Flowering Now - June 2009

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Thanks for the wonderful pics.  I adore the flowers on that Mitraria.  They just look so cute and fuzzy.  And the Ramonda is superb!!

Anne,

I have to comment on your Meconopsis pics.  Being as pics is about the closest I can come to Meconopsis I am really enjoying your pics.  Special mention must go to that lovely white with it's little bee friend, but for pure photo admiration I have to comment on the M. napaulensis.  The combination of the flower and buds etc with the flash is just beautiful.  And of course I just adore everyone's blue Mecs that seem to be popping up everywhere on the forum at the moment. 

Thanks all.

[Rodger Whitlock]

The one whose name I always forget, Mitraria coccinea.

Is anyone successfully growing Sarmienta repens or Asteranthera ovata? I have a dim memory of acquiring sarmienta many, many years ago; more recently, a pot of asteranthera turned up in a local garden center to my intense surprise. Not in either case having a clue about how to grow these hardy gesneriads, both failed quite quickly for me, and I've never had another chance at either.

Since my brush with asteranthera, I have found out that it is an epiphyte. I suspect that it would adapt to being potted in pure pumice, a method that is used by some growers of epiphytic greenhouse orchids. What the sarmienta might require for its happiness remains unknown.

Of these three "hardy" gesneriads, Mitraria coccinea has been with me for many years outside in a shaded bed. It doesn't get much water, but grows well enough, planted in under a large Daphne tangutica, and flowering modestly in summer. We had a pretty hard winter this past season, with two nights of serious cold, down to -7C and -11C on December 9 and 10, 2008 respectively, but the mitraria survived nicely. I suspect the shelter given by the daphne was the key to its survival.

[Sinchets]

Love those Cardiocrinums- we are still waiting for ours to settle in here 
Flowering just now in the main garden:
Collomia grandiflora
Collinsia heterophylla X tinctoria
Silene nutans

[Brian Ellis]

I do love Collomia grandiflora Simon, but what a weed!  I forgive it for being the most delectable colour   Ours are a way off flowering yet.

[jomowi]

We have grown Sarmienta on a dome of fleece covering a pile of compost from which it escaped into the sand plunge.  I have also had it outside in a shady frame (no other frost protection) so it has a degree of hardiness.  Asteranthera used to creep about my frost-free greenhouse and its sand plunge.  I say "used" because while I was in hospital a vole ate it.  The main requirements for both are shade and humidity.  (Does anyone have a piece of Asterantera they can donate?, I would like to get it back)  Both should be kept moist at all times. 

Brian Wilson

[Sinchets]

I do love Collomia grandiflora Simon, but what a weed!  I forgive it for being the most delectable colour   Ours are a way off flowering yet.

It was more of a weed for us in England- here there are more herbivores willing to give it a go 

[Ragged Robin]

Love those Cardiocrinums- we are still waiting for ours to settle in here 
Flowering just now in the main garden:
Collomia grandiflora
Collinsia heterophylla X tinctoria
Silene nutans

...just realised that I think Silene nutans is what I saw in a clearing on a walk in the forest today - could it be Simon? 

[Sinchets]

Love those Cardiocrinums- we are still waiting for ours to settle in here 
Flowering just now in the main garden:
Collomia grandiflora
Collinsia heterophylla X tinctoria
Silene nutans

...just realised that I think Silene nutans is what I saw in a clearing on a walk in the forest today - could it be Simon? 

I've seen it in your part of the Alps growing in forest margins, Robin. 

[Paul T]

Rodger,

Nice to know that Mitraria takes cold conditions.  Might have to try to track some down to grow.  Much easier if no need to fuss with it.  Just love the fuzzy flowers. 

[Sinchets]

Flowering now in the garden:
Carduus defloratus
Nepeta sibirica
Nepeta nuda 'Purple Cat'

[Ragged Robin]

That was it then, Simon, another Silene to add to my recognised list - I love the bell-shaped one that grows prolifically here on the meadow/forest edge too...

Carduus defloratus (lovely cushion of colour)certainly has attracted a lovely butterfly    Imagine you have a lot of butterflies around in your garden?

[Paul T]

Simon,

You have some of THE most interesting plants to show us.  The Carduus is yet another genus that I have never come across before.  Between this, your assorted pea flowers and so many other wonderful things I am thinking I maybe should just move to your place!  

Thank you so much for showing us these fascinating plants. 

[Sinchets]

Robin, yes this year has been a good one of butterflies- the Sweet William's in particular are attracting in a lot of Silver Washed Fritillaries.
Paul, visitors to the garden take great delight in telling me I have thistles growing in the beds 

[Paul T]

It sort of looks like an Echinops, so I guess the thistle comparison fits.  At first glance it looked more like a Knautia relative, but on closer inspection after your thistle comment I can see the the leaves are much spikier.  Excellent colour, and great to insect attraction by the look of it.  It looks like only Carduus acaulis, C. acaulos, and C. arvensis are allowed into Australia unfortunately, otherwise I would ask you whether seed was available.    Unless one of those is a synonym for it?

[Sinchets]

It sort of looks like an Echinops, so I guess the thistle comparison fits.  At first glance it looked more like a Knautia relative, but on closer inspection after your thistle comment I can see the the leaves are much spikier.  Excellent colour, and great to insect attraction by the look of it.  It looks like only Carduus acaulis, C. acaulos, and C. arvensis are allowed into Australia unfortunately, otherwise I would ask you whether seed was available.    Unless one of those is a synonym for it?

Sorry Paul, it isn't a synonym for any of those thistles- but strange that they should let you have some of the 'weedier' ones and not others.
Some more Penstemons flowering now:
Penstemon euglaucus
Penstemon species (collected in a garden in Bayreuth, Germany)