Flowering now- July 2009

[Maggi Young]

Lovely flowers, Tony, but I'm shocked to see how much colour there is already in your Sorbus berries!

[Tony Willis]

Maggi

those are next doors sorbus berries mine are still not ripe,just shows what a few yards can do in micro climate terms. The birds are loving them.

[mark smyth]

Most of our Sorbus are orange also. Some trees near me are so laden the branches are being pulled down. Within three weeks they will be stripped by starlings. I should get a before and after photo

[Lori S.]

Mark,
The 'Helvola' actually managed 6 blooms at once that day (the best so far this strange year) - but those 3 were the most photogenic!    (Lots of open water in between - which ought not to be there.  Very strange.)
1) But here's what it should look like (a photo from early June a couple years ago)...  hence our disappointment!!  

2) First flowers on a new one, 'Comanche' - a changeable, purchased in an emergency order about 3 weeks ago to try to salvage the season (given that our old dependables, 'Attraction' and 'Colorado' are limping along this year)!!

(In our very late and cold spring, it did actually freeze once in the greenhouse - not the water, just the air temperature - after the water lilies had been set out, but surely everything should have recovered by now from the chill... very puzzling.)

[Lori S.]

A few things from the garden...
1) Adenophora remotiflora f. album... or so it was supposed to be - it's pale mauve.
2) Astilboides tabularis
3, 4) Campanula collina - a nice rich purple on the first one (which the camera doesn't really capture); less rich colour on the others...
5) A double Campanula persicifolia that has spontaneously arisen...
6) Sempervivum x 'Beautiful'
7) Penstemon smallii
8 ) Campanula betulifolia... every year, when they bloom, I am reminded that I intended to move them to someplace where they can drape gracefully, rather than lie on the ground!     (Maybe this year?)
9) A colourful mix-up of dianthus and cerastium...
10) Our native Oenothera biennis... I find it interesting how the calyces form a cage over the flower bud...

[Paul T]

Lori,

Do you grow 'Perry's Baby Red'?  It is a miniature Nymphaea, good deep colouration but with smaller size to the plant.  Cracker of a plant, and will grow in smaller situations like my bathtub (outside, for waterlilies etc, not my inside bathtub ).  A friend here has Comanche.  Lovely apricot-pink shading that changes as the flower ages.  Waterlilies seem so far away here at the moment.... in the depths of winter.

[Lori S.]

No, that's not one we've had, Paul.  It sounds like a real winner, and I will certainly pass along the recommendation!  (Named for/by Perry Slocum, I expect?)

A few more... nothing of great note....
1) Sempervivum thompsonianum - it has little furry tufts on the leaves, which add interest... if one happens to be crawling around with one's nose to the ground to check!  
2) Campanula fenestrellata, from seed last year.
3) Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Cambridge'
4) Sempervivum 'Oddity'... I have no idea why I bought this, as I normally shun monstrously-distorted plants (aside from the poor unfortunates that have gotten that way from my growing methods!  )   Anyway, I assume the new growth - slightly finer rosettes - may actually be distorted inflorescences... sort of fascinating in a dreadful way.  
5) A late peony... that seems to be trying to make a break for the sunshine; I'd best move it.
6) Asiatic lily hybrid, 'Painted Pixie'.
7) Our bark/wood mulch sometimes gives rise to little clumps of mushrooms, here and there... I like the taupey-moleskin colour of these.

[PaulM]

Here are some pictures of plants from my gardens here in Sweden. I haven't had much time sitting by the computer so some of them were photographed in late June. The date is in the pictures.

1) An Alcea collected in Turkey in 2002, with nice pink flowers. Maybe A. setosa
2) A close up of the flower
3) Aquilegia triternata
4) Aquilegia triternata
5) Blephilia ciliata from Arkansas
6) A pale form of Campanula lyrata. It self seeds profusely in a sandy/gravelly bed, and is sure to come back every year if you've once planted it. Biennial!
7) Centaurea atropurpurea. I expected the flowers to open up more, but they only open up this far. It's still a beautiful knap weed I think.
Clarkia rubicunda ssp blasdalei
9) Clarkia rubicunda ssp blasdalei
10) Clematis integrifolia

[Armin]

Paul,
excellent shots from your garden.
Your Aquilegia triternata is a real stunner!

[Onion]

some dierama's and a watsonia in flower at the moment

Tony,

do you grow the Watsonia outside?

[Onion]

Lovely flowers, Tony, but I'm shocked to see how much colour there is already in your Sorbus berries!

Maggi,

is the "Sorbus" in the picture with the watsonia from Tony? Sorry, this is not a Sorbus, it is a Viburnum plicatum cultivar. Some cultivars produce a large number of berries.

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Uli,
No,  not in the Watsonia pic: it was in the Dierama photo... attached below... they are Sorbus, the leaves are clearly visible.....

[Tony Willis]

some dierama's and a watsonia in flower at the moment

Tony,

do you grow the Watsonia outside?

Yes I grow the watsonia outside.It has been there for several years and is photgraphed against Viburnum plicatum pink beauty.I grow two other species outside which do not do so well and have lost the names of all of them. I think they came from Archibald seed many years ago.

The dierama is against a self sown sorbus in next doors garden.

[Onion]

Hi, Uli,
No,  not in the Watsonia pic: it was in the Dierama photo... attached below... they are Sorbus, the leaves are clearly visible.....

Maggi,

only see the wonderful Dierama    not the Sorbus berries. What a shame.

[PaulM]

1) Clematis viorna
2) Delphinium glaucum
3) Delphinium glaucum
4) Delphinium speciosum
5) Delphinium speciosum
6) Dianthus crinitus
7) Dianthus crinitus
Dianthus giganteus
9) Dianthus micranthus
10) Digitalis parviflora