Flowering Now - June 2009

[Magnar]

Darren.

I usually get plenty of seeds from Delphinium brunonianum. Will be most happy to send you some in the autumn.

[Ragged Robin]

Rosa spinosissima and its relaticves are very hardy and will take -30°C
The first pic is spinosissima v pimpinellifolia a low (less than 1 m) pink semi-double.
The best hybrid is an old Finnish one called 'Poppius' (exceeds 2m in my place)That is the one to the right.
The one to the left is 'Frühlingsduft' also very hardy.
Göte

Gote, what wonderful Rosa - thanks so much for replying and showing photos of them in your place with information about hardiness - the R.pimpinellifolia is so pretty too and low growing is an asset for the spot I have in mind. Are they fragrant?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Wonderful Roses Göte !! 

[Michael J Campbell]

Maybe Campanula alliariifolia  or C.makaschvilii?

Thanks Simon, It is Campanula alliariifolia.

[Sinchets]

Sorry, Robin- I didn't mean we have the same species, just that this one was flowering for me now. Mine is less wooly leaved than yours seems and you are right the petals overlap. Out of interest how big in diameter are the flowers on yours?

About 5cm when open wide

I still think V.phlomoides fits best for you then. Maybe you have a form which holds its petals clearly separated.

Thanks Simon, It is Campanula alliariifolia.

My pleasure, Michael. It will probably get a bit too big for the place you have it, which is a shame.

[Ragged Robin]

Thanks for pursuing this Simon - when I went to measure the flower it had relaxed after a sunny day and did look more like your flower 

[Paul T]

Here's Anomatheca laxa 'Joan Evans' (or maybe it's a Freesia these days?) that Chris Boulby sent me bulbils of probably in 2008. Do you remember Chris, the first lot you sent were crushed in the post and you sent me some more?

I have two pots and one of them I'm going to try outside in a south(ish) facing rock bed I'm making as I've so enjoyed the summer flowering rock beds that Simon and Luc and others have posted this year.

David,

They do fine outside here in my climate without any problems at all.  The basic Freesia laxa keeps trying to seed about the place.  I also still have a pure white I think, plus the rather lovely blue form.  I think my 'Joan Evans' went to the great garden in the sky a few years ago as I haven't seen it flower in quite a few years now so I think it was one of the casualties of neglect while I was sick.  I just love this species as it puts on a lovely display for absolutely NO care and attention.  Enough neglect (particularly with watering in pots) and it will eventually decease, but you really have to work at it.    Definitely no problems though with our winters, even in small pots.

[Lvandelft]

Excellent images, Luit ... as usual.   I am still fascinated by the huge greenhouses in the background of one of your shots - are they yours, are they in constant use and, if so, what do they protect?  We are very nosey, we Brits?

Not only Brits are, Cliff 
and yes, these glasshouses (2500 m.) belong to our former nursery.
Looking at older pictures from inside gives a lot of memories of better times 
The costs of maintaining them, would be rather high for a pensioner  , but I still pay insurance for the building 
So the windows stay closed and they hide a lot of rubbish and I use the place only in the winter months to chop fire logs etc.
They are inside so hot in summer now, that I never go in there by day when the sun shines.

[Regelian]

Here is something you don't see every day, Montropa uniflora, a parasitic member of the Ericaceae.  It grow on my sisters property on Cape Cod, along with Cypripedium acaule.  There were different colour variants coming up as I departed, but I didn't have time to get shots.  Mainly rose tones.

[gote]

Rosa spinosissima and its relaticves are very hardy and will take -30°C
The first pic is spinosissima v pimpinellifolia a low (less than 1 m) pink semi-double.
The best hybrid is an old Finnish one called 'Poppius' (exceeds 2m in my place)That is the one to the right.
The one to the left is 'Frühlingsduft' also very hardy.
Göte

Gote, what wonderful Rosa - thanks so much for replying and showing photos of them in your place with information about hardiness - the R.pimpinellifolia is so pretty too and low growing is an asset for the spot I have in mind. Are they fragrant?

Yes my rose collection (which is not big) was assembled from fragrant cultivars only.
Possibly hardy ones are also: 'Stanwell Perpetual' rugosa, rugosa alba, rugosa 'Hansa', rugosa 'Blanc Double de Coulbert'(spelling?). N.B. Not all rugosa hybrids are hardy. 'Agnes' is doubtful and Dr 'Eckner' is definitely not.
Göte   

[gote]

Very nice monotropas. I wonder if anyone has succeeded in growing them. Here in Sweden they are assumed to be saprophytic rather than parasitic. Meaning possibly parasitic /symbiotic on some fungus (Russula). Here they (M. hypoptis) are quite rare and yellowish. A pink one is a real stunner. I assume it is M. unflora?
Cheers
Göte

[Ragged Robin]

Your garden must smell wonderful in the evening, Gote    (smile with a smell) I used to grow R Blanc de Coubert and it is a magnificent rose with generous flowers and beautiful stamens - perfect seen in filtered light and handsome foliage, not to forget magnificent hips in the autumn.  thanks for all the Rosa suggestions in your post

[cohan]

4) Rosa primula... not the best show this year; in better shows, it forms cylinders of flowers around the stem - interesting that it's hardy here.
5)  Salix x boydii, and Salix retusa.

great stuff everyone!
lori, i esp like the R primula, i was looking at some similar at my mother's doctor's lace last week (not saying its the same, dont know the qualifiers) does this by any chance have black hips?

these willows are really nice..
i found what seemed to be a genuine variegated willow growing wild on the farm the other day, took a cutting, will see if it takes and remains variegated...first time i have seen a real sport of this type, as opposed to viral/insect damage...of course, i could be wrong..

simon--i guess you probably know the tricks-- put your hand on the same level as the flowers to focus, or a piece of neutral coloured paper, so the camera has a bigger area to focus on... i know sometimes the cameras seem to have their own agenda...lol

[Lori S.]

Cohan, Rosa spinosissima is one that produces loads of black hips... perhaps it was that?  It's not too uncommon here.  (Actually, I don't even remember what colour the hips are on R. primula.... must pay attention this year!)

By the way, Rosa 'Agnes' is actually extremely hardy too - it's an old zone 2-3 standard.  (Ours is in bloom now.) 'Hansa' is another extremely hardy one... if anything survives of old plantings on an abandoned farmstead, it will be an ancient 'Hansa'.
We haven't found our Rosa spinosissima ('Altaica' and v. repens, supposedly) to be extremely fragrant here... though I have read that they ought to be... there is some fragrance but they are far outdone by many others.

[Sinchets]

simon--i guess you probably know the tricks-- put your hand on the same level as the flowers to focus, or a piece of neutral coloured paper, so the camera has a bigger area to focus on... i know sometimes the cameras seem to have their own agenda...lol

We think the camera has given in after it overheard mention of a pending upgrade