Flowering now- July 2009

[Ragged Robin]

Simon, hope you Anthyllis vulneraria seeds come true....I really like your Monarda menthifolia  it's a great plant for hot places and the red one is lovely too - bees love it  

[Onion]

Onion - thank you very much for pointing me at the Cistus site. I agree with your conclusion that my plant is C x oblongifolius.

Nice to here, that the site was usefull for you Darren.

[cohan]

Cohan - it sounds like we have a common interest in South African bulbs and succulents. I note your interest in Conophytum (a genus I love and am constantly fascinated by - the first of this years flowers is opening today on C.frutescens. Almost makes me look forward to the autumn when the others will follow) - If you are not already a member I can recommend joining the Mesemb Study Group. UK based but with a global membership. A really excellent source of cheap Conophytum seed with locality data. The occasional bulb turns up too - I grow a lovely pink flowered form of Massonia jasminiflora from their seed. Rogan's advice about seeds is spot on as you would expect from a SA native! Anything I can help with please ask.

thanks, darren--i am aware of MSG, but had not got around to joining--i guess i am interested in so many types of plants that i have never got around to really joining anything---just online forums, including for mesembs...lol
i should probably look closely at the very few seedlings i have and ask for some advice over in bulb section....did ask about M jasmin seedlings once and didnt get any replies, probably bad timing as to who was reading...

[Lori S.]

1, 2) After much confusion and many tries, I've keyed this out as Penstemon pachyphyllus... if it obviously isn't, please let me know... (gently)!     
3) A nice fleabane whose identity I've lost, unfortunately.
4) Eriophyllum lanatum
5) Pretty little flowers on a new one this spring - an experiment to see if it will be hardy - Ellisiophyllum pinnatum.
6, 7) Darren, our timber-frame raised beds look similar, right down to the Linnaea borealis!  Mine is doing the same act... after many years, draping languidly over the edge of the acid bed... blooming is always sparse though in part shade (as compared to sunny openings in the forest, where I see it blooming heavily).  How is blooming for you?
8 ) We're having a strange, disappointing year in the greenhouse with the waterlilies... nothing has changed, but...    Very puzzling.   Anyway, here is Nymphaea 'Helvola', with uncharacteristically few flowers.
9) Lilium x dalhansonii.
10) Asiatic hybrid lily 'Crimson Pixie'

[Ragged Robin]

Lori, I just love 'visiting' your garden each day to see what other treasures of yours are flowering and the descriptions you give - your plantings are so artistic, such as the lily 'Crimson Pixie' with a tight mat of silver leaves below setting off it's own green leaves, which normally disappear in to the background, to perfection 

Inside your greenhouse, with the other firey red Lilium x dalhansonii, what else can we see?  Even if sparce flowering, which must be very disappointing. Nymphaea 'Helvola' looks a beautiful waterlily - why is it inside?

[Paul T]

Darren,

How pink is your pink flowered Massonia jasminiflora?  I have white with shades of mauve and pink, but nothing you could really call pink.  The idea of a pink flowered one is just gorgeous.  Would you happen to have any pictures?

[Darren]

Cohan - sorry I missed your previous post asking about the massonia. I've only just gone online at home and hadn't visited the forum much in the previous year as my lunchtimes at work kind of disappeared under a heap of extra work...

Lori - The Linnaea does get a couple of hours of direct sun in the late afternoon. it drapes down the west side of the raised bed. You can see a couple of late flowers in the picture. It flowers better in it's first flush in late may / early June but is never prolific. I think it has enjoyed the recent cool wet summers here.

Paul - Of my two surviving plants from that particular raising of M jasminiflora one has deep pink anther filaments which gradually become whiter toward the tip. Overall effect is a nice mid-pink. The other is a less intense colour but still pink. The darker one produced several offsets this year (rare in Massonia). I have carefully cross-pollinated between the two clones and have a good few seeds. The seed I colected last year only produced one seedling but I'm fairly sure this was because of the way I stored the seed before sowing (too cool). My only picture of the pink Massonia is taken as the flowers are almost finished and isn't very good. Will try to do better this coming season and post one. Though it has been identified by greater experts than me it doesn't resemble any other form of M jasminiflora that I grow. The plant is much bigger - about the size of M pustulata. The leaves are rubbery in texture and have lines of tiny hairs rather than pustules. The flower has prominent anthers giving it a shaving-brush type effect rather like M pustulata again, as opposed to the more typical M jasminiflora flower.

[Paul T]

Darren,

Sounds fascinating!!

[Lori S.]

Lori, I just love 'visiting' your garden each day to see what other treasures of yours are flowering and the descriptions you give - your plantings are so artistic, such as the lily 'Crimson Pixie' with a tight mat of silver leaves below setting off it's own green leaves, which normally disappear in to the background, to perfection 

Inside your greenhouse, with the other firey red Lilium x dalhansonii, what else can we see?  Even if sparce flowering, which must be very disappointing. Nymphaea 'Helvola' looks a beautiful waterlily - why is it inside?

Thank you, Robin!  (I'm glad some of those random plantings sometimes look intentional!  )
The greenhouse is for my husband's hardy and tropical waterlilies, a couple of tropical plants and a couple of tomatoes.  Even the hardy waterlilies don't do very well outdoors here, and flower poorly (by comparison), as the nights are always cool... and even the daytime temperatures are pretty cool here!  The tropical ones would barely survive even in small tubs outdoors here.  Normally, they thrive and flower heavily in the greenhouse, though, with constant warm water temperatures.

[cohan]

Cohan - sorry I missed your previous post asking about the massonia. I've only just gone online at home and hadn't visited the forum much in the previous year as my lunchtimes at work kind of disappeared under a heap of extra work...

oh, dont worry about it i well know how easy it is to not be able to follow everything here, even when you  ARE online! i have to pick  a few threads and stick to those, others just occasionally when i have some lazy time..lol
looking forward to Massonia pics..

[gote]

Not exactly FLOWERING now    but nice anyway: Diphylleia sinensis
Cheers
Göte

[Brian Ellis]

What clean looking berries they bear Göte.

[cohan]

Not exactly FLOWERING now    but nice anyway: Diphylleia sinensis
Cheers
Göte

this is very nice indeed...curious as to its hardiness here...

[gote]

Not exactly FLOWERING now    but nice anyway: Diphylleia sinensis
Cheers
Göte

this is very nice indeed...curious as to its hardiness here...

I have had it for some years without any damage whatsoever in the winter but we have not had a severe winter in that time.
IF (Big If) I remember I could send you a couple of berries when they start to fall.
Göte

[Lori S.]

Cohan, Diphylleia comosa, the native North American one, is hardy here... don't know about there, and don't know about D. sinensis.