Plants flowering in the open rock garden.June '09

[cohan]

A lovely Incarvillea species Anne, and a great Iris Lori.
Flowering here:
Teucrium rotundifolium
Stachys scardica
Sphaeralcea coccinea

simon-very nice to see the sphaeralcea, which grows in alberta, i had a cutting last year from near drumheller, but i dont think it made it in the pot, as i dont see any sign of it this year, so far (not positive yet, as there are various bits of things together...)
how large is yours, i gather there are various size forms? i photographed one in saskatchewan that was very tiny...

[Lesley Cox]

Really a great thrill to see Ourisia poepegii in cultivation - and in flower! Thanks for that Magnar.

[Lori S.]

1, 2) Lychnis ajanencis, from seed last year.
3) I think this is another of the same, though misnamed on my map.  It is a more compact plant.

[Lori S.]

Carduncellus pinnatus... I like these best before they bloom!  The young offsets are so nicely symmetrical.

[Magnar]

Great plant.. would love to try to grow that one 

[cohan]

Carduncellus pinnatus... I like these best before they bloom!  The young offsets are so nicely symmetrical.

that is a cool plant...
btw, i saw (shot) Physaria in flower at Kootenay plains a few weeks back, so i was right originally when i thought i was seeing some little cabbages there out of flower

[Sinchets]

A lovely Lychnis and Carduncellus, Lori!
Cohan, the Sphaeralcea maked it to about 10cm tall for me. We had had no rain at all for 3 weeks, until yesterday evening, and the plant has started to die back to its roots. It has moved from 5 to 20cm away from where it started last year, and I thought it had died over the winter until the new rosettes emerged. Maybe that is what yoursis doing?
Flowering now:
Geranium sessiliflorum nigricans
Ziziphora clinopodioides
Keckiella corymbosa

[Paul T]

Lori,

I love that Carduncellus pinnatus.  What a leaf arrangement!!

Magnar,

I just love the Ourisia poeppegii.  So striking!

[Lesley Cox]

You may well be right Lori about the third of your three Lychnis pictures but I'm thinking it could perhaps be a Saponaria. They're related of course but it looks exactly like some seedlings I have of S. caespitosa crossed with another species, not sure which. Any comment?

[Lesley Cox]

I'll never forget the sheer horror on the face of my retired farmer neighbour many years ago, when he saw C. pinnatus. "What on earth are you doing woman? Cultivating thistles!!!"

[Lori S.]

Lesley, thanks for the thoughts on the ID of the "lychnis" in the third photo.  I took more close-ups, and after examining them (funny... I could have just looked at the plants, but the photos are so much easier... obviously, I'd never make a field botanist!), thought they were very similar except for the compactness of the second plant and slight differences in the intensity of the veination on the outside of the calyx (see photos, attached).
#1 is Lychnis ajanencis
#2 is possible but undetermined L. ajanencis

Then, I got out my 10X hand lens and dissected a flower from each...  In Taylor's Guide to Perennials (Barbara W. Ellis), it is said that lychnis have 5 or sometimes 4 styles, that silene have 3 or sometimes 4 styles, and that saponaria have 2 styles.

The L. ajanencis flower had 5 styles, while the unknown had 4 styles, while otherwise appearing extremely similar in flower structure!  (I guess I should probably dissect more flowers to see if this difference is actually consistent.)  

On my map, the plant was indicated as being "Dracocephalum aff. densum", which it obviously isn't...  yet nothing else has unexpectedly revealed itself as being a misplaced dracocephalum...  And I have no record of a plant dying and being replaced in that spot...  My order records don't show the draco, but it could be I bought a mislabelled plant at the local rock garden sale.  (Beaver Ck. sells there, but I don't know which lychnis or silenes may have been available last year... and it would probably be an amazing coincidence if I'd happened, randomly, to pick up a mislabelled L. ajanencis look-alike...)  Anyway, my head is spinning now.

So, I dunno!  

Guess I'll dissect more flowers tomorrow!?   (If the unknown is another seedling of the same plant, which seems likely still, I suppose the compactness could be due to a little more sun, or that it likes being jammed up against a rock.)

[cohan]

A lovely Lychnis and Carduncellus, Lori!
Cohan, the Sphaeralcea maked it to about 10cm tall for me. We had had no rain at all for 3 weeks, until yesterday evening, and the plant has started to die back to its roots. It has moved from 5 to 20cm away from where it started last year, and I thought it had died over the winter until the new rosettes emerged. Maybe that is what yoursis doing?
Flowering now:
Geranium sessiliflorum nigricans

its possible simon, though it is/was in a smallish pot, so not too much room to move..
i love that geranium! i think i admired that/similar on wrightman's list (ontario); i want to get some more geraniums, preferably small..we have masses of himalayense that my mother planted years ago, its nice, though i am not so fond of that pinky/purply/blue--rather any one of those on their own! and our native G richardsonii -more or less white--is just starting flowering here now, including around the yard, 12-18" at a guess; we dont have the  pink native viscosissimum, a more southern species.

[Sinchets]

The Geranium has been with me a while, though never in the same place long. It flowers and sets seeds easily, but they usually explode and send the seed elsewhere before you realise- unless you keep on top of it. I managed to collect 4 seeds to bring here and 1 germinated. I now have another plantnearly 2 metres from last autumn's flowering. 
Flowering here now:
Scutellaria hypericifolia
Dianthus seguieri (?)
Mirabilis multiflora

[ranunculus]

Hi Simon,
Lovely photos of beautiful plants.  Your Dianthus seguieri is identical to mine flowering in a pot at the moment.  Only three blooms though!

[Sinchets]

Thanks Cliff. Does yours sucker and run underground slightly too? This is the reason I was unsure, as I couldn't find any mention of it anywhere.