Flowering Now - September 2009

[ranunculus]

A few captured in the garden this afternoon ...

A gentian from Aberconwy Nursery - suggestions please?
Gentian 'Silken Night' - another from the Aberconwy collection
Armeria maritima 'White Mountain form' - seeds collected in the White Mountains of California, many miles from the ocean.

[Ragged Robin]

Gorgeous Gentiana Cliff, if ever you have more seed of

Armeria maritima 'White Mountain form' - seeds collected in the White Mountains of California, many miles from the ocean.

I would love to try it here   

[Regelian]

A few items still showing in the garden today. A favourite perennial Begonia, whose name I always forget. Seeds about freely and the leaves have a wonderful, somewhat metallic sheen.  Then there are the Cyclamen, which are beautiful with or without blossoms.  Finally, a few colours of Gentiana scabra, which is a common perennial at this time of year at the garden markets.

Begonia
Begonia
Cyclamen coum leaves
Cyclamen hederadifolium
Gentiana scabra
Gentiana scabra alba
Gentiana scabra rosea

Begonia evansiana or B. grandis ssp. evansiana, depending on your book

[Paddy Tobin]

Robin,

There is a profusion of crabapple trees growing wild all around me and it is these we use to make crabapple jelly, usually flavoured with mint and we use it more usually with pork. Delicious!

Paddy

[Gerdk]

A few items still showing in the garden today. A favourite perennial Begonia, whose name I always forget. Seeds about freely and the leaves have a wonderful, somewhat metallic sheen. 

Begonia evansiana or B. grandis ssp. evansiana perhaps?
A fine species for the garden!

Gerd

[Regelian]

Thanks, Gerd,

exactly what I couldn't remember.  As I've never seen B. grandis, I have no idea what the differences are.  This is truly a treasure for the Autumn garden.

[Lesley Cox]

Michael that is a superb plant of the Haemanthus. Usually one sees just a single bulb in flower. I don't think I've ever seen a clump like yours.

My own Sorbus cashmeriana are just 10cms high so far, having been grown from seed filched from a medical centre car park a couple of years ago. The parent is about 2.5 metres wide and high, a sprawling shrub rather than a tree and showing no sign of winter damage though we are quite mild compared with, say, Germany or central Europe, but I have also seen several trees of it outside a rather nice pub at Dansey's pass where the winter is quite severe. No damage there either that I noticed.

Could I have some general advice please about removing suckers from young Sorbus trees, without damaging the underground trunks and hopefully to stop further suckers. Both SS. koehneana and sargentiana sucker quite badly here and it does spoil the look of the tree as well as being messy for the other plants around.

Paddy your varied fruit crop is really wonderful. Berries are such a bonus and a joy in the autumn/winter garden. I'd hate to be without them.

[ruweiss]

As far as I know is Begonia grandis a synonym of B.evansiana.
I fully agree with Jamie, that this plant is very valuable for its
autumn-flowering habit.There also exists a white flowering form.

[Ragged Robin]

Jamie, such lovely flowers in your garden at this time of year your Cyclamen hederadifolium looks so healthy and strong with lovely leaves - scented too I imagine.... the Gentiana scabra in all colours have beautiful trumpets - must look up the plant size and habitat today as I would like to try it here.  Thanks for showing!

[Regelian]

I researched a bit on the Begonia grandis vs evansiana and found some bits here and there, but not enough to fully explain the mixed-up naming.  What I did find is that B. grandis was described as a Chinese plants and B. evansiana is from Japan.  What I beleive happened is the plants were seperately described and later thought to be simply sub-species seperated via the China Sea, thus B. grandis ssp sinensis and B. grandis ssp evansiana.  Assumedly, it is unclear as to which name was properly published first and would have precidence, but, as we know to assume is to make an ass- out of -u- and -me.

I, also, found a genetic study on B. evansiana, which has 26 chromosomes and is now thought to be an established alloploid hybrid derived from a cross between a 6 and 7 chromosome species (the typical ploidy in Begonia), therefore an amphidiploid.  Now, if this is true for the chinese form, I do not know.  In any case, both are closely related and have been seperate since at least the birth of the China Sea, about 15 million years ago.

Robin,
Gentiana scabra is a Japanese species coming from acid, somewhat boggy areas, which is why it is so easy to grow in most gardens.  It doesn't require the free drainage of the alpine species.  It is slightly procumbent and rarely over 15cm in my garden, but I would think it could reach 20cm.

[Ragged Robin]

Neutral to alkaline here Jamie and could not be described as 'boggy' just soaking in Spring melt, so will have to admire Gentiana scabra from afar in your garden 

[Arykana]

[cohan]

very nice--this (first two photos) looks just like one of the native asters that grows all over here; great to have the colour at the end of the season of course, ours are mostly done, though some plants here and there still going..

[PaulM]

Some pictures of two Geraniums which flowered for me a couple of weeks ago:

1) Geranium sp
2) Geranium sp
3) Geranium sp
4) Geranium sp a few days later and in a different light
5) Geranium pamiricum
6) Geranium pamiricum close up

[Stephenb]

Fantastic pictures everyone

Continuing the recent "Friuiting now" thread and being particularly attracted by the ususual/unexpected, here's a fetching black-fruited hawthorn spotted in the Uppsala Botanical Garden recently; Crataegus nigra (hadn't seen this one before):