased from Garden Imports or was given by Vera Peck with the year and not to say all are still with me.

Can anyone identify the pink one shown in my posting of my neighbor's photos?

Erythronium dens-canis 'Frans Hal' - Garden Imports 1994
Erythronium dens-canis 'Lilac Wonder' - Garden Imports 1994
Erythronium dens-canis 'Moerheimii' - Vera Peck ex a Czech nursery, 1997
Erythronium dens-canis 'Pink Perfection'- Garden Imports 1994
Erythronium dens-canis 'Rose Beauty'- Vera Peck ex a Czech nursery 1997
Erythronium dens-canis 'Snowflake'- Garden Imports 1994
Erythronium japonicum- Garden Imports 1994

johnw

[Rodger Whitlock]

  ...Vera Peck...

I hope everyone will tolerate me drifting seriously off topic. Let me excuse myself by claiming that what's flowering now is my memory of a wonderful plantswoman.

Vera ran the seed exchange of the Alpine Garden Club of BC for many years and I was fortunate to be able to call her a friend. I remember sitting over breakfast with her at the 1983 Western Winter Study Weekend, held at Fort Worden, Port Townsend, Washington, USA, and listening to her describe the donations sent in by Faith Mackaness from Oregon: "Every seed looked like it was hand polished."

This inspired me to work harder than ever at preparing my own donations to the various exchanges, in the belief that if an elderly woman like Faith Mackaness could manage such a donation, so should a young whippersnapper like myself. I would like to believe that I succeeded.

In the early 1990s, Vera distributed various bulbs acquired through her contacts in Czechoslovakia. This was just as the Soviet Union and the system of eastern European satellites was disintegrating, so Czech gardens were full of treasures from all across Eurasia. That's where I got my start of Anemone caucasica, which remains with me to this day.

Vera lived and gardened high up on the North Shore of Vancouver, if I recall correctly on . To the sorrow of everyone who knew her, she died several years ago.

A woman whose memory I honor.

[Lesley Cox]

Pictures today.

The first shows what I have to put up with when photographing a plant! (This is for you Lesley)
Here is Kai standing in front causing an obstruction. He looks completely innocent; but don’t be fooled, I am sure he does it on purpose. He often sits on a plant I am trying to take a picture of! 

But he is so beautiful that he can only enhance the Paeonia. I wish my two were as happy to pose for me. Just get them right and my finger on the button, - off they go.

[Lesley Cox]

Phlox 'Beauty of Ronsdorf' is a great plant...I grew it at The New York Botanical Garden and would have it again in an instant. There are several other small flowered phloxes that are so much nicer (in my mind at least) than the majority of subulatas...

It looks extremely like P. douglasii 'Stuart Boothman.'

[Lesley Cox]

Hi Simon no regretably not that time but my father was joint leader probably were i get this addiction from!!!

By any chance, was your father Tony Mitchell? of CMW fame (Cheese, Mitchell, Watson), who collected in the late sixties in Turkey?

[johnw]

In the early 1990s, Vera distributed various bulbs acquired through her contacts in Czechoslovakia. This was just as the Soviet Union and the system of eastern European satellites was disintegrating, so Czech gardens were full of treasures from all across Eurasia. That's where I got my start of Anemone caucasica, which remains with me to this day.
Vera lived and gardened high up on the North Shore of Vancouver, if I recall correctly on Skyline Drive. To the sorrow of everyone who knew her, she died several years ago.
A woman whose memory I honor.

Rodger - She was a gem of a person and fondest memories of her garden at 2875 Skyline Drive with all those rarities and her generosity.  We had lengthy correspondence from the first time we met her in 1986 and always visited her when in North Vancouver despite her threatening German shepherd at the front gate.

One could never let Vera down - fatal disapproving glance - and so we packed seeds like mad to meet her deadline every year.

If you were her friend then you knew her incredibly dry humour which eluded many.   At one Winter Study Weekend we were on an elevator at the Empress Hotel.  At a stop a gentleman - known to all aboard - got on and someone from the meeting said to him are you going to the next study weekend?  He said no I can't afford it and  from the back of the car in her Czech accent "Vee know you drrrive Saaaaaaaab!"  Everyone roared.

We miss her.

Roger, Vera never mentioned who the Czech nurseryman was and we didn't ask. I think later she said it was Vasak but now I think I may be mistaken. Maybe it was Janis via Vasak, she gave us a typed list every year with no nursery name atop.

johnw