Northern hemisphere June 2010

[Maggi Young]

Thanks Maggi! But now I have to out again for a "18%-gray-card" and have those shop owners eyes pointed at me again..."A what?!  " Try to get loam-based compost, a pH meter, 1M KCl, a fine ground sieve (in a cooking shop), plastic food containers to sow, or anything else other than a huge flatscreen TV in Holland and they act like you've been escaped from an asylum 

Oh dear! But, you know, just because they look at you like that, doesn't mean you did not just escape! Or pehaps the asylum let you out on holiday!!

People look at me like that all the time, Hans..... that's their problem, not ours!! 

[Hans J]

According to Rehder's monograph on Lonicera, (in the Report of the Missouri Botanic Garden 1903 - so ideas may have changed!) chinensis is a variety of Lonicera japonica.  Distinguished by "Leaves pubescent on both sides when young; corolla white fading to yellow, rarely slightly tinged red, upper lip divided scarcely one-half; bractlets as broad as ovaries."

Gail - thank you 

[WimB]

Some plants flowering here today:

Physoplexis comosa
Sauromatum venosum
Taraxacum albidum and
Taraxacum pseudoroseum

[Giles]

Lilium x dalhansonii 'Mrs R.O.Backhouse'

[Lesley Cox]

Logically Cohan, lily beetles would only attach liliaceous plants and crocus and iris are iridaceous, so no, they don't attack those, but do the beetles fully understand this logic? I imagine the liliaceous plants have some chemical or other substance in them which attracts the beetles and if that were to be found in anything else..... So far as I know, Narcissus fly species only attack Amaryllidaceae.

[Zdenek]

Several pictures from recent days:
Alyssum aizoides - similar to A. propinquum but not so spreading
Androsace himalaica grows quite well outdoors
Androsace mariae, the white form
Cortusa matthioli in shady place of peat beds
Dianthus myrtinervius ssp. caespitosus - a tiny form of D. myrtinervius
Meconopsis horridula - its leave rosette is showy even without flowers
Phyteuma globulariifolium - probably the smallest Phyteuma

[cohan]

Logically Cohan, lily beetles would only attach liliaceous plants and crocus and iris are iridaceous, so no, they don't attack those, but do the beetles fully understand this logic? I imagine the liliaceous plants have some chemical or other substance in them which attracts the beetles and if that were to be found in anything else..... So far as I know, Narcissus fly species only attack Amaryllidaceae.

yes, do the bugs read the books? probably no more than do the plants  my biggest concern is what is a danger to buy, but i suppose at some level, everything is and certainly no specialty nurseries around here, so any plants available come from some big grower elsewhere, grown on and or retailed here...

[annew]

Wim, very nice dandelions - does Taraxacum pseudoroseum seed around too much like our native T officinalis?

[WimB]

Wim, very nice dandelions - does Taraxacum pseudoroseum seed around too much like our native T officinalis?

Anne, I wouldn't know. It's the first year I've grown them from seed. They say they don't seed around that much.
If you want some, I've got some seeds from T. pseudoroeum already, T. albidum just got it's first flowers so it will be a while before they set seed. So in a couple of weeks I can send you seed of both of them.

[Regelian]

Wim, very nice dandelions - does Taraxacum pseudoroseum seed around too much like our native T officinalis?

I have to agree, here, I find this an underused genus with some really wonderful plants, although I am less than tempted to try them due to the free-love reputation.  In the wild, I find them a real joy and a sign of mother natures inventiveness.

but i do waffle on....

[WimB]

Wim, very nice dandelions - does Taraxacum pseudoroseum seed around too much like our native T officinalis?

I have to agree, here, I find this an underused genus with some really wonderful plants, although I am less than tempted to try them due to the free-love reputation.  In the wild, I find them a real joy and a sign of mother natures inventiveness.

but i do waffle on....

I grow them in a trough together, it's nice to see visitors looking twice at the flowers because they aren't used to pink and white dandelions . I'm catching all the seeds so they won't be spreading in the wild here.

[Lori S.]

I love the exotic dandelions too!

Wonderful and interesting plants, Zdenek.
Is your Dianthus myrtinervius really the caespitosus form?  It doesn't resemble much the one in the photo below, below, with the very distinctive stacked leaves.  (The photo is mine from last year; it suffered a bit through this last winter.)

[Maggi Young]

Must say I thought that Zdenek's Dianthus myrtinervius ssp. caespitosus was a rather fine and venerable plant of that type.... grown woody with age...

[Lori S.]

Okay, I see.  I'll probably kill mine long before it becomes fine and venerable, at the rate it's going. 

[Regelian]

An unknown Eremurus that manages to hang on in my garden