Flowering now- July 2009

[Maggi Young]

That Verbascum is not one I have seen..... so VERY furry, and a good colour to the flower, contrasting with the white foliage. 

[mark smyth]

Paul I like the way you put plant info on your photos

[Paul T]

I adore that fuzzy Verbascum.  So touchable.    Looks fantastic!

[Lesley Cox]

I've finally managed to catch up with 12 pages of this thread since I last looked, all done while my home help is doing the vacuum cleaning. Such a decadent feeling, amusing myself while someone else does the work. Alas, it won't last. Far too many things to comment on but Guy, I do hope your knee surgery is sucessful and you can live a normal garden life again as soon as possible. You do have my sympathies, especially as voltaren is off the menu for the rest of my life. Really nice to see that little weldenia is still doing well for you

When I had Cichorium spinosum, the flowers were BLUE, the same lovely, limpid shade as the wild, roadside species, C. intybus.

[Rodger Whitlock]

When I had Cichorium spinosum, the flowers were BLUE, the same lovely, limpid shade as the wild, roadside species, C. intybus.

Cichorium intybus is a very common roadside weed here: the Island Highway that runs from Victoria north has it almost all the way along, wherever there's a gravelly verge.

Over the years, I've found a good clean white-flowered form, pinkish ones (but not a good clear pink), and also ones that are considerably deeper blue than the usual sky blue. I had the white-flowered form in the garden for some years and was interested to note that C. intybus can be described as a weakly twining climber. However, in spite of very careful deadheading at the end of its flowering season, a few volunteers turned up so it had to go before the entire garden became infested.

Unfortunately, the road where I found it has since been realigned and "improved". It is no more where it originated.

I will say that my specimen of C. spinosum is a pretty washy affair, so I'll have to sow seed (if any forms) and see if the next generation has any better color amongst it.

[Lori S.]

Fabulous verbascum, Paul!
The transition into the later bloom is starting here...
1) An early Verbascum nigrum  
2) Dracocephalum purdonii
3) Lychnis fulgens, wilting a bit in the sun.
4) Digitalis lanata lutea
5) Lysimachia nummularia... I know this is a pest in warmer areas, but it's easily controlled here and makes a floriferous carpet under the ferns...
6) Asiatic lily hybrid 'Amberglow'
7) Veronica longifolia, or so I assume, a dwarfish selection.
8 ) A trough-sized Potentilla fruticosa var. pumila with Opuntia polyacantha.
9) A spontaneous double among the self-seeded Campanula medium.
10) Campanula kemulariae, from seed last year.  EDIT: Correction - the seed was mislabelled - it's actually some damned big adenophora!   

[Armin]

Lori,
"A spontaneous double among the self-seeded Campanula medium" is very interesting.
Never saw double funnels on a campanula

[Ragged Robin]

Lori, more lovely later plants but the Digitalis lanata is heavenly with its whiskers in the sunlight 

[cohan]

Fabulous verbascum, Paul!
The transition into the later bloom is starting here...
1) An early Verbascum nigrum  
2) Dracocephalum purdonii
3) Lychnis fulgens, wilting a bit in the sun.
4) Digitalis lanata
5) Lysimachia nummularia... I know this is a pest in warmer areas, but it's easily controlled here and makes a floriferous carpet under the ferns...
6) Asiatic lily hybrid 'Amberglow'
7) Veronica longifolia, or so I assume, a dwarfish selection.
8 ) A trough-sized Potentilla fruticosa var. pumila with Opuntia polyacantha.
9) A spontaneous double among the self-seeded Campanula medium.
10) Campanula kemulariae, from seed last year.

lots of gems lori!
 i've never grown any verbascums, will have to change that..i had mostly thought of rock garden sizes, but something big could work here too! is this one large as it seems (several feet tall?)
we have some veronica here--presumably not dwarf--spreading around a bit, but not problematically so, so far...
the mini potentilla is cool; i've only just this year seen  P fruticosa growing in some ditches/roadsides near here, had no idea it was around, nearer than foothills til now...

[Paddy Tobin]

Lovely selection, Lori.

Paddy

[Lori S.]

Thanks, all!
Cohan, V. nigrum gets to 6' in bloom for me - the one shown is in a dry spot, so a bit shorter.  I'll send you seeds later on, if you like.  I was interested in the dwarf Potentilla/Dasyphora fruticosa forms for the troughs because I thought they'd provide constant bloom like their big brothers... they haven't yet but maybe they're still getting comfortable in their situations...

Aruby, while that particular double campanula was unexpected, there are some cultivars of the smaller campanula species that are double-flowered, e.g. C. carpatica, C. cochlearifolia 'Elizabeth Oliver'.  They are not yet in bloom here, but I may be able to show one later.  Oh, now that I think of it, there are double-flowered cultivars in other species too... C. persicifolia, C. trachelium, etc., so I suppose it is a fairly strong tendency among campanula?

[Lori S.]

I just realized that what I posted as "Digitalis lanata" actually seems to be Digitalis lutea... a rare error from a very good specialty nursery in town.  I've corrected it in the posting.

[cohan]

Thanks, all!
Cohan, V. nigrum gets to 6' in bloom for me - the one shown is in a dry spot, so a bit shorter.  I'll send you seeds later on, if you like.  I was interested in the dwarf Potentilla/Dasyphora fruticosa forms for the troughs because I thought they'd provide constant bloom like their big brothers... they haven't yet but maybe they're still getting comfortable in their situations...

seeds would be nice, thanks
you know, i forgot the potentilla had been moved, as i guess a lot of the genus has? too bad, i liked that genus...lol
constant bloom would be great for a mini-shrub, hopefully it develops...
i guess the large P fruticosa are probably used as much in calgary as they are in these parts? these are a real mainstay of gardens and public plantings, and small surprise, blooming until long past the early frosts..
i'm not much on garden hybrids usually, but  i would like to get some white and pink forms of this eventually; for yellow, i think i'd like to stick to the species, apart from one thats already here in a rather shady spot...

[Hristo]

Nice pics all, interesting to see Digitalis lutea growing in another continent, we saw the true D.viridiflora on Tuesday growing in the Beli Iska river valley below Mt.Musala. Very similar to lutea but with very distinct brown to orange markings on the lips.
Had a great couple of days seed collecting and we were lucky enough to see Aquilegia aurea, Primula deorum, Gentiana frigida, Geum bulgaricum and a host of other high alpine plants in flower at around 2,300 to 2,900 metres. A few pics posted here froim the trip.
1) View upto Mt.Musala, 2nd highest mountain in Europe
2) Geum reptans
3) Saxifraga bryoides
4) View down from the summit area

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Fabulous verbascum, Paul!
The transition into the later bloom is starting here...
1) An early Verbascum nigrum  
2) Dracocephalum purdonii
3) Lychnis fulgens, wilting a bit in the sun.
4) Digitalis lanata lutea
5) Lysimachia nummularia... I know this is a pest in warmer areas, but it's easily controlled here and makes a floriferous carpet under the ferns...
6) Asiatic lily hybrid 'Amberglow'
7) Veronica longifolia, or so I assume, a dwarfish selection.
8 ) A trough-sized Potentilla fruticosa var. pumila with Opuntia polyacantha.
9) A spontaneous double among the self-seeded Campanula medium.
10) Campanula kemulariae, from seed last year.

Lori,
You seem to have a never ending diversity of species in your garden !
Amazing stuff !!
Thanks for adding some colour to our Summer 


Chris,

Some great pix of a mountain I had never heard of !
Thanks for showing !