Plants flowering in the open rock garden.June '09

[Sinchets]

Flowering now:
Teucrium polium - Grown from wild collected and forming a low mat, with just about the tiniest Teucrium flowers I know of.
Ipomopsis longiflora- This plant was lovely last autumn, but just now a species of click-beetle seems to enjoy nibbling through the flowerstalks just before flowering. So this is one of only a few flowers this summer 

[Lesley Cox]

Your Teucrium polium interests me Simon. As it is known here, the flowers are yellow, going into lime gren at the edges of the infloresence and the foliage is very white, velvety. Have you had a sniff at the foliage? Ours has a really sweet, herby scent, very pleasant.

Luit, as you'll see in my pic of Carduncellus rhaponticoides (remains of a rosette at bottom left), the flowering rosette always dies and rots away but of course it should leave some young rosettes to replace, or these should grow very soon afterwards. Mine are both in very gravelly troughs.

[Magnar]

A couple may be odd ones.. I never saw them in other gardens. The Nassauvia is flowering for the first time. May be not spectacular, but very interesting.

Nassauvia patagonica

Paederota bonarota

[Lesley Cox]

I had the Paedorota many years ago then lost it in 1989 when I moved house, garden, nursery. Since then, I've had it in a gritty raised bed, quite successfully for about 5 years, then after last year's winter, it didn't come up again, which really saddened me as it is a delightful plant and a favourite which I probably can't replace. I think the recent plant was from AGS seed.

I really like the foliage on the Nassauvia Magnar.

[Rodger Whitlock]

Teucrium polium - Grown from wild collected and forming a low mat, with just about the tiniest Teucrium flowers I know of.

Teucrium seems to be one of those neglected genera that contains any number of interesting plants. Some years ago I ordered all the different teucriums from the exchanges, and now have a couple of quite nifty plants that I can't put a specific name to, thanks to label loss. Unfortunately, the scent of the foliage is not very pleasant: rather musty, I'd call it.

Then there are the closely similar Teucrium marum (cat thyme) and Teucrium subspinosum. I think these are often confused, and they are so similar I really wonder if they're just different forms of one species.

Our summer-dry climate seems to agree with the teucriums very well.

[Lesley Cox]

Teucrium asiaticum was with me some years ago but the smell was dreadful - tomcat plus dettol plus brylcreme I think. I left it behind when I moved, but T. ackermannii is a lovely plant, not unlike polium but the flowers are pink. Again though, while the foliage scent is very nice, like polium's, the flower scent is like sewage. My neighbour started to dig up his drains once, because the teucrium was flowering in a trough beside the dividing fence. I didn't have the courage to tell him where the smell came from.

[Sinchets]

Your Teucrium polium interests me Simon. As it is known here, the flowers are yellow, going into lime gren at the edges of the infloresence and the foliage is very white, velvety. Have you had a sniff at the foliage? Ours has a really sweet, herby scent, very pleasant.

I could only find 5 native species of Teucrium listed for Bulgaria, and I know it certainly isn't one of the other 4. These being Tt chamadrys, lamiifolium, montanum and scordium.
I read in Will Ingwerson's 'Manual of Rock Garden Plants', that T.polium was yellow flowered too. However, Flora Bulgarica shows only white flowered plants with the same white flowers and foliage as mine. Oleg Polunin's 'Flowers of Europe', says that flower colour may be pink, white or rarely yellowish. So I assume either it is a variable species and none of the forms in cultivation were collected in Bulgaria, or I have discovered a new species- Teucrium silcockii   
I had Nassauvia gaudichaudii for a while, but sadly had to leave it behind in England- tiny flowers with an amazingly strong honey scent. 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

You really don't stop confronting us with interesting plants Simon !!!
Great job ! 

[Ragged Robin]

I love the blue star shape with sharply tapered petals of your blue Ipomopsis longiflora, Simon - the foliage looks attractive too bit I hope not too attractive to click-beetles so we can see them again next year    (would like to see more of the foliage too)

[Ragged Robin]

Nassauvia Magnar is a lovely combination of pendulous flower weighed down over such a prettily cut leaf; gorgeous Magnar 

[Paul T]

Magnar,

I think the Nassauvia patagonica is pretty impressive myself.  Love the leaves, and such a good head of flowers.  What size is the actual plant?  Looks like it could be large or small.  Reminds me a little of some of the Australian Epacridaceae, but I'm guessing it isn't even vaguely related.    Much more dense head of flowers though.

[Sinchets]

Composite family, Paul. they do wacky things down there in South America like so many other families do. 

[Magnar]

Magnar,

I think the Nassauvia patagonica is pretty impressive myself.  Love the leaves, and such a good head of flowers.  What size is the actual plant?  Looks like it could be large or small.  Reminds me a little of some of the Australian Epacridaceae, but I'm guessing it isn't even vaguely related.    Much more dense head of flowers though.

The flower heads are about 15 cm from the ground.

[Paul T]

Thanks Magnar and Simon.  Very nice little plant, that is for sure.

[cohan]

Hello!
Here are some images from the Artic-Alpine Botanical garden in Tromsø from earlier this month. Enjoy

arctic-alpine -sounds like my kind of botanical garden! and, wow--those blues!