Flowering Now - May 2009

[Lori S.]

Cohan, yes, I imagine a barrier would control the stolons that run a couple of inches under the ground.  For now, I'll just continue to edge the bed and pull them out of the paths... in the longer term, I may consider replacing it with lower maintenance and showier plants, since I can always see them better in the wild anyway!  Very true - I don't see many ripened seedpods on it in shady areas, same with Cornus canadensis, now that I think of it.

[Lesley Cox]

That's interesting to me Lori. I have 7 Cornus canadensis from seed ready to plant out in the spring. So I need for them not to be too shady? I figured that if I plant the lot in a patch there should be a good chance of fruit, assuming they flower of course.

[Lvandelft]

Two pictures of plants flowering here.
A chance combination of seedlings from Campanula portenschlagiana Major and Hieracium villosum.
And Dicentra Burning Hearts, which I newly acquired.

[Lesley Cox]

This picture is for Tony Lee, in response to a personal message. Maggi, is there any way to include a picture in a personal message?

Dammit, I just realized the pic I want is on a film print, not digital so I can't put it here. The relevant pic is in an AGS Bulletin Tony.

Dammit, can't find the right one.

I'll try to find the original photo print and take a digital pic of it. In the meantime.....  If anyone has an up-to-date Index for the AGS Bulletin, could you look up Weldenia candida for me please? I wrote a note about it some years ago and now can't find it. I should be so excited about having been published in the Bulletin that I keep the issue by me at all times. Maybe I was at the beginning but....  I'm looking for the picture of the unearthed, cleaned root mass.

[Lesley Cox]

Wow Luit, the red dicentra is a stunner! It looks like a bright red version of D. 'Ivory Hearts,' similar flower size, shape and similar foliage. Does it have D. peregrina in it?

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, I think Martin once sent me a pix in  a personal message but I'lve never worked out how to do it myself 

I'll look for the journal link for you. Meantime, didn't Rob Graham have such a photo in the forum a while ago when he chopped up his Weldenia into masses of new ones?

[Maggi Young]

Mmmnnnn..... no pix in that thread, I remembered wrongly.  http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=295.msg6698;topicseen#msg6698
but it did lead me to the piece by Lesley, in AGS bulletin June 1998 , pages 222 to 225.
I can take photos of the article tomorrow, Lesley, and send to Tony if he hasn't got the journal himself.

Edit :  Have added pix of the article here.....

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi, that would be great. Having cleaned out my spare bedroom/office/book/computer room, I can't find anything now.

[Maggi Young]

I know that difficulty, Lesley..... that's why I never tidy anything!
Will get photos tomorrow then, when the light is good.
 

[Lesley Cox]

I had actually looked in that Bulletin but I was only looking in the Indeces and it's there only as "Difficult Alpines, 13" which does NOT say it all.

[johnw]

I thought the buds on Shortia soldanelloides might have been fried last friday as we hit 30c but they made it through.  By evening it was quite cool.

johnw

[Lori S.]

Lesley, I planted Cornus canadensis in deep shade years ago, and I don't get many flowers on it.  It's very common here, both in the mountains, and across the boreal forest... where I see it in sunnier clearings in nature, it seems the most floriferous and the "berries" seem most likely to develop fully, turning red.

Good heavens, has Dicentra "Burning Hearts' been released on the whole world at the same time?  The garden centers here are full of it this spring!  I bought one too, and it certainly does look like it has some D. peregrina in it... the way the  thingies on the sides of the flower curl up like Pippi Longstocking's braids, (though the tag claims it to be D. formosa??)

Some from today:
Iris lutescens campbellii
Primula 'Jay Jay', starting to bloom.
Some promise for the future, Eremurus himalaicus...
Euphorbia polychroma 'Bonfire'
Viola adunca (x2) - another native plant that just showed up on its own... with a young Sisyrinchium montanum in the first photo - another native (at least I planted those at one time!)

[Lori S.]

A brilliant combination in the campanula and the hieracium, Luit!  Your dicentra looks a great deal happier than mine too... (Imagine soft, west coast-grown foliage subjected to frosts and low humidity...     Oh well, it lives or dies.)
Johnw, the shortia is beautiful!

Please forgive this really dreadful picture... this little troll resisted all my efforts to focus a photo, and the light is fading here so I had to give up... but I'm delighted to see it!  I grew Syneilesis palmata and S. aconitifolia from seed last year, and I'm pleased to see the first S. palmata up today!   

[cohan]

That's interesting to me Lori. I have 7 Cornus canadensis from seed ready to plant out in the spring. So I need for them not to be too shady? I figured that if I plant the lot in a patch there should be a good chance of fruit, assuming they flower of course.

this is another plant that grows everywhere here, except really out in the open... it is generally very floriferous, and certainly as a child i picked handfuls of berries--not that exciting to eat, but very available! i'll try to pay attention to where they are and arent flowering/fruiting this year (nothing yet, of course)..
logic though, would say they'd flower best in half shade, depending how your light relates to ours..let me look at last years photos...

[gote]

Cornus canadensis has definitely NOT been invasive in my place. I have two stalks this year and the plant is probably five years old.
One that IS invasive is Smilacina stellata. I is nice but I have to figure out how to contain it. S racemosa is, of course a better plant with a nice scent.
Another non-invasive is Diphylleia sinensis - a plant for space in the woodland. Blue berries follow.
Disporum hookerii is another woodlander with "quite charm".
Göte

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