Northern Hemisphere August 2010

[TheOnionMan]

OK Mark its a grey miserable night here in Aberdeen and you have now made me more miserable 
My Hibiscus isn't doing anything and to see your last picture Hibiscus syriacus 'Blue Bird'  just makes me so envious, but thanks for showing these lovely flowers I can at least dream that one day mine might flower like yours

Angie

Well Angie, as they say, the grass is greener on the other side, in fact, we have no green grass here right now, although the horrid field grass is still holding up to the drought.  Angie, I'm sure you grow lots and lots of beautiful plants that might only last a couple days here... maybe the reason I only have two species of Primula (and even then, I have to work hard at it... the current 100% water ban might do in P. kisoana), but the Primula hate hot weather... and Meconopsis, only in my dreams.  I am lucky that some Hibiscus do well here... the more sun and heat you can throw at them, the better they flower.

Gail, Dregea sinensis is beautiful

[TheOnionMan]

One plant, three photos... Clethra alnifolia 'Ruby Spice'.  Here again we have a shrub that inhabits the edges of ponds, rivers and swamps, yet is completely drought resistant and amenable to most any garden situation.  Any form or cultivar of this species is worth growing and a "must have" in the summer garden, as its enticing spicy sweet perfume wafts for hundreds of feet, filling the whole yard.  It drives bees, butterflies, and nectar-feeding wasps such as mud-daubers into a feeding frenzy, the hummers like it too.

[angie]

Mark I hope you get rain soon, it must be so much more work for you. I have put two of my Hibiscus in my polytunnel to see if this gives them a better chance of flowering, I think I have said before that these were my mums plants and she did manage to get them to flower, don't know who she managed.
But thanks for showing them I do enjoy seeing what I cant get to flower happily growing somewhere else and making someone happy.

Angie

[WimB]

Thanks for showing all the pics. I feared the entire hemisphere was on holiday.

@ Olga: I love your pictures of the Gentiana's. I like G. georgei and G. tizuensis especially.

@ David: You might think it's nothing special, but it looks very colourful and it's all growing very well...you can recognize the hand of a master-gardener.

@ Mark: Beautiful Hibiscus you have flowering there. I like the Clethra too. Good to see you have a lot of colour in your garden even when it's bone-dry.

@ Gail: love your Dregea, it's a plant I had never heard about before. How high does it climb?

[Gail]

@ Gail: love your Dregea, it's a plant I had never heard about before. How high does it climb?

Our rose arch is 8ft tall and the Dregea is up and over the top of that so it would easily go higher but it is not really rampant and is easy to control.  (If you prune it, it bleeds white sap like Hoyas)

[Gail]

Gail that's something else...I can imagine the fragrance, do you cover with fleece or anything for the winter protection.

Angie

No Angie - just cross my fingers and hope....

[angie]

Wish I could grow the Dregea.  I have a couple of Hoyas in the house, my mum had Emphysema and I could never wear perfume as it really caught her breath but when her Hoyas flowered I always offered to take them out of her room but no she wouldnt have that.
A plant well worth growing...maybe if I could find one I could grow it in a pot outside in the summer

Angie

[angie]

Some pictures taken a couple of days ago when it was sunny, today not so good.

I have the name of the golden plant that is always sprawling all over the grass, its Benson my old doggie.
I have started to log all my garden plant names so hopefully I will get better at naming, sorry.

Angie

[WimB]

Angie,

you have a very beautiful and tidy garden. Very nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

[Maggi Young]

Angela! Those cloud pruned trees are superb! Are they Birch trees?

[Gail]

So beautiful Angie, and I love your aristocratic looking dog!

I'll see if I can root some Dregea cuttings for you.

[Gerdk]

Just a few shots from today

1.-3. Commelina communis - a little bit weedy but well suited to
        close free space where spring flowering bulbs grew
4.+5. Impatiens arguta - a blue flowering perennial species 
        as opposed to the annual I. namchabarwensis

6. Cymbalaria muralis - a 'wild' form with larger flowers

Gerd

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely plants and images from the north. Olga, the gentians are fabulous!
I can only take comfort from the fact that spring is ALMOST here in the south, with many little bulbs in flower.

[Lesley Cox]

Benson looks very much as if to say "Just remember whose garden this is, if you please." He looks like a lovely dog.

Mark, is there another Clethra not unlike yours above but with white flowers, or perhaps creamy-white? I have something that looks exactly like that. It's leafless at present or I'd take a picture.

[angie]

Hi Lesley yes Benson is such a lovely dog. He is nearly deaf, eyesight is going and he struggles to get up, from day one he has been the perfect dog.
Old age isn't good.

Maggi the tree is Ilex, Derek likes all these shapes in the garden but I much prefer a wilder look.

Gail that would be nice of you to try and root a cutting of your Dregea, its such a lovely plant.

Angie