Plants flowering in the open rock garden.June '09

[Sinchets]

Thanks Lori, you also have a large number of gems too! I was collecting seed, but not growing it for several years before we moved here. It was difficult knowing it was all sat in the fridge waiting to be sown. 
I couldn't get the pics you posted to open- our connection speed is very slow in summer- but ca you tell me about the Castilleja? Is it in your grown? If so how did you grow it? I'd like to grow some here.
Flowering just now:
Gypsophila imbricata
Silene alpestris
a native Calamintha species

[Ragged Robin]

Simon, the number of species of plants you have is simply astounding!  Thank you for showing (some of) them!  

1) Silene nigrescens
2) Sisyrinchium montanum - a native plant
3) Sisyrinchium septentrionalis - our other native blue-eyed grass
4, 5) Castilleja lutescens - yet another native plant!
6) Aethionema grandiflora

Lori you and Simon do have such an amazing range of lovely flowering things - it's so joyful to know that it apparently is endless    I am very interested in your shots of wild plants and have become increasingly interested in the Silenes -  Silene nigrescens in your photo has a gorgeous dark pink skirt and the bell is beautifully veined.  Here they grow at the edge mostly of the meadows like bells tinkling in unison withe the cow bells close by.

The Sisyrinchiums are another tiny jewel and Castilleja lutescens glows in the grass 

[David Nicholson]

Lovely stuff folks.

[Sinchets]

Many thanks again, Lori. You were right my P.whippleanus looks like it is P.hirsutus. I read somewhere P.hirsutus is quite variable in colour, which is maybe why I remember it being darker in the last generation. I have seedlings of a yellow and dark form of P.whippleanus from US sources so hopefully I will have the real thing flowering soon. 
Robin, I like Silene too- and Dianthus, and Arenaria... So many to chose from and so accomodating.
Flowering here now:
Linum flavum
Linum mucronatum ssp armenum
Iberis aurosica
Arenaria gracilis

[Magnar]

Thanks again for nice pics..

Here some from my scree bed :

Petrocallis pyrenaica
Phlox pulvinata
Saxifraga cherlerioides

[ranunculus]

Beautiful plants, Magnar ... thanks for posting.

[David Nicholson]

Wonderful thread folks.

Here's my Verbascum x Letitia in her annual fight for supremacy with Campanula portenschlagiana. Of course the Campanula always wins.

[Magnar]

Super Verbascum  I really like that one

[Lesley Cox]

But a wonderful battle while it lasts David. My Letitia has succumbed to being run over by a large van. The third time.

I very much like the Iberis above. I think this is an under-rated genus, having a number of "common" plants in it but they are all very good and should be grown more.

[Lori S.]

Sorry, I initially mislabelled the paintbrush - it is Castilleja miniata, the common lowland to marginally-alpine species,  not C. lutescens.  Simon, I actually bought a couple of plants years ago from a plant restoration grower - I haven't tried growing the genus from seed myself (though I should give it a try!)  (There have been articles on the germination and growing of castilleja in the NARGS bulletins in the last couple of years...)   These plants produce a goodly amount of seed, and a small number of seedlings have come up.

Robin, your area sounds and looks so beautiful, I'd love to see plants in nature there too!  I have really enjoyed your photo essays!

Wonderful plants, everyone!  Thanks for posting them!

1, 2. Here is more of a sky-blue one, Penstemon cyananthus (or so I think, off hand - I'll have to try to key it out too).
3. Campanula alpestris

[Sinchets]

That really is a great Verbascum, David.
Thanks for the information, Lori. I sowed seed of Castilleja sulphurea in with some dwarf grasses this spring and I am hoping something will happen- maybe hoping beyond hope as I don't know how fresh the seed needs to be. That is a great looking Penstemon btw!
For Robin- some more Silenes. These are allevening opening species and as such are a bit tricky to photograph in the lower light levels- so please excuse the picture quality.
My favourite one first is Silene ciliata var graefferi (ZE&S51621)
then Silene bupleuroides (PH10487) both of these from Goteborg Botanic Garden seed bought before we moved here and I found they were both natives 
Silene flavescens came back with me from a holiday in Thassos, Greece- tough it is also found here in Bulgaria
The last was bought as Silene regis-fernandii from AGS SeedEx but I think it is Silene saxifraga- (as was the Silene lerchenfeldiana, Silene dinarica and Silene waldsteinii).

[Ragged Robin]

My favourite one first is Silene ciliata var graefferi (ZE&S51621)
then Silene bupleuroides

A great selection of Silenes, Simon, thanks for posting them so I can muse over them - particularly love the the two you mention as your favourites and wonderful they are native even if it cost you before you found out 

[annew]

Just caught up on some postings. Re Penstemon whippleanus, this is what I have as that species: the flowers are actually darker than appear in the photo - they are an exact match for Allium cyathophorum farreri, which has seeded nearby. Do they look correct? They always set plenty of seeds if anyone would like some.

[Lori S.]

Well, I'm not entirely convinced that that plant is P. whippleanus either...   Of course, I am no penstemon expert (nor an expert on anything!  I guess I am a wet blanket though...) and I haven't seen it in the wild... and I have not even been able to acquire it myself... but plunging boldly on, nonetheless  , I'm doubtful... I don't think the characteristics match, based on the Lodewicks' Key to Genus Penstemon, the description and photo in Bob Nold's Penstemons, and google photos from the more authoritative sites.   The species usually has entire leaves (of course, usually means it sometimes doesn't!), noticeably chubby flowers with the lower lip very long, calyx lobes that are long and tapering that give the inflorescence a leafy look, a rather one-sided inflorescence, and the flowers have an exerted, golden staminode (according to Nold, although the Lodewicks say sometimes not exerted, sometimes not bearded!)...  I don't detect those usual characteristics in the photos, from what I can see.

Anyway, those are my thoughts, but I am always open to correction!  I'm sure someone much more knowledgeable will come along soon and help out...  

There is also a site called Penstemon-L where I'm sure it could be ID'd.  (Basic penstemon classification seems to start with the shape of the anthers and the shape of the opening therein, so it might require dissecting some flowers... a hand lens comes in handy.    

[akoen]

It looks like mine Penstemon azureus. The whole plant smells bad.