Flowering now- July 2009

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Lori, for sorting out my woolliness about the Alchemilla. I guess my geography was ROUGHLY in the right area. Well very roughly. 40cms sounds OK. I like the airy quality of it. A. mollis seeds around here to a frightening degreee.

[cohan]

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.

similar to lori's neighbour, my mom saw frost on the roof early in the morning...i generally dont look around at that hour i have tomatoes in pots in my veg garden in progress, and they have been unaffected, as they were for several weeks of regular frost in late may/early june..so that tells me the spot i have chosen is pretty safe from frost, and as for flower garden plants, if they cant take the climate, i dont care to grow them...of course the trick is knowing which those are but i know there are many many things that manage this climate well, i wont worry about the others--and thats why i still garden indoors year round!

it can be a bit of a drag when (like the last few days) i need a jacket for at least part of the daytime, and a couple of nights/mornings i lit the woodburning heater because it was cold in the house....
on the bright side, we have no such thing as 'too hot to go out in midday' and if its sunny and warms up the house in midday, its cooled off easily by evening--in fact this year, we have had to close most windows fully by early evening to keep some warmth! other times/years it is much warmer, but never problematically so...

[illingworth]

With our slow dialup connection we are always behind. This Cypripedium passerinum put off its first flower in late June, after 5 or so years in the garden. It now has a nice glistening seed pod - which sometimes can fool me because sometimes they turn out to be empty. This came as a gift from a generous friend.

Rob

[Ragged Robin]

Wow,wow,wow - a fabulous gift in more than one sense then Rob 

[WimB]

Here are some plants that are flowering here now:

1) Alstroemeria aurea 'lutea'
2) Arisaema saxatile
3) Deinanthe caerulea
4) Dianthus erinaceus (the real thing)
5) Dianthus microlepis
6) Origanum rotundifolia 'Kent Beauty'
7) Primula nipponica

[Paul T]

Wim,

Excellent pics.  The Deinanthe brings back my wonderful memories of mine flowering for the first time this spring (and it blew my socks off!!  ), the Arisaema saxitile is one that I will have to look out for as I love that flower, and that Primula is adorable.  Thanks for the wonderful pics.

[Ragged Robin]

Really lovely flowerings Wim.... Deinanthe caerulea is really gorgeous and the Dianthus erinaceus (the real thing) - is it rare?

[WimB]

Thanks,

Paul, the Arisaema and Primula are flowering for the first time this year, if it sets seed I'll let you know.

Robin, the Dianthus isn't that rare but it seems there was a mix up the last years where another species was sold as D. erinaceus in Belgium and the Netherlands.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Good show Wim !
The lovely Primula seems to be suffering from the heat... 

The Alstroemeria looks nice as well - how tall is it ?  Do you grow it outside in the garden or in a pot ?

[Darren]

Magnar - thanks for the offer of Delphinium seed in last months thread. I accept! 

Wim - Envious that you get Dianthus erinaceus to produce flowers evenly spread like that. Now my plant is mounded up in the middle it only flowers on the southern side, and sparsely too!

Some pics from me:

Cistus are enjoying our recent heatwave. The first two pictures are Cistus 'Jessamy Beauty' which came from Keith Lever. The next is a flower on a plant grown from seed labelled C. ladanifer. It fits the description in every way but the flowers do not have the red blotch on the petals like most forms do.

Next is the true Geranium argenteum from habitat collected seed via the AGS exchange - it rarely appears so I was very pleased to get it about 7 or 8 years ago. A friend locally got seed from the same lot and has it seeding itself around her garden. I'm not quite so lucky despite having two plants close together. I am never organised enough to collect the seed before it gets explosively ejected!

Also enjoying the heat (or at least the sunshine) are the few hardy cacti I grow outdoors - these pictures are Coryphantha vivipara flowering in a trough (it gets a polycarbonate cover on it in winter). This came from habitat seed via the AGS exchange again, along with an unknown 'Escobaria sp' which has yet to flower. I am envious of the cacti Kristl grows in her garden (see last summer). I have these plus a few Opuntia which do quite well in poor soil on our rock garden.

There was some debate on another thread about the bargain mixed lots of Ponerorchis graminifolia being offered by UK suppliers. This one from such an offer perhaps shows it is worth the gamble!

[WimB]

Luc,

who wouldn't be suffering, I really hate this typical Belgian humid heat...
the Alstroemeria is about one meter high. It stays outside all year but it's planted against a south facing wall under a Magnolia stellata.

Darren,

it's a very young plant hence the evenly spread flowers, I guess that it won't be like that in a couple of years.
Nice to see the cacti growing outside, here I have some (Escobaria, Echinocereus and Maihuenia) outside in a trough too but they don't need a covering in winter...

[cohan]

nice stuff!
rob--the cypripedium is lovely--there is a park not too far from here where there were tons of them flowering last year, maybe i should be checking to see if they are in action now; i find it very irritating that the suppliers of hardy orchids mostly have stupid hybrids, and very few of the native species, and really nothing from alberta...
btw--we switched from dial-up internet to 'mobile internet stick' which works on cellphone technology; you have to be careful about usage charges, but a great way to get fast internet in the bush, as long as you can get cell signals; luckily my cousin used it first, so he told me which of the 3 available here was effective on our road..

wim--i agree, very cute primula
darren--the escobaria are looking really great; i went searching for alberta cacti recently (a soon to come thread) but wasnt far enough south for most of the escobaria--only spotted one, with no flower or seed...

[Paul T]

Darren,

Very nice.  Love that Ponerorchis and the wonderful silver leaves of the Geranium argenteum (living up to it's name ).  Great stuff!!

[Onion]

Some pics from me:

Cistus are enjoying our recent heatwave. The first two pictures are Cistus 'Jessamy Beauty' which came from Keith Lever. The next is a flower on a plant grown from seed labelled C. ladanifer. It fits the description in every way but the flowers do not have the red blotch on the petals like most forms do.

Darren,

can you post a picture of the hole plant, labelled C. ladanifer ? It looks like the C. salviifolius I grew. But I need a picture to see if my suggestion can be right. Because C. saliviifolius is a flat species.

[Sinchets]

Flowering now in the garden:
Delphinium maackianum (?) F1 from seeds originally bought from Chilterns. I really like the 'Pterodactyl head' flower buds
Delphinium fissum- seed collected in Bulgaria- there are only 3 species listed for Bulgaria and this is the only perennial found in this area. I would be interested to hear if this is thought to be identified correctly.
Delphinium grandiflorum - the pink form from 'Amour'