Flowering now- July 2009

[Sinchets]

Here it is a difficult time of year, where we have to be thankful of annual bedding and the occasional brave perennial brightening up the garden. Most of the other plants here are busy setting seed or have gone dormant until the autumn rains. Flowering now:
Delphinium hansenii hansenii- the last few flowers at the top of the 1.5m stems- hopefully seed will set before this plant goes dormant.
Linanthus grandiflorus- a self sown annual from the edge of the woodland bed- more impressive in that its parents were about 20m away last year.
Mimulus cardinalis- flowering in a pot and still waiting for the pond to be dug 
Verbascums and Eremurus in the xeric garden

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Mimulus cardinalis- flowering in a pot and still waiting for the pond to be dug 
Verbascums and Eremurus in the xeric garden

Simon,
I suggest you start digging the pond right now - with 35°C or so in the shade, you should produce enough sweat to fill it right away.
 

[Sinchets]

Mimulus cardinalis- flowering in a pot and still waiting for the pond to be dug 
Verbascums and Eremurus in the xeric garden

Simon,
I suggest you start digging the pond right now - with 35°C or so in the shade, you should produce enough sweat to fill it right away.
 

Lol, that's the main reason why it hasn't been dug yet. By midday it is too hot to be out there! We still need to finish scything the meadow too 

[Lori S.]

Some roses in their first flushes of bloom here...
1) The 'Therese Bugnet*' hedge has started to bloom.... very fragrant en masse.   (*Sorry, can't figure out how to do grave and acute accents on a Mac with a Microsoft keyboard!)
2) 'Agnes'... a lanky old specimen that will get cut down for "rejuvenation" this year!  Lemon-scented but only once-blooming.
3) 'Marie Bugnet'... very scented, as well.
4) The 'Pavement' series of rugosas seems to be rather unfortunately named ("Pavement" doesn't seem to capture the gardener's imagination!), but are excellent, hardy, very scented roses for very cold areas... 'Apart Purple Pavement'.
5) Penstemon lyallii
6) Persicaria polymorpha
7) Saxifraga cotyledon
Helianthemum 'Ben Nevis'
9)  Alchemilla faeroensis, about half the size of A. mollis.
10) Helianthemum oelandicum ssp. alpestre

[johnw]

Alstroemeria pallida from Archibald #14355, collected wild at 2200m in flower today. Seed from 1995.  Flowers sitting on a rhododendron seedling.  This has always been a wretched plant with long stringy shoots, always looking etiolated and slightly mixed-up seasonally as it is now dying back. I haven't dared to try it outside. Has anyone been brave enough to do so?

johnw

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It may be bad behaved John, but it is one beautiful flower !! 

[Sinchets]

I'll second that. The only one I've managed from seed here was A.ligtu. Sadly I now know that voles love them so I shall never even see those flower.

[Maggi Young]

How have you managed to keep that lovely Alstromeria so long in a pot, John? We've always found them, even the tiniest species,  to be desperate to burrow out of the bottom of any pot and head for the centre of the earth at speed!

[Lesley Cox]

Coming from over 2000 metres it should be reasonably hardy?

[Lesley Cox]

I do like the look of Alchemilla faroensis of which I've had seed from the seedlists at least 3 times, but have never had one germinate. Hadn't seen the plant before but I liked the idea of something from (presumably) the Faroe Islands. (Am I getting mixed up here and actually thinking of the Farne Islands because I had somehow imagined the Faroes off the NE coast of England )

[johnw]

How have you managed to keep that lovely Alstromeria so long in a pot, John? We've always found them, even the tiniest species,  to be desperate to burrow out of the bottom of any pot and head for the centre of the earth at speed!

That could explain its tortured appearance.

johnw

[cohan]

thank goodness for the xeric garden, simon hopefully there is at least some good tough foliage to look at?
summer dormancy is not much heard of here, some early things finish early, but most plants just try to use what little summer there is! there was widespread frost in alberta last night! no sign of it here, that i have seen yet, though i think it was there on buildings etc....an interesting summer it has been..
the annual is nice..i like the idea of things seeding here and there..

[Lori S.]

Lesley, apparently Alchemilla faeroensis is indeed from the Faeroe Islands (Denmark) off to the NE of Scotland.  I got the seed from Kristl's Gardens North years ago.   The plants are not the tiny 'pumila' form - they're almost 40 cm to the top of the flowering stems.  I'll certainly try to collect seeds, if there is any interest in it.

[Sinchets]

thank goodness for the xeric garden, simon hopefully there is at least some good tough foliage to look at?
summer dormancy is not much heard of here, some early things finish early, but most plants just try to use what little summer there is! there was widespread frost in alberta last night! no sign of it here, that i have seen yet, though i think it was there on buildings etc....an interesting summer it has been..
the annual is nice..i like the idea of things seeding here and there..

A frost? I know summers are short with you, but what a challenge to garden in areas like that! We might make it to
-25C here, but at least it is cold when we expect it to be cold.

[Lori S.]

My neighbor said there was frost on the roofs Wednesday morning... didn't notice it ourselves.

1) Anthemis carpatica 'Karpaten schnee'
2) The absolute last of the spring bulbs, a few Brimeura amythestina.
3) Clematis recta
4, 5) Dracocephalum botryoides
6) Dracocephalum ruyschiana
7) Pimpinella major 'Rosea'
8 ) Scutellaria orientalis ssp. alpina (?)
9) Scutellaria alpina
10) Thyme between the stepping stones.